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My desktop which is a couple years old now (2016) has begun to make an annoying high pitched noise some of the time which I think might be coil whine?

It doesn't seem to matter if there's load on it. It will be fine for hours, then start whining when nothing is happening.

I am not sure it's a hardware issue and it could have to do with the electrical in the apartment I moved to being super wonky. One of my outlets died. And randomly the microwave will not work without resetting the breaker (though the breaker doesn't trip).

Here is the sound on my google drive.

Specs:

RX 480 graphics. i7 6300 cpu. Linux LTS. No issues prior to August 2019.

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  • Do you have any way to check the apartment AC Voltage? It could be a bit low if the Microwave will not start properly and the electrics seem generally wonky
    – anon
    Commented Dec 28, 2019 at 23:26
  • A really bad case is a floating neutral, which can have almost double the line voltage on one leg, and very low on another. This can damage appliances and cause fires. ibew139.com/floating-neutral Commented Dec 29, 2019 at 1:10

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Yes.

Coil whine is caused primarily by a section of circuitry that involves relatively large inductors and capacitors. The frequency of the noise, and as a result whether or not you can hear it, depends on the value of these capacitors and inductors.

One problem that still plagues modern electronics is that electrolytic capacitors dry out and their value changes over the course of their lives. Even dry ceramic capacitors slowly degrade and can even change value when they are warmer.

Inductors are basically small coils wrapped around and tend to be glue filled. As glue ages in a vibrating environment it breaks down and crumbles and the coil can become loose.

Between these two things the frequency of the noise from this circuitry can shift over time, moving down into audible frequencies, or become louder. A warmer inductor might also have a package that expands slightly more than the coil it encloses and as a result creates a small gap that acts like an echo chamber.

"Wonky" electrical supplies can also cause component degradation and failure and can provoke early failure of all the circuitry in this area.

If you can pinpoint the source of the noise you might be able to, for example if the noise is from the power supply itself, replace the part before it goes too far.

In your case I would suspect is is a mixture of all of these effects.

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