Arch Linux

zzaw

Member

Registered: 2012-08-15

Posts: 11

[SOLVED] Problem With CPU Whine and C States

So I've got a problem where I get an annoying whine when my CPU goes into C3/C6 states. Now I can disable these in the BIOS and this solves the problem on Windows.
However the Intel drivers on Linux don't seem to respect this and I still get the horrible whine. As soon as I stress the CPU it's instantly gone.
So I've had a look around but haven't found anyway to manually disable the states yet, does anyone else have any experience with this?

Cheers

Last edited by zzaw (2015-02-11 10:03:55)

Morn

Member

Registered: 2012-09-02

Posts: 886

Re: [SOLVED] Problem With CPU Whine and C States

Edit the kernel command line in /etc/default/grub (if you use GRUB that is) and run "grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg".

I use

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet nomodeset intel_pstate=disable intel_idle.max_cstate=1"

which disables both frequency scaling and higher c-states. Neither is very useful on a desktop PC and causes coil whine (c-states) or puts unnecessary stress on the motherboard (p-states). Nomodeset is required for Catalyst.

Last edited by Morn (2015-02-10 11:18:12)

zzaw

Member

Registered: 2012-08-15

Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Problem With CPU Whine and C States

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed. It's working great now.

tobi.TvC

Member

Registered: 2016-02-13

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] Problem With CPU Whine and C States

Yes this did the trick! Thankyou very much!
Xeon E3-1225 with ASUS P8B-E/4L