Unimaginable amount of electrical noise after plugging PC Power Supply

[darKz_]

Hey everyone, lately I've been trying almost everything to reduce the electrical noise over my Be Quiet Straight Power 11 850W 80+ Platinum PSU which exceeds 2000~ mV or 'onlygodknows' how much it goes up, just right after powering up my pc. How could possibly an premium quality such as Be Quiet which has Platinum efficiency rating of 90+of guaranteed power output to create such huge amount of electrical noise? I've even called electricians and they doesn't seem to be anything wrong at all.


This always happens after powering up my pc the noise goes beyond this universe, it's just so frustrating that you can't even enjoy your own pc due to really sluggish performance of the new pc I've got.|

P.s: My house has really low voltage which is separated on two "phase" while one phase is kinda strong being 210V~ and the other one is cut off on half down to 170V~. Also I even tried an 3500VA (also even 5500VA) Automatic voltage regulator) but it doesn't even make any difference in the noise. I'm not fully sure the house's voltage is the problem as moving to another house wouldn't be my best option since this is my new house from the previous owner. The whole house's electrical system is so weird as even the previous owner had a fire blast over the Voltage Regulator he was using for the washing machine and he had shorts everywhere causing fire probably as I could see in the house's black marks.


Now the line is separated in two 'phases' cause of the accident they had before which is more safe but worse at outputting voltage. Not to forget the line cable that supplies my house is also separated to another house that supplies them as well that goes down to the left side of my house; there is a box that contains 3 old "ceramic breakers" which supplies the other house there but the electrician said that it doesn't matter. I'm out of ideas on how to fix all this horrifical noises the PC's Power Supply creates, some said that they bought those filters to clean EMI noise but turned back as it was before for a couple days, so I'm not yet sure if I should try them as I can't return back since I am on Europe and have to order on US, as we don't have those things around here.

 

[Boristheengine]

When you say that you have 2000mV of electrical noise, how are you measuring that and what is that voltage between?

Might also be useful to know which country you are in as 120v split phase is rather American, but you mention you need parts in Europe in the end.

With the words "fire " "black marks" and "shorts everywhere", pictures could keep us entertaines if you have any you'd like to share! (And of course, perhaps you should get an electrician to test all that before your house burns to the ground)

 

[darKz_]

When you say that you have 2000mV of electrical noise, how are you measuring that and what is that voltage between?

Might also be useful to know which country you are in as 120v split phase is rather American, but you mention you need parts in Europe in the end.

With the words "fire " "black marks" and "shorts everywhere", pictures could keep us entertaines if you have any you'd like to share! (And of course, perhaps you should get an electrician to test all that before your house burns to the ground)

Thanks for the reply.

I used the GreenWave Broadband EMI meter to measure the noise and it just shows "2--- mV" straight out after powering up my pc, also the noise is holy deep based on the speaker of the EMI Meter that I could hear. Also yeah, I'm located at Southeast of Europe basically on Kosovo.

 

[dogbob]

There is a high probability that the PC power supply is defective.
Can you take the PC and noise meter to a friends, just to rule out your particular house's wiring & supply issues?

 

[darKz_]

There is a high probability that the PC power supply is defective.
Can you take the PC and noise meter to a friends, just to rule out your particular house's wiring & supply issues?

Yes I did. That's the first thing I had to try but unfortunately it was the same, it showed "2--- mV" but of course it was a little bit stable cause of decent voltage which really didn't make any difference to the noise, one thing it did was that it got that "flow" of the wiring of that house I tried which lasted for a few days then it came back as it was without affecting the noise. Also last December the electricity around here was terribly bad, possibly due to overload of the electricity system around here, in just that time I bought that PSU to replace my old Delta OEM 300W PSU but the performance was going smoothly for 2 days, after that it never was the same.

 

[darKz_]

aaaaaaaaaa

With the words "fire " "black marks" and "shorts everywhere", pictures could keep us entertaines if you have any you'd like to share! (And of course, perhaps you should get an electrician to test all that before your house burns to the ground)

Sorry, missed that one. I can't really show them at this moment but this was fixed by the previous owner as the electrician said it is split into two "phase" which made more safe against such fire accidents. By that I meant it still prolly something not right either way it's the worst electricity I've ever got since I moved. Yesterday I had the electrician and he says everything seems pretty good and nothing's wrong except for the "split" part that potentially could be dangerous to put just in "one". I had also the electricity company's workers but that was 2 years ago which there was a storm hit somewhere and it shorted out most of the thing in my house but they fixed that. I don't really have any rod installed except the metal one's I think as everyone which seems terrible if there's in question device performance.

 

[pc1966]

Some of eastern Europe was typically on a low current (30A-ish) 3-phase supply, not your typical 60-100A single phase for UK, but I don't know if that applies here.

@darKz_ can you post a picture of your consumer unit (distribution board, fuse box) and related incoming power / billing meter arrangement?

My own suspicion when 'noise' is mentioned is always the earth/CPC arrangement as most folks are not aware of a fault until it goes horribly wrong (and then they might be dead so say nothing more). But if it is a 3-phase supply then a poor neutral connection could cause all sorts of strange voltage fluctuations, even to the extent of destroying electronic devices, etc.

Edit: Also I remember @Lucien Nunes pointing out they (eastern EU / former Soviet block) can be on a TN-C supply so any neutral faults are also earth faults!

 

[marconi]

be quiet! - https://www.bequiet.com/en/powersupply/1774

What is a Form Factor? - Circuit Globe - https://circuitglobe.com/what-is-form-factor.html

I have had a look at some of the electrical details of your Be-Quiet power converter. Without going into a lecture on how non-linear devices such as the Be-Quiet draw a current which has a waveform which is far from sinusoidal, let me inform you that it is not surprising you measure high levels of electrical noise with a relatively simple plug-in device. The clue is that the 'form factor' which describes the current waveform in a particular way is high when compared with that of a pure sine wave which is a form factor of 1.11. A higher form factor indicates a waveform which is more pulse like, and pulses have broad spectrums of power harmonics. The Be-Quiet Form factor is:

Form factor	Version 2.51
Form factor EPS 12V	Version 2.92

If, as you suggest your home's power supply has high resistance/impedance, then not only will the current which flows have a high harmonic content but the waveform of the voltage will be distorted too.

Ideally, the Be-Quiet is connected to a power supply which has low/very low 'source impedance/resistance'. In your situation it seems this is not the case.

Simple things you can do which may reduce the the electrical noise but by how much I cannot say is to have short input power leads, plugged into a socket fed by a short, thick cable to your fuses/circuit breaker box. And if you have the money to ask your power company to supply your home only through a thicker cable.

I am confused somewhat by your remarks about your home being supplied by two phases which do not have the same voltage with respect to neutral/earth. This may not be helping your levels of electrical noise.

Does your computer operate satisfactorily? Has anyone complained about the electrical noise?