Old thread, but I finally cured my whining circuit board. I removed the board, put 4 big globs of silicone on the back of the board where the screws are, installed the board with the screws, but just tightened the screws enough to make sure the silicone was contacting both the board and water heater. Waited 24 hours, removed screws. The problem is the screws transfer the whining to the tank and the tank amplifies the noise. The circuit board has been attached this way for about 2 months now. So far so good.