Acer Aspire 1410 High Pitched Noise/Whine?

I ordered and received my Acer 1410 (Celeron SU2300, WD Scorpio Blue 250GB, Windows 7 64, 2GB RAM) a little over a week ago and while I like almost every aspect of it, I'm wondering if the high pitched noise / whine I'm hearing from it is normal?

Basically I only hear it when there isn't much noise around, but it's still mildly distracting. It mainly comes from the area near the indicator lights, but is most apparent under the laptop where the RAM / HD slot is. For some reason the sound is much louder with the AC adapter plugged in. On battery, the noise is basically gone (but will come back for short periods of time). I can also hear the whine through the headphone jack if nothing is playing (at least on AC power).

What might be the cause of this noise and is there any way I can get rid of it? The RMClock trick doesn't work since the option to "Run HLT command when OS is idle" is grayed out and cannot be selected.

If I decide to return this and get another 1410 later (since the online store I bought it at is sold out right now), would I be likely to get another one with this whine/noise?

 

You really need to try another. First thought with any "whine" is a DC-DC convertor... where you hear the coils/transformer "sing". That ties in with being worse on AC too.
If the noise is actually breaking through onto the audio (H/Phones) then that sounds like a fault.

 

Yeah, I guess I will go with a return and hunt for another one of these (or something better) later. Right now, I'm sure I'll be annoyed with that whine over time. I don't think it's unreasonable to hear only the fan and the hard drive while the computer is idle or working, instead of those two and a consistent high pitched noise.

 

Agreed

Which is apparently to short a message to post, so that's why I just typed this

 

It might be coming from your CPU. i-core processors have a habit of making a whining sound. If it's NOT present 100% of the time could be the CPU.

 

My 1410-2920 doesn't make the whining sound you're experiencing, so call me lucky.

 

I was thinking CPU could be the cause, but the sound only goes away on battery power, and even then it sometimes comes back (regardless if the computer is idle or not). Sometimes it comes up when the hard drive is spinning, but even when the hard drive is not spinning, it will continue.

One thing I'm sure is on AC adapter power, the noise is constant and louder.

 

i returned my original 1410 because of this noise. the replacement didn't do it at first but now is. it is definitely coming from the ram area, and sounds horrible on headphones.
edit: seems like a frequency w/ the deal coupled w/ someone flatlining. lol

 

Son-of-a-, I just listened to my 1410-2920 and it's also making the whining sound from the memory compartment. I never noticed it before, but not that I placed the bottom of it to my ear I can easily hear it. Luckily, I haven't heard anything odd or bad while using the headphones. Why the hell does this happen? Has anyone upgraded their memory and notice that the whine disappeared?

Wonderful, simply wonderful.

 

well sorry to train your ears to it. it will never go away now, lol. but i mus say, it's not to have someone check again who didn't think they have it and as it turns out they do. i am becoming convinced that it affects the entire product line based on my experiences.

on my 3rd (2nd 1410 system, but 3rd mainboard). Problem is STILL THERE. Don't really hear it until Windows shell loads (i.e. not at bios or boot). It is aggravating is it not? I can hear it leaking into headphones though not as bad as last, still all 3 to varying degrees. 2nd didn't do it at first, but after about 3 months of use, it started. comes right ouf the RAM socket/mainboard area. Headphones pick it up and exacerbate it.

btw dustrho, memory upgrade makes no difference. i can hear whine with original samsung, ocz and pny ram. it's not the ram itself, imo. it is coming from the area behind it...

 

Luckily I don't believe I can hear any of that whining sound through my headphones, but I definitely hear it only if I put my ear under the notebook. It's nowhere near as bad as the loose hinges issue I experienced on three separate 1410 units.

 

You will get a sound such as this out of any laptop. Unless you are going to work with the bottom of your laptop on your ear why would you even consider it as unusual?

If you send it in it will come back exactly the same because it is considered normal. Now...if you are typing away listening to the noise that is an entirely different situation.

In the end you have to ask yourself if you want to enjoy the system you have or well, simply look at that clowns history with his 2 systems, multiple parts and so on. I mean he just received it back and has now found another issue... He will never be happy with any computer he receives and the worst part is he puts all others into a panic mode... I have watched the same thing occur time and time again year after year here. Next someone will start a thread "1410 High Pitch Squeal!"

 

Are you calling me a "clown?" I want to make sure you said that right before I provide my comments to this.

 

Mine doesn't whine. I can hear the fan a little bit but not a high pitched whine. That would drive me nuts...

 

Patently false. I have ONLY gotten this persistent, squeaky whiney noise out of Acer, and I have had (and serviced) many Dells, an HP, Sony Vaio, & unibody Macbook. This only reinforces the fact that tech support and hardware is not your forte.

Typing away and can hear it in a quiet room x3. The worst part is I can hear it on the headphones. I do sound editing and use headphones frequently now so this is a big issue for me.

My Acer 4810 has the sound on the bottom of the chassis too, but it doesn't persist as noise on headhpones.

The only clown is your you I'm afraid, and you unwarranted ego. You know what's funny too... you actually don't realize it. I have had legitimate issues with this notebook, despite what you think in your layman's perspective. You know what's ironic too... remember your attitude before I sent it, specifically when you mentioned the issue regarding the wifi switch. Guess who reassembled my latest wrong? Acer... just realized the WiFi is stuck in the on position. Very easy to for me to fix, but think I'll either sell this thing or send it back again, as this audible noise is aggravating. It should be addressed though wont eve be completely since this lappy (at least su2300 variants) have already run their *short course*.

Regarding your incendiary remarks, food for thought, I've owned no less than a dozen laptops, and this is the first I've sought warranty service on. So you can get bent with your accusatory, flaming attitude friend.

I think other people have better things to do, you obviously do not. Keep enjoying that crow sir. If I can prove you wrong again, just let me know.

 

btw, to those actually concerned about this issue and not here to threadcrap. trying jacking in some headphones and wait about 10 minutes, no music playing... just in the windows environment. Share with us if you can hear an fluctuating static type of noise.

 

For the first time, I'm now hearing that hissing/whine sound through my headphones. Wonderful. Just like hakujin said, I've owned a lot of computers (desktops and notebooks) and have never heard anything like this before.

And I'm still waiting for the reply from Les, if he was in fact referring to me as "the clown."

 

It's aggravating isn't it... the noise I mean.

Les is referring to me. Ostensibly, because I'm been affected w/ many of the well known problems of this 1410 (e.g. the fan/housing rattle, the egregious battery discharge) and the lesser known (e.g. ram whine/static noise, chassis vibration, etc.) and my method by which to resolve these issues (i.e. take swift, small claims legal action if my *valid* warranty isn't honored) didn't sit right with his 'patented formula' on the acer 1410/1810 thread based on his 'worldy technical knowledge & experience' (<-- lol) i.e. kiss Acer's outsourced rear and hope they graciously fix the problem).

This is partly because, in his myopic perspective of the modern world, he thinks it nearly impossible to find resolution the legal route against a large company, and for some strange reason he can't comprehend that this happens dozens, if not hundreds of times day in and day out all throughout the US of A. And the fact that it's extremely easy to do (1. call sec of state office, get 'agent for service' address, 2. file statement of claim w/ clerk, pay $30, then wait for reply for settlement, or show up in court - done).

More so, he feels I am undeserving, Maybe because of my defiant attitude of his infantile 'expert advice' on the matter. Apparently, if you've posted in this forum over a few thousand times, you are then omniscient. Clearly... he is not

Anyway dustrho, back to the problem that can't be ignored... I empathize with you detecting the problem. You (like me) would be better off not knowing, especially if you got an incredibly low price on this lappy as I did (which makes it all the more difficult to just sell, because I do otherwise like it). This problem affects most if not all su2300 1410s, I am convinced of that know. My 1st was loud and eventually became a static high pitched whine. I have attached documentary evidence of this 1st one, listen when i put the mic slightly closer to the unit at 18 secs in. Now it's just as bad, but scratchier. I think over time it too will become constant, like a bad bearing in a hard drive.

Based off lack of complaints on this forum, I gave a 2nd 1410 a go. After a few weeks to 1.5 mo later, started doing it. Gave it back to Acer though this was no longer the primary issue as the mainboard died, received mainboard/thermal sensor replacment; same thing AGAIN.

Maybe some don't detect or they don't care. But I think it is very EASY to detect for anyone w/ half decent hearing. it is this one problem that frustrates me with this notebook. I can live w/ the discharge and haven't' complained much about it here. Same w/ the fan housing vibration as at least it's fixable; but this is plain annoying. I have yet to see if the problem propagates to HDMI audio, but I betcha it does! Will report back.

 

Hello...
Owner of a acer aspire 5942g here.
The noise in the zip file is present to me too.
Its too loud to ignore.
Its exactly the same noise.
Some say it is coming from the fan of the cpu.
Is that possible?

 

no, i don't think so. exhaust fan is more like a grinding noise. if you hear that, you have metal on metal contact on fan housing which requires dis-assembly and electrical tape to resolve. the high pitched whine is unfix-able, and all 1410s have it to some degree. It's about finding one that is tolerable. I used my 1410 sporadically, and it's manageable... the previous one was twice as bad tho. I've just turned to live with it in exchange for a very cheap notebook.

 

If it's of any help, my Travelmate 2480 has no noticable hissing noise (at least I never noticed it anyway).

My adapter does make a VERY quiet hissing noise on plug in and unplug for a short period of time. Leaking capacitor maybe? (not trying to thread jack either)

 

After returning the 1410, I finally got around to finding a new Acer 4810TZ for about $465 (since vendor was clearing out for the this year's model). Everything about it is perfect, except there is still the high pitched noise, although it is much quieter. I can only hear in dead silence areas, as any ambient noise drowns it out. I also have to be somewhat close to the keyboard in order to hear it.

I still don't have any clue where the whine is coming from. However I can deal with it for the price and feature set. I doubt I'd be able to find a laptop anywhere with the same specs (specifically 8+ battery life and DVD-RW drive) and price.

 

Solution for high pitched noise:

1. We have to change the registry.
Typing in the command line "regedit", you go to the registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Power \ PowerSettings \ 54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00 \ 5d76a2ca-e8c0-402f-a133-2158492d58ad

2. Included option in this branch will enable and disable the idle processor. In this case, it should be included.
To enable one or another hidden parameter, it is necessary to find and edit the value DWORD, changing its value SettingValue from 1 to 0.

3. Then, through the control panel - power - in the settings mode select power management processor.
There will be an option disabling idle processor and high pitched noise immediately disappears.

 

I have a couple comments/questions to add to this...

Found this key in the registry on my 1410-2920.

However, I found this setting in the Power options but did not find anything in there that would allow me to disable idle processor. Where exactly is that located or what change has to be made? Again, I didn't see anything that would allow me to enable or disable that setting.

 

Yeah I couldn't find the disable idle processor setting either.

The whine on my 4810 seems to have just gotten worse recently, but it only happens in certain situations. There appears to be little to no whine on battery alone or plugged in with the battery. The whine is loudest on plugged in on the adapter without the battery and idle.

 

Thank you so much! This solved my problem. I bought a used 1810tz and noticed the hig tone pitching sound. First I was like pfft can't be, but when I noticed the sound in my headphone it really got my attention. I hate background noise and this was quiet but audible.

1. First you need to regedit the value. Look above.

2. After that you can see the disable idle processor value in the power management. I don't have english windows but you need to go: Power options -> Change plan settings -> Advanced settings or something -> CPU/Processor ower management-> Idle or something -> remove idle

You need to regedit to show the value. Keep in mind this setting disables the cpu power management ie. more heat=more fan noise. I was able to change the setting in ac mode, no affect in battery mode.

If you think about it the noise is caused because cpu idles? Right? So it is bad motherboard design by acer or who ever subcontracted it. Solution new motherboard. Similar issue in asus notebooks, see post #189 http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...&id=20100207170443781&page=19&SLanguage=en-us

 

My AS1410 makes high pitch buzz/whine as well, compares to my Dell 630m, it is not bad at all. What suprises me is that the industry can't solve this problem for 3 decades(Dell has to come up a white paper to defend that this is NORAML which is not acceptable excuse). Just goodle "dell buzzing noise", you will find all kind of complain, class action etc. The root cause is low quality capacitor in processor power circuits. Whenever processor dramstically changes current, the capacitors buzz. So you don't hear it before power management loads. Disabling certain power states can reduce noise. But it may hurt battery time. As components aging, the problem can only be getting worse and worse, so be prepared to hear noise out of nowhere even you don't hear it when it is new.
(For Dell 630m, use USB mouse makes it worst, use bluetooth mouse makes it best. Use APM noise goes away, use APCI noise can not be avoided.) Anyway, try your best configuration to make it acceptable for you.