Guitar picking up electric noises when turning on PC

Putting this here in case it helps anyone else.
Well - my particular use-case is fixed (lower CPU speed, less voltage, less EMI / coil whine?)
While testing -
Wireless / Wired guitar actually sounded identical.
Turning the PC off entirely gets rid of the noise.
Tested outlets - grounding is good.
Removing the monster graphics card - didn't help.
Running through any type of amp or multi-fx processor, with no connection to the PC, would have issues in the room.
I did however realize that my screwed up and didn't save the BIOS settings last time I underclocked; and my i9 - 10850k CPU was running at 5ghz (the stock overclock speed).
I forced this down to the non-k speed (3.6ghz) - and the noise is basically gone!

So - my cause is something to do with the CPU / PSU / MOBO combo emitting massive amounts of EMI or coil whine (if they're even the same thing) during the 5ghz overclock speed.
I could literally turn off all my speakers and hear the matching coil-whine come directly from the PC.
My fix was to force the CPU speed back down - likely just less voltage pull caused whatever was emitting the noise to stop.
I'll just bump the speed back up for gaming.
Now - is there still (some) noise from the PC going through my pickups? Yes, but not enough that I notice as long as I'm a few feet away from the computer.
 
ztbishop said:
Having this issue as well with my desktop PC. Running all guitar hardware wireless and entirely off batteries doesn't get rid of the noise - it's definitely EMI coming from the PC. I can amplify it by putting the guitar up to the PC. Running fender noiseless pickups and even humbuckers doesn't do a whole lot to fight it; it's crazy loud. I tried taking giant sheets of cardboard and putting 6 coats of aluminum foil around them, and blocking the desktop with it. As well as copper tape shielding the guitar cavities. This did not help, not one single bit of difference. Angling the guitar certain ways is about all I can do, but not ideal. I use the PC for all my practice (online lessons, PDFs, etc).
Before I waste anymore time - would a big-ass steel plate do anything? I'm ordering longer video cables to move the desktop a few feet further, but the room is unfortunately too small to get it further than 4-5 ft. The PC case is aluminum (Fractal Meshify-C) with a 750W psu, i9, and RTX 3080 GPU. Might not help that it's a powerhouse gaming machine. Underclocking everything didn't do much either. If I put my head next to my PC I can actually here the same noise that gets amplified through the guitar. (PC is not connected to anything related to the guitar). I just thought it was very strange that the exact matching sound is literally audible from the PC with no speakers turned on. It's either a lousy PSU, or GPU coil whine. In either case it'll be an expensive replacement so I'd rather shield if there is a way that actually works.
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Just got the Meshify 2 for my gaming PC.

That thing is horrible for EM noise. Almost every side of it is full of holes.

Unfortunately it's fantastic for airflow (got a smokin hot 3080TI in mine), so I've just resolved to put my gaming rig to sleep while I'm recording.
 
Since this thread pops up. I too get noise on my guitars from electrical sources, especially with P-90’s. But that’s what I use volume knobs for, to turn down the sound when not playing! On the fun side though, the guitar sounds like a lightsaber when you move around in a room with a ton of electrical noise 😂

On the serious note, I don’t have much issue with noise on my guitars, but have played some venues with pretty poor electrical shielding and a ton of noise.
 
I have a bunch of aluminium tape laying around.... Maybe I can shield the inside of my case with it....
 
My new PC has a glass panel. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I thought about building a Faraday rig...but I'm super lazy.

I got a remote power button and moved the PC as far away from my rocking post as possible. Helps siginificantly.
 
FractalAudio said:
Case doesn't need to be grounded to act as a shield. If it did then cell phones, laptops, etc. wouldn't pass emissions testing.
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i am dealing with the same issues cause i stupidly bought one of those glass sided cases. i am now having to crank the gate to deal with the noise. i am trying to find a replacement metal side panel but i dont know how successful that will turn out to be (the company is not a big one) do you think if i were to attach a thin metal plate or a mesh on the inside or outside of the glass side panel would help?
 
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