What is COIL-WHINE-MAX?
COIL-WHINE-MAX shows up as a high-severity graphics card (GPU) fault. Coils make a deafening squeal due to high FPS or load. The usual suspects are wear of memory chips, faulty driver and poor quality video cable. The steps below are ordered to resolve this efficiently.
Common Causes
- High temperatures
- Wear of memory chips
- Faulty driver
- Poor quality video cable
Step-by-Step Fix Guide
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1
Install the older stable driver using DDU
Begin with Install the older stable driver using DDU; it's the step that resolves COIL-WHINE-MAX for the largest share of reported cases.
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2
Replace the cable with a certified
For the minority of cases that need more work, the later steps dig into less usual gpu instability causes.
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3
Underclock the memory in MSI Afterburner
This step, "Underclock the memory in MSI Afterburner", specifically rules out wear of memory chips.
Commands & Diagnostics
dxdiag
nvidia-smi
Frequently Asked Questions
In most cases, high temperatures is behind COIL-WHINE-MAX. Wear of memory chips, faulty driver and poor quality video cable can trigger it too.
The fastest fix is "Install the older stable driver using DDU". Only move on to the later steps if COIL-WHINE-MAX keeps coming back.
Rated high severity — COIL-WHINE-MAX isn't immediately destructive, but recurring instances are a sign to fix it sooner rather than later.
Usually. COIL-WHINE-MAX is fixable with the steps above; a full Windows reinstall is rarely necessary unless everything else has failed.
Yes — GPU or memory overclocking is one of the most frequent triggers for COIL-WHINE-MAX. Try resetting your GPU to stock clocks using MSI Afterburner or your OC software, then test for stability before investigating other causes.
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