- Joined
- Oct 30, 2016
- Messages
- 11
- Motherboard
- ASRock Z170 OC Formula
- CPU
- Intel Core i7-6700K
- Graphics
- SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 480
- Mac
I've recently completed my first Hackintosh, and with great trial and tribulation have conquered just about every issue .. except one. Coil whine!
Intel l6700k Processor
Corsair H55 cpu water cooler
Asrock z170 OC Formula Mother Board
16 G DDR4 3000 Memory
Sapphire RX 480 8G nitro
I resolved issues with the video card driver, random reboots to the circle of death with a line through it, getting overclocking to work, learning how to use Clover and the various tools ... and the last problem I'm left with is coil whine. It's driving me crazy. I'm already resigned to doing an RMA on the motherboard, but I'm going to test if the issue occurs on a Windows 10 build when I get another hard drive. That's my last trouble shooting step, other than this desperate plea.
The issue is very similar to this http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/301146-deactivate-speedstep/. I've disabled every possible cpu state setting in the bios, overclocked, dry humped kext files ... nothing works.
It sounds like nails on a chalkboard when the CPU is idling or fluctuating from normal activity. When idling, the whine is exacerbated when I move my mouse around on the screen. It does NOT produce the whine when it is under constant load. If I mine crypto currency with the CPU to max the processing, there is no sound.
If you've conquered this issue, have mercy and share a solution. I'm on the edge, and throwing this $#$#43!!?!! computer through my window is sounding like a more viable solution every minute ...
UPDATE
So I installed Win 10 Pro on another hard drive so see if there was a difference with the coil whine between operating systems. Win 10 was definitely much quieter. I could still faintly hear the same issue in Win 10, but it was 100 times less audible. All of the bios settings are exactly the same between the test. The difference in noise level is nails on a chalkboard vs a mouse fart. I completely disabled things like the Intel 530 onboard video in system devices in windows, onboard sound, etc to see if I could isolate the hardware issue. The very feint sound of coil whine was still present for windows regardless, including a noticeable change in pitch with mouse movement. The windows 10 install is quiet enough, to where I wouldn't have noticed it originally, including the mouse movement.
That leaves me at a crossroads. I'm not sure I want to go through the hassle of an RMA if I know Windows 10 doesn't have the issue. I suspect the issue could be mitigated in Sierra if I could find some help with CPU power management kexts.
Currently AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient.kext and AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext are completely removed from /System/Library/Extensions/
I've attached the NullCPUPowerManagement.kext located in my /EFI/EFI/Clover/kexts/10.12
Another important thing to mention I have a plat rated 1200 watt EVGA PSU that is brand new, I doubt it's the source of the trouble but I don't have another to compare against.
I guess I can just mine crypto currency forever ....
UPDATE #2
So, we meet again ... What the hell?!! Not a single comment, idea, show of support .. nothing. I thought Hackintosh was a a community!?! Why have I been forsaken??!
I just so happened to have this exact motherboard running in a PC I use for windows development. This PC, has the same motherboard, a different 1600 watt evga PSU to test, and coincidentally is running 2 Radeon RX 9 Furys, so I figured I would take my SSD with all the hard work from my Sierra configuration and boot it up. I figured the video card hacks are the same for Fury x and RX480 so I wouldn't have to futz with much, and I could definitively rule out coil whine being a defect of the motherboard.
So I plopped in the SSD, and lo and behold ... it boot into Sierra no problem ... and I was greeted with the same horrendous earful of coil whine from the other board. FINE! Obviously this has something to do with differences between the OS's and power management / CPU settings. The coil whine definitely comes from the processor area.
An interesting side note is that both Fury X's were detected without issue.
Consider this fair warning for anyone considering the Asrock Z170 OC Formula. It was on Tony Mac's list of approved hardware, but I guess it's just my luck. You have been warned.
Perhaps there will be some updates to try regarding Sierra power management kexts in the future. I sincerely hope some other people suffer with this issue from other motherboard manufactures so I can get some help. Yes, I'm selfish like that.
Some other good news is perhaps they will in fact finally update the Mac Pro soon ? http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/mac/...o-2016-tech-specs-new-features-march-3536364/ . If so, I'll be first in line. I think I'd rather beat my balls with a hammer then go through another Hackintosh build to ultimately be defeated by coil whine.
The silver lining is I don't have to go through an RMA process, and most importantly - I have my sanity back. I can live with coil whine, but not unexplained random coil whine.
Intel l6700k Processor
Corsair H55 cpu water cooler
Asrock z170 OC Formula Mother Board
16 G DDR4 3000 Memory
Sapphire RX 480 8G nitro
I resolved issues with the video card driver, random reboots to the circle of death with a line through it, getting overclocking to work, learning how to use Clover and the various tools ... and the last problem I'm left with is coil whine. It's driving me crazy. I'm already resigned to doing an RMA on the motherboard, but I'm going to test if the issue occurs on a Windows 10 build when I get another hard drive. That's my last trouble shooting step, other than this desperate plea.
The issue is very similar to this http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/301146-deactivate-speedstep/. I've disabled every possible cpu state setting in the bios, overclocked, dry humped kext files ... nothing works.
It sounds like nails on a chalkboard when the CPU is idling or fluctuating from normal activity. When idling, the whine is exacerbated when I move my mouse around on the screen. It does NOT produce the whine when it is under constant load. If I mine crypto currency with the CPU to max the processing, there is no sound.
If you've conquered this issue, have mercy and share a solution. I'm on the edge, and throwing this $#$#43!!?!! computer through my window is sounding like a more viable solution every minute ...
UPDATE
So I installed Win 10 Pro on another hard drive so see if there was a difference with the coil whine between operating systems. Win 10 was definitely much quieter. I could still faintly hear the same issue in Win 10, but it was 100 times less audible. All of the bios settings are exactly the same between the test. The difference in noise level is nails on a chalkboard vs a mouse fart. I completely disabled things like the Intel 530 onboard video in system devices in windows, onboard sound, etc to see if I could isolate the hardware issue. The very feint sound of coil whine was still present for windows regardless, including a noticeable change in pitch with mouse movement. The windows 10 install is quiet enough, to where I wouldn't have noticed it originally, including the mouse movement.
That leaves me at a crossroads. I'm not sure I want to go through the hassle of an RMA if I know Windows 10 doesn't have the issue. I suspect the issue could be mitigated in Sierra if I could find some help with CPU power management kexts.
Currently AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient.kext and AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext are completely removed from /System/Library/Extensions/
I've attached the NullCPUPowerManagement.kext located in my /EFI/EFI/Clover/kexts/10.12
Another important thing to mention I have a plat rated 1200 watt EVGA PSU that is brand new, I doubt it's the source of the trouble but I don't have another to compare against.
I guess I can just mine crypto currency forever ....
UPDATE #2
So, we meet again ... What the hell?!! Not a single comment, idea, show of support .. nothing. I thought Hackintosh was a a community!?! Why have I been forsaken??!
I just so happened to have this exact motherboard running in a PC I use for windows development. This PC, has the same motherboard, a different 1600 watt evga PSU to test, and coincidentally is running 2 Radeon RX 9 Furys, so I figured I would take my SSD with all the hard work from my Sierra configuration and boot it up. I figured the video card hacks are the same for Fury x and RX480 so I wouldn't have to futz with much, and I could definitively rule out coil whine being a defect of the motherboard.
So I plopped in the SSD, and lo and behold ... it boot into Sierra no problem ... and I was greeted with the same horrendous earful of coil whine from the other board. FINE! Obviously this has something to do with differences between the OS's and power management / CPU settings. The coil whine definitely comes from the processor area.
An interesting side note is that both Fury X's were detected without issue.
Consider this fair warning for anyone considering the Asrock Z170 OC Formula. It was on Tony Mac's list of approved hardware, but I guess it's just my luck. You have been warned.
Perhaps there will be some updates to try regarding Sierra power management kexts in the future. I sincerely hope some other people suffer with this issue from other motherboard manufactures so I can get some help. Yes, I'm selfish like that.
Some other good news is perhaps they will in fact finally update the Mac Pro soon ? http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/mac/...o-2016-tech-specs-new-features-march-3536364/ . If so, I'll be first in line. I think I'd rather beat my balls with a hammer then go through another Hackintosh build to ultimately be defeated by coil whine.
The silver lining is I don't have to go through an RMA process, and most importantly - I have my sanity back. I can live with coil whine, but not unexplained random coil whine.
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