Emergency, need advice asap (AW 17 R3)

Today i noticed that my laptop is making an odd whizzing sound when a hardware component is doing something, like a hard drive readin/writing, a game running, browsing the internet...just about any activity, this sound reminds me of the copying machines at hospitals (that burn in the text onto this red paper).

This sound is not normal afaik, i never noticed it before, but today as i was about to shut down the laptop i heard it from my chair and that got me concerned.

Here are a couple of samples
https://clyp.it/aikspp0w
https://clyp.it/dod5nrho

The pitch and volume vary depending on what's the laptop doing, in these particular samples i was simply moving my mouse with no programs running.

It's worth noting that when i turn on power saving profile, there is no such sound.

I still got about 5 days on my warranty, please advise.

 

Sounds like coil whine. I heard something similar before my 980M popped about 2 weeks later

 

It happens when the dedicated gpu isn't turned on though, when looking at the desktop without games running, optimus uses the integrated card.

So what's the recommendation here??, and why is there coil whine but it's not from the power brick??

 

Like i posted in your other thread. Coil noise is pretty normal. Its not a failing component. Just coils vibraring in a frequency that is audible. Coils ways vibrate but often in a freqiency we dont hear. The frequency depends on the load.

 

That's normal? What the hell man? I never heard anything like that i my laptops, even crappy acers

 

Then you havent used a lot of high end hardware. For example geforce 970s and 980s are motorious for their coil noise. My old geforce 670 had it. And old radeon 3870 had it. Oh and almost forgot, i had a 7970 that had a lower pitched coil noise as well. And my old z77 asus board had it and still runs after 5 years.

 

GTX 8800 Ultra, GTX 980Ti, GTX 285. GTX 880M SLI, never heard a coil. Maybe that's a sound of failed/low quality components?

 

Please read up on this subject. It happens only at higher clock frequencies. Out of that list only the 980TI could have been suspectible to it more than the other cards.

It is often a combination of high clock frequency that makes the coil vibrate in a frequency that the human ear can hear. The coils ALWAYS vibrate but the frequency makes it coil noise or not. IT has nothing to do with poor components.

http://lifehacker.com/this-video-explains-what-coil-whine-is-and-how-to-avoid-1669522880
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coil_noise


To show how common it is on recent boards
980TI https://www.google.nl/search?q=coil...e=utf-8&gws_rd=cr,ssl&ei=_JCpV5yHM8j1asmcnsgE
970 gtx https://www.google.nl/search?q=coil...l&ei=_JCpV5yHM8j1asmcnsgE#q=970gtx+coil+noise
1080gtx https://www.google.nl/search?q=coil...&ei=_JCpV5yHM8j1asmcnsgE#q=1080gtx+coil+whine

Please refrain from making statement sif you dont have the knowledge to back it up.

 

Yes you are right, refrain from it if you don't have knowledge.

If you can heard a coil in a laptop card then something is clearly wrong here. Manufacturer used low quality components or something is wrong with the card itself like @Raidriar said. Same goes for PSU, lower quality ones have loud coils, more expensive doesn't.

Same for desktop GPUs, low quality non-reference cards also makes audible coil noise

 

You clearly lack the knowledge. I just gave you sources and from there tou can read further up on it.. For the 970 it was actually the non reference evga 970gtx and msi gaming 4G that had more coil noise due to the board design and thus inducing a frequency that was audible. Again coils always vibrate depending on the frequency and higher clocled cards have it more often. Those are facts. Coil noise is in fact always there just not for the human hearing since we cannot hear above 200000something hertz.

 

I stopped reading here and went back to "low quality components"

 

Come on bring your sources then.

BUt to be honest I think you should stick to programming. Hardware is definitely not your forte.

A final attempt to educate you so you might be able to post something decent

Current generation cards move more current through the inductors > thus creating a greater induced EM field in the core. a greater EM field causes the core to move with a greater amplitude due to magnetostriction.

Now read up on magnetostriction here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetostriction

HIgh quality super ferite cores from MSI on their highest end boards which are not suspectible to coil noise still have audible coil noise due to the amount of power drawn from them and frequency of the GPU. Again proves it has nothing to do with poor quality components. Just a natural phenomenon that the human ear can hear in some cases.

Older cards simply never pulled the amount of power in a frequency that induced it.

 

There are some very high performance cards like Titan when you can't supress this coil noise even with a great board design but it's definitely not 980M... That's just low... you know the rest.

 

Again you clearly didnt read. It is the combination of clock frequency, amount of power phases, type of chokes and PCB design which causes the vibration to be audible or not. Since the coils ALWAYS vibrate under load.

You can dampen it with waxing the coils for example only due to some level but not eliminate it.

 

I don't have time for this. Read what supress word means in english.

 

Awwww the easy way out.

For the topicstarter. I advice you to google coil noise, the cause and what it means. Some people might give you the wrong information causing the wrong decision regarding your warranty.

 

One thing i noticed is slower HDD loading time on some games, idk if that's relevant

 

I highly doubt it is connected. You could have received some WIndows 10 automatic updates that worsen performance. THe harddrive could be filled more thus lowering performance etc (if it is a SSD).

 

I just tried something.

My minimum and maximum processor states were set at 100%, so i lowered the minimum state to 5% and voila, the noise significantly decreased at idle, but as more load comes along the sounds becomes more frequent and is more like white noise (whooshing sound), still abnormal though, but it's not really very audible unless i get somewhat close to the laptop and the room is quiet.

 

THis is correct tha tthis happens. WHen you lower the frequency on your CPU the choke son your motherboard work in a lower powerstate as well thus lowering the resonant frequency. On mine AW i have slight coil whine also when being under aboslute full load

 

So, is this normal or should i keep my eyes open?

 

This is not normal for high end laptops. Newer Alienwares ones are often worse in quality and performance compared to the older ones. I found on the internet that this is pretty common issue with AW 17R3 and that's probably bad motherboard design or low quality components used on the motherboard. As everything is soldered to the motherboard in this model you are out of luck trying to find exact component unless you have soldering skills. Unfortunately you have to live with this noise.

 

That is perfectly normal. Like I said all electronics of this type emit coil noise, certain factors make it audible for the human hearing. This depends on the load, frequency, PCB design and component types. It became much harder the past years to avoid coil noise simply because the power draw became much higher than for example 5 years ago in combination with higher clock frequencies. If you follow my links in this thread you can read what causes it and why it is no problem.

Common bring your sources for once. you didnt bring one good source to the table in this thread and are flat out lying.

Stop mis informing users without any source.

 

The Clevo P7xxZM had the disadvantage of the Coil whine and It doesn't happen on All of those machines, I think It's a QC issue. As for me I never heard this type of noise thank god.

Here, the sources that are needed to prove this is an "ISSUE" but more or less a cosmetic type category, nonetheless. Read for yourselves.

 

Read that text carefully. They only talk about the laptop itself minus the MXM boards. The hardware that is the most prone to coil whine are the GPU due to the power used.

Again confirming it is a high power draw piece of hardware that is prone to it.

It is very common for GPU's to have audible coil whine.

 

Oh 980M gets so much power that it has coil whining issues like 250W desktop GPUs...

 

150watt gtx970s are motorious for it. Again check my links.

Its the clock frequency x vibrations x power draw from the chokes not rendering power.

 

I push 4.8 GHz/1533-8000 in bench with my BGA Killer and never heard this coil whining. And so also with my other computers I bench to the maximum limit. Even the cheap one haven't this noise. If this unwanted noise is noticeable then will the affected components be replaced. In this case the whole motherboard.

 

You are 51 right? I doubt you can still hear the most common coil noise frequencies. No offense ofcourse but it i just natural that older ears cant hear extreme high frequencies. You can google the frequency and compare it to the average hearing statistics.

And again gpus are 9 out of 10 times the culprit not your cpu.

Lastly its not the maximum load per definition. In games it occurs the most often in menus for example where the gpu is suddenly outputting 200fps. Minecraft is a notorious coil noise trigger.

Also a headset amplifies this.

Do you hear the coil whine on a normal speaker volume in this video and do you hear it loud?

 

I had that exact same noise on my previous brand new 17R3. It was annoying as all hell, you could hear it just by moving the mouse across the screen. Got a brand new replacement a few weeks later. Zero noise, ever. Worth noting that the new replacement came after they were out of stock on motherboards about 4 weeks... My guess is too many people complained about very similar issues, they had a bad batch of motherboards making this noise, (among other problems) had to pull them & release ones with a fix, which is what I believe I finally received. This is my personal theory based on my involvement with AW support.

 

I had 2 boards of one of the first batches, 1 has minor coil whine (the one I have now) under absolute full load and the other didnt. As far as I know no new board revisions have been made. I could verify this with a seller of AW motherboards and compared full resolution photos. The revision numbers are identical but also the components. It is really luck of the draw.

 

Why did you edited your post? Did you hide some bullsh*t? You had a video previously.

Coil whining is unacceptable for this class of laptop as everyone in this thread says. Just you alone tries to convince us that this is normal, it is not m8,. Sorry for destroying your wet dreams about Alienware post 2014 quality. Not to mention display ghosting, crippled GPU memory and so on.

And we both know you don't have any connections to Alienware sellers, if you did you wouldn't buy yours.

Because of your misinformation we need to correct all of this crap you produce everytime, we're really tired of it. If you are so helpful and tech-knowing guy why do you have only 16 reputation points with 1500 posts? Think about it.

 

I didnt edit any post. Except for some typo's. The video is still there.

And I ask again, give me some sources. Oh i see you cant find any cant you?

I also will throw it out in the open that you are the type of user that was sending insults to users that you do not agree with them and calling them "a faggot".

You couldn't produce any counter argument to my posts in this thread yet you have the nerves to say I spread misinformation. I dare you, produce any credible source. You and your "club" because thats pretty much what you are because you are part of a small very vocal group that just copy each others statements and even in the meantime copy untrue statements haven't brought a lot of meaningful posts to the table in this subforum yet spewing your toxicity.

So first, come with any credible source that states that coil whine is due to cheap components. I already gave you multiple sources what coil whine is, what causes it and why it is more prevalent now more than in past hardware. I also gave you links of how widespread it is and it is pretty well known as you can see in those links that manufacturers do not consider it a defect. Also users state that their hardware did NOT break down of it. It is only considered as annoying depending on how much coil whine you have.

Second I dare you to provide proof that I talked bullcrap with one of my old statements.

And no I dont have connections with Alienware, I work for an Asian multinational as a webdesigner/developer/multimedia designer.

Last but not least:
-Give us proof where Alienware gimped the GPU memory (I already gave proof in the past that the Nvidia GPU's in 2 of my AW15s performanced at exactly the same level as any other 970M & 980M machine even with MXM boards. Look it up).

-Display ghosting is an IPS display problem and almost all IPS displays have some ghosting, can range from hardly noticeable to very noticeable. Yet the screens used in the AW15 and 17 series are the same as other manufacturers. So the problems should be widespread for every brand. You can look up the model numbers yourself. Clevo's use pretty much the same IPS panels as stated by notebookcheck reviews.

You can scream loud that does not make it correct. Also reputation doesnt say much since if for example you make a post your buddies like your posts and give you reputation. All other users know you and some fellow users are just buddies that agree even though other users already came crashing down with real facts on which for example you, papusan etc never responded on and just continued the bullcrap in other threads.

Mods really should sweep this forum.


edit: and to bring more sources to the table. Here on of the most credible users on the overclock.net forum explains what coil whine is. Famous for his knowledge on PSU's and his reviews.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1094728/possible-fix-for-coil-whine

 

Regarding my hearing, It may be that I hear worse than young people, but I'm not completely deaf, LOL
I think I should hearing this unwanted noise anyway(At least if the sound is quite noticeable). If a product has repeated complaints about this phenomenon... Then is this by design.. The OEM have cheaped out and used lower quality compnents!! It is always possible to use better components if the OEM want doing that. Maybe the cost is to high for Dell. Of course this apply to more brand than only Dell( I hope you like this reply ).

How dare you drag me into the **** floods about rep, likes or throphy points!! I've only got a single rep from this forum bro↑↑↑ since I started to post in the forum. That is 5 puny points. Nor have I received a lot likes from him of all my over 4,000 likes. It's spread from a lot of forum brothers.

Ps. Have you seen that I call forum users stupid, faggot, idiots or similar ugly(insults to users that you do not agree with them and calling them ugly thing)? Rather the opposite. There's plenty I have been called from other forum users who not like what I say( You will see it if you look in the forum threads). But never said something nasty back to those who say nasty/ugly things to me. I am interested in discussion and will never ever call brothers with ugly name like, stupid, moron or faggot. I hope you understand what I say about this unwanted naming.

 

Even the highly regarded Super ferrite chokes that are made to military spec by MSI can have coil whine. Thats why I said it isnt a quality thing. Many high end videocards with proper components and shielding still have it. You cannot fully eliminate the vibrations causing coil whine. See the quote below. This is as a stated not necessarily a quality issue. You can actually google the chokes used on these boards and they are actually the same as all other reference mxm boards. Thus calling them low quality is calling your own hardware low quality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coil_noise

Thats why I ask for sources. Not a random forum post from a person that cannot prove his/her knowledge to be credible. This is why i constantly brought sources to this discussion.

And I dont mean I say you are deaf, just with age the frequency range changes from high to low. Mild coil whine is something you might not hear anymore while a 16 year old find it quite unbearable and annoying.

A thing that I and some other users noticed is that for example if you make a post critical of Alienware (which is ofcourse your good right) that for example you could expect likes standard from Mrfox etc. This is what I mean with "club"you guys are a group of oldskool Alienware fans, now not fan anymore that are very vocal but also in my opinion unfairly critical and even pulling some things out of context. I am sure you also noticed the Alienware subforum became quite toxic.

I didnt say you called other people names like faggot. I said that GodlikeRU did. After a discussion I received a PM with that dirt. Sorry if you thought I ment you, that was not my intention. We dont share our opinions but you always have been polite towards others.

 

Thanks. I hope we share the same values.
Naming people even if you disagree with what others think... Is unacceptable. Whatever you are discussing. You should have seen what someone wrote to me in PM. It's so bad that I have no words. First naming you in the threads and then thereafter says something even much worse in pm, because their ugly words are too noisy to be posted in the thread. I will not mention their names... But they should ashamed.

@woodzstack can bit about Use of quality/low quality components used on hardware as mmx graphics osv. If people hear coile whining from their new hardware... They shouldn't accept it if the noise is noticeable at a certain level. A bad advice if people say to others with such problems... They shouldn't be worried. RMA is the more appropriate advice.

 

yeah if the ferrite chokes are making a buzzing noise that's not good. There are many variations out there, and some cost twice the others though they all ideally perform the same, but the more expensive ones have proven to in the long term be more reliable too. Mind you, you'd never guess which is which by the price or just looking at them. However - the sheer volume I've gone through and the fact no RMA's for broken cards reported yet, should speak volumes for itself. Close to 5900 9X0M series sold in last 20 months. I've actually had 2 RMA's but physical damage was reported and assumed from overtightening on the GPU die and the other card had no cooling on the RAM and was OC'd for 6 months. It slowly discolored and burnt. Other RMA's I've had or taken care of were not cards from me, as many people come to me asking to help them get thier cards fized, if the depot was from NA usually we can pay for the afterwarranty support and send it into the depot, cheaper then buying a new card.

We triple test our cards going out. To be honest, we catch like 5% of them having issues, and prevent them from going out erroneously. So when we say we test them trust me, we test them. thoroughly. Otherwise we'd have the fiasco's we had years ago - where 90% of the cards you could buy everywhere online were broken/refurbs of other people trying to pawn off thier issues onto other people. If we were also in the business of selling broken cards , there would probably be a huge thread on it by now on this forum, lol.

Now, even other NA vendors who do not triple test the cards or sell cards pulled from laptops and say they are "new" - are generally still trust worthy. 5% chance for a failure or DOA is waaaay better then it used to be just a few years ago with say - DELL / Alienware laptops. This is a testament to the higher quality ion the manufacturing process used these days for maxwell and beyond.

Anyways - if you think the chokes are bad or you have a RAM issue, there are some trusty repair people in the USA too, that do a good a great job at repairs too.

 

Wow, did I miss reading what was going on ?
Sent you a ton of rep points BTW, just for lulz hahah ! (you been here ages, I recall reading your posts years ago before I even started posting. We've also like barely spoken to each other but surely know each other's posts - and your right, you;ve never really insulted anyone, though I've seen you get defensive, naturally. Don't let anyone bring you down - and usually people on these forums, don't actually intend to do that too, usually misunderstandings. Its like one of the last places on the net without trolls and stuff... THANK YOU NBR ! NEVER CHANGE PLEASE!!

 

could be from another ferite choke on the motherboard. There should be 2 or 3 at the very least.