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Reports of Loud Coil Whine on PS5

Kuro

Kuro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,859
Loud disc drive is not normal. Especially with just movies that don't need to spin as fast. My disc drive is almost silent when watching movies. Its no louder than any other console with a disc drive (that isn't the super slim PS3 which was loud af) when installing a game for me.

I would say to check if the panels are locked in right and that the stand is properly attached to see if that's causing noise.
 
Ferrs

Ferrs

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
18,829
That one is faulty as fuck. My PS5 is a noisier one (Nidec fan), but certainly the BR doesn't sound like that (actually mine is quieter thann my PS4 BR).
 

coolguy949

Member
Nov 14, 2020
46
Dphex said:
In Miles Morales performance mode it is sooooo bad in the menu...it changes frequency when changing the tabs in the menu.

i will try my luck with an exchange sometime next year, i have no interest in having no PS5 over the x-mas days and we are about to enter lockdown next week so now is the worst time for an exchange but i will not accept this console as a permanent one.

they dropped the ball with the quality of the parts big time, a new console in 2020 should not sound like a fridge from the 90s, period.

and all the issues like randomly starting disc drive, rest mode problems or external drive issues annoy me too, i am not impressed by this console in any way, in fact i am really miffed how this thing turned out.

they should have postponed the launch to make sure the software is stable. instead they gave out subpar hardware with banana software which is meant to mature in the hands of the customer.

it is unacceptable that this console got and still gets a pass and even praise from so many people and outlets. outlets should report about the problems big time and force a Sony statement instead of sweeping everything under the rug.
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Fully agree. It's pretty ridiculous how this thing sounds. Menus, lobbies and map screens are my biggest annoyance because the games usually quiet down the music/sounds in those screens, making the buzzing much more apparent.

My theory is that prominent games journalists/media/YouTubers were likely given hand-picked units since they came directly from Sony PR. I worked PR in a different industry and we usually checked products before giving them to media just to be safe. Our products were big ticket items so we didn't give them away but rather let them borrow for an agreed-to period of time. We'd get the product back and check it over, clean it, etc before giving it to the next media person.

I was going to send mine to Sony for warranty but I am now 80% sure I will be returning this thing to Best Buy before Jan 15th when the return window closes. In the event Sony sends me another bad unit, I won't be able to return to BB anymore since the serial # would differ from the purchased version. I just feel more comfortable having that option in my back pocket. In the meantime I have been playing through my games while also trying my luck to get another unit. I got really close with Costco yesterday but the whole site went down as soon as I tried to submit my order. By the time it recovered the item was sold out. Walmart is a compete disaster and I have stopped visiting the store. The employees there have no idea what is going on. I personally feel this is one of those situations where waiting until later next year to get one might be the best way to go given these QC issues.
 
Loud Wrong

Loud Wrong

Member
Feb 24, 2020
14,425
Skulldead said:
I'll try to post a video in a couple of hour, but yeah i would take my old loud coil whine anyday compare to that noice.

edit: my video is up:

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Couple years ago I bought and returned at least 8 PS4 Pros until I got one that didnt sound like that. It amazes me that Sony's hardware designers were too incompetent to not account for this again.
 
Abdiel

Abdiel

Member
Oct 28, 2017
866
Skulldead said:
I'll try to post a video in a couple of hour, but yeah i would take my old loud coil whine anyday compare to that noice.

edit: my video is up:

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Mine did this last night, but when I touched the bottom panel it stopped the sound. I have mine laying horizontal, and so I pushed something between it and the console, I think it was a folded manual for something, and it stopped the sound permanently. I pulled it out later to check and it wasn't making the sound anymore. It only started the sound for a bit after the drive booted up for awhile, and it didn't do it again later. So I don't know if it was something to do with the seating of the base?

Check how the wings are, I was able to make it stop easily.
 
Dphex

Dphex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,811
Cologne, Germany
coolguy949 said:
Fully agree. It's pretty ridiculous how this thing sounds. Menus, lobbies and map screens are my biggest annoyance because the games usually quiet down the music/sounds in those screens, making the buzzing much more apparent.

My theory is that prominent games journalists/media/YouTubers were likely given hand-picked units since they came directly from Sony PR. I worked PR in a different industry and we usually checked products before giving them to media just to be safe. Our products were big ticket items so we didn't give them away but rather let them borrow for an agreed-to period of time. We'd get the product back and check it over, clean it, etc before giving it to the next media person.

I was going to send mine to Sony for warranty but I am now 80% sure I will be returning this thing to Best Buy before Jan 15th when the return window closes. In the event Sony sends me another bad unit, I won't be able to return to BB anymore since the serial # would differ from the purchased version. I just feel more comfortable having that option in my back pocket. In the meantime I have been playing through my games while also trying my luck to get another unit. I got really close with Costco yesterday but the whole site went down as soon as I tried to submit my order. By the time it recovered the item was sold out. Walmart is a compete disaster and I have stopped visiting the store. The employees there have no idea what is going on. I personally feel this is one of those situations where waiting until later next year to get one might be the best way to go given these QC issues.
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Yeah, i also have the feeling that they´ve sent some golden samples to the media. the whole situation surrounding this console is just not cutting it for me, it is basically the equivalent of a full price early access game.

i have lived through countless console launches since the 90s but i have never experienced such a bummer like with the PS5. i do believe that people are happy with this thing but for me it is not cutting it in any way in this state.

the best thing about this is still the random crashes that many people experience like those sudden shutdowns where the console won´t turn on again for 5 minutes. no one knows if this is software or hardware related and so far their system updates change exactly nothing. same with external drive problems or rest mode issues. and they remain silent because they know when they state anything about problems people will be up in arms or sales will plummet when there are more consoles available again.

i understand that as an early adopter there are surely some growing pains but on this level? it is embarrassing. at this point i believe they played the silent game for a long time till MS announced the Xbox release date because they planned to release this console next year and hoped that MS will do the same. and suddenly they were like "shit, MS releases this year, now we have to release too. now quick, throw some OS together and lets launch this thing, we will use it as some large scale test"
 

Skulldead

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,465
Abdiel said:
Mine did this last night, but when I touched the bottom panel it stopped the sound. I have mine laying horizontal, and so I pushed something between it and the console, I think it was a folded manual for something, and it stopped the sound permanently. I pulled it out later to check and it wasn't making the sound anymore. It only started the sound for a bit after the drive booted up for awhile, and it didn't do it again later. So I don't know if it was something to do with the seating of the base?

Check how the wings are, I was able to make it stop easily.
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Ive try to put mouse pad under, remove both side panel, remove the metal shield on the fan... remove the base, but the base on the ground for no external vibration. I've post another video on my chanel that show sometimes it work without noise, but not other time. like a intermittent problem. I don't know i have a feeling this is a bad blu ray player or it shaking too much that something inside moving... but this is not normal, my other drive before that one was loud, but not that level.
 

coolguy949

Member
Nov 14, 2020
46
Skulldead said:
Ive try to put mouse pad under, remove both side panel, remove the metal shield on the fan... remove the base, but the base on the ground for no external vibration. I've post another video on my chanel that show sometimes it work without noise, but not other time. like a intermittent problem. I don't know i have a feeling this is a bad blu ray player or it shaking too much that something inside moving... but this is not normal, my other drive before that one was loud, but not that level.
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Have you reached out to Sony about replacing this one? I read online about someone that went through two replacements before getting a good one.
 

Skulldead

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,465
coolguy949 said:
Have you reached out to Sony about replacing this one? I read online about someone that went through two replacements before getting a good one.
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receive my box this morning, now it went to repair center. This is actualy the second time too i send my console to Sony repair center.... next time i'll ask for a brand new. enough is enough.
 
Chettlar

Chettlar

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,604
OCD Guy said:
Honestly if yours sounds like that I'd class that as faulty, and not simply normal variance between units.
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Ugh, I didn't want to have to worry about sending it back. Otherwise my fans and everything are straight up quiet. Absolutely no coil whine or anything putting my ear right up next to it. I lucked out in that lottery.
 
Speevy

Speevy

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,395
I've played a few games but only digital. I haven't put a disc in it yet. No sounds. Maybe I shouldn't?
 
Speevy

Speevy

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,395
Chettlar said:
I mean, if I were you I'd want to find out sooner rather than later.
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Yeah I'll probably get a game or two when I get paid again. I've played Miles Morales. I don't know what I'm doing in this game but it seems fun. It doesn't make any sound that I can hear.

Though I'm not trying to diminish what you guys are saying about launch consoles. I had a 360 and PS3 that died within 2 years. I know how frustrating that is.
 
shox

shox

Member
Oct 25, 2017
293
Just had 2 arrive, a disc and digital edition, one for me and one for my dad. These things are laughably loud even though I was fully expecting coil whine. I'm primarily a PC player and have had countless graphics cards with awful coil whine (that I've sent back, my current 2070s has it a small amount) and these are every bit as bad as the worst card I've had (a 1070ti).

The fans on both however are quiet. Minimizing and reopening Astro while watching the fan stay constant highlights how it's nothing fan related - on ours at least. Whilst gaming are as quiet as my PS4 Pro is at idle, which is nice.

I've seen the picture referencing the PS5's power supply compared to the Series X and am wondering if anyone has tried covering the capacitors with hot glue or silicone?

It doesn't bother my dad as much, so he will be keeping the disc edition - his hearing is self admittedly not great and from his sofa he can't really hear it over while I can. I will probably keep the digital edition and possibly try the hot glue fix that we used to do on graphics cards! Don't want to keep sending them back for replacements that are identical.. I want to play demons souls :(
 
nicoreese

nicoreese

Member
Jan 18, 2018
715
shox said:
I've seen the picture referencing the PS5's power supply compared to the Series X and am wondering if anyone has tried covering the capacitors with hot glue or silicone?
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Yeah, I'm wondering about that too. But again, if the fix is that simple why did Sony not do it themselves or will they even do it in the future.
 
Trickstar

Trickstar

Member
Oct 30, 2017
85
What a bad situation, albeit, you gotta understand only few members are reporting this which is a minority (I'm talking out gaming fortums and social media) so only people really looking for faults are picking this up. The majority just throw a game and start playing. If if had more traction from average consumers maybe sony would react and do recalls or something. The fact that theyr are very quite about this is quite telling. I'm receiving mine next week but I'm already anxious as I'm importing it from another country since the lunch here has been postponed twice already. So I imagine the nightmare of returning a faulty units for others in the same situation as me. Bad lunch on so many levels
 
nicoreese

nicoreese

Member
Jan 18, 2018
715
Trickstar said:
What a bad situation, albeit, you gotta understand only few members are reporting this which is a minority (I'm talking out gaming fortums and social media) so only people really looking for faults are picking this up. The majority just throw a game and start playing. If if had more traction from average consumers maybe sony would react and do recalls or something. The fact that theyr are very quite about this is quite telling. I'm receiving mine next week but I'm already anxious as I'm importing it from another country since the lunch here has been postponed twice already. So I imagine the nightmare of returning a faulty units for others in the same situation as me. Bad lunch on so many levels
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This is the issue with this "living in a bubble" thing. Is this actually normal? Does every PS5 have this and just not everyone is hearing these frequencies? There have been a few videos where it was stated their PS5 is super quiet, but you could clearly hear coil whine. Are there actual quiet units (besides the fan)?
 
OCD Guy

OCD Guy

Member
Nov 2, 2017
985
Bya said:
Will I void the warranty by accessing the fan?
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No not at all.

There are no warranty stickers that need to be removed or tampered with in anyway.

What do you want to do? Just check the fan? if so all you're doing is remove a side panel.

If you want to remove the fan you'll need access to a Torx T8 security screwdriver. You'll have 4 screws to remove, and a sticky sticker to remove to access the fan connector.
 
RedHeat

RedHeat

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,710
Trickstar said:
What a bad situation, albeit, you gotta understand only few members are reporting this which is a minority (I'm talking out gaming fortums and social media) so only people really looking for faults are picking this up. The majority just throw a game and start playing. If if had more traction from average consumers maybe sony would react and do recalls or something. The fact that theyr are very quite about this is quite telling. I'm receiving mine next week but I'm already anxious as I'm importing it from another country since the lunch here has been postponed twice already. So I imagine the nightmare of returning a faulty units for others in the same situation as me. Bad lunch on so many levels
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Yeah, Sony should recall hundreds of thousands, if not millions of consoles just because some people find a noise annoying. That would be a fantastic plan.
 
Tahnit

Tahnit

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,965
Welp. Ps5 is now on its way to sony. hooked the old ps4 in hopes of somehow using a ps5 disc to download the ps4 versions of owned games, didnt work.

this is gonna be a long week.

Also. i forgot how damn LOUD my ps4 was.
 
Tahnit

Tahnit

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,965
does anyone here have a SILENT ps5? Wondering if it doesnt matter if sony replaces it and ill just end up with the same situation.
 
Loud Wrong

Loud Wrong

Member
Feb 24, 2020
14,425
RedHeat said:
Yeah, Sony should recall hundreds of thousands, if not millions of consoles just because some people find a noise annoying. That would be a fantastic plan.
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A better plan would be to employ better hardware designers. This is twice in a row their consoles have suffered from this completely foreseeable and avoidable problem.
 
Euphoria

Euphoria

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,613
Earth
Is there any games or actions specifically that cause a PS5 to make loud noise?

I booted up my disc version of Skyrim and the entire time it booted up and loaded up my game it was incredibly quiet. Probably the quietest disc console I've owned.

Almost concerning how quiet it is lol.
 

markaner

Member
Nov 24, 2020
1
I sent mine back because of the beeping fan noise. Got a new one back with bad coil whine (took 14 days) :( The old one had coil whine as well but not as bad. This one I can clearly hear from more than 4 meters away when audio is low or muted when playing AC Valhalla. At least it's better than the beeping fan. Very disappointed though and haven't decided whether to return it now, wait til like March or April or just live with it. Is there any reason to believe that the whining might get better with time?
 
Scottoest

Scottoest

Member
Feb 4, 2020
11,397
markaner said:
I sent mine back because of the beeping fan noise. Got a new one back with bad coil whine (took 14 days) :( The old one had coil whine as well but not as bad. This one I can clearly hear from more than 4 meters away when audio is low or muted when playing AC Valhalla. At least it's better than the beeping fan. Very disappointed though and haven't decided whether to return it now, wait til like March or April or just live with it. Is there any reason to believe that the whining might get better with time?
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Based on what I've read, it'll probably get worse with time, not better.
 
Dphex

Dphex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,811
Cologne, Germany
Euphoria said:
Is there any games or actions specifically that cause a PS5 to make loud noise?

I booted up my disc version of Skyrim and the entire time it booted up and loaded up my game it was incredibly quiet. Probably the quietest disc console I've owned.

Almost concerning how quiet it is lol.
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If you don´t hear anything, don´t look for it. enjoy your console.

Scottoest said:
Based on what I've read, it'll probably get worse with time, not better.
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Yeah, my console started with zero coil whine when sitting in the main menu, i´ve put my ear to the console on release day, there was no coil whine although it had coil whine from day one when playing games.

by now i can hear a very faint coil whine when the console just sits in the main menu. and i could swear that the coil whine in games is also a bit louder than it was in the beginning.
 
OCD Guy

OCD Guy

Member
Nov 2, 2017
985
Ok I've had a breakthrough and thanks to posts from artsip and Kensuke I'm making progress with an annoying sound.

We all know that the buzzing sound is coil whine and we're familiar with how that sounds.

But there is another annoying sound, it's a very high pitched sound, an annoying resonance.

I posted a sound clip of my console here https://voca.ro/1fM2Omb9QSN7.

Can you hear that high pitched sound? I can hear that from 10ft away, and when the console is in active standby mode.

It turns out the cause of the sound is the metal plate of the fan vibrating against two black holders which causes that sound.

To fix it you either need sound dampening o-rings, similar to what you would use on a HDD or experiment with loosening the fan screws.

I can deal with the coil whine but honestly that fan vibration sound pierces through my skull.

If anyone else is suffering from the same sound there is hope.....

Here is a video demonstrating how the noise stops once the fan no longer makes contact with the black contact points





And here is an unconventional fix with sponge lol




JasonMCG said:
Is that real?! JFC
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No I posted it as a joke. It's literally the sound from a jet engine.
 
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OCD Guy

OCD Guy

Member
Nov 2, 2017
985
henhowc said:
Just go enjoy your console. Don't read this thread.
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Exactly.

If you need to purposely look for a problem by creating unnatural scenarios or "tests" then you don't actually have a problem.

If you have a loud console you'll hear it in normal use.

Always reminds me of people on TV forums sitting in pitch black rooms with slides trying to find faults lol. If you have a fault it will appear in normal viewing.
 
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