Annoying high-pitched noise

I just got an i7 refurb and it's been making a faint but extremely high-pitched noise since I started using it (on battery and AC power). It sounds almost like your ears are ringing, but louder and more annoying because your ears never get used to it. I haven't installed anything or done any updates yet.

It seems to be coming from the left side and it's pretty constant if I'm just browsing the web, but certain things will make it stop temporarily. If I scroll up and down on a web page it will stop while I'm scrolling but then start again immediately when I stop scrolling. Watching full-screen videos on YouTube also makes it stop. And sometimes it will stop while I'm moving the cursor but then start again as soon as the cursor isn't moving.

Has anyone else had this issue, and is there a fix for it? I'll definitely have to return this one if there's no way to make the sound stop.

 

I get a soft double beep every now and again (maybe once every couple of hours). Have no idea what causes it, but it isn't annoying or anything so I can live with it. Hope you can figure out what is causing your issue, or a get a good replacement for it soon.

 

I find sounds that stop with mouse scrolling are usually coming from the speakers and related to interference in the room. Does it happen in other rooms of the house? Is the sound coming through the speakers? Does it get loader if you crank the volume? Do you still hear it if you use headphones instead?

 

It happens no matter what room I'm in and the volume settings have no effect on it. I can hear it better if I hold my ear against any of the 3 openings on the bottom panel (2 speakers and 1 fan intake), but it's equally loud in all three spots so I can't guess where the sound is originating.

I can't find any forum posts or reviews from other m11x owners with a similar problem, but there are tons of results in Google for "laptop high pitch noise". It seems to often be caused by power saving states that CPUs switch to when they're idle, which could explain why things like scrolling and watching YouTube videos makes it stop on my laptop.

Unfortunately, the only fixes I've come across were disabling power-saving features or replacing the motherboard. Disabling power-saving features on the m11x would sort of defeat the purpose of owning it.

One interesting tidbit I came across: Most older people can no longer hear frequencies this high because hearing naturally degrades as people age, so if you're older you probably don't need to worry about getting a laptop with this problem... but you may end up annoying your kids and pets

 

I have the same thing, from what I can tell it's coming from the fan. Bit annoying.

 

If you can determine that the noise is only happening when the fan is actuated the that more than likely means that the inner seal that acts to seal off the airflow path isn't properly attached and the fan blades are hitting it. That's been reported here a number of times. Call Dell and have them send someone out.

 

Just got off the phone with tech support -- they're gonna replace the fan even though I'm 99.9% sure it's not the cause of the noise. I explained that the noise is directly tied to CPU load and doesn't change at all with the fan speed, but hopefully he's right somehow.

According to Google, other laptop users with the same problem and the same link to CPU load have managed to get rid of the noise by disabling the CPU idle state, but any fix that kills battery life isn't really a "fix" for a netbook.

 

If it is the CPU then a motherboard replacement will be in order. Seems like it would be a good idea for them to prepare for that and have one on hand should it be needed. Couldn't hurt to ask them to do so. Would save everyone a lot of time if it is the problem.

 

Good point -- the mobo may be the real culprit, but I keep saying CPU for some reason. When less power is being sent to the CPU, the low voltage current flowing through the capacitors apparently can cause them to emit a "low pitch" noise. But "low pitch" for capacitors is around the top of our hearing range, so once there's more power flowing they may still make noise, it'd just be way too high frequency for any person to hear...

I wonder if they're willing to replace mobos on-site though? I've also seen a lot of complaints about m11x being poorly re-assembled by the on-site techs sent by Dell

 

Replacing the motherboard isn't terribly difficult on these and yes they do that on-site. Generally you're only going to hear about the bad on-site tech experiences here. I've had a /lot/ of experience with Dell contracted techs (laptop, desktop and server) and I'd say that as a rule they've been pretty good. It all depends on how competent the tech who shows up at your doorstep is.

In any case the mobo has to be replaced if it is a CPU issue. It's soldered on.

 

I think I actually have the same sound on my Thinkpad. It's supposedly some quirk of Core2Duo CPUs.... I didn't think it affected new i3/i5/i7 series. But I can really hear it only when it is really really dead silence in the room.

 

It sounds most likely to me that the inductor coils on the motherboard are making this noise.

My graphics card makes a very faint high pitched noise, the pitch gets higher and lower with furmark depending on how much it is stressed.

 

I called them back to let them know they should send a motherboard, but he just said they'll see if the fan fixes it and go from there -_-

Looks like any CPU with power-saving features enabled can trigger the problem, but the noise itself always seems to come from something on the motherboard. There are a few threads in desktop forums complaining about it, but turning off C1E completely eliminated the noise for them (C1E reduces multipliers and voltage when CPU utilization is low).