CPU Whine on M1330

As a M1330 owner, I'm starting to become more and more conscious of the cpu whine which didn't matter to me much before. I started working in a quiet environment late at night and when I do stuff like playing music (loaded through my desktop through a wireless network) it started making a lot of noise. It was a level where I couldn't help but notice it no matter how hard I tried to avoid its presence.

I'm going to dedicate this thread into discussing on the possible ways to solve this issue. I've been to the bios setup but I haven't noticed anything about C4 Processor state (maybe they call it something else?) can someone please gimme some pointers?

 

According to Flamenko, there's nothing you can do about it, but to replace the computer and pray the new one won't have the problem.

 

wow.. serious? this means I have to call Dell tech support ASAP and ask them to send me a new system and like install EVERYTHING again?

But then... A lot of people are reporting that their m1330 also has the cpu whine... I'm just wondering if it's worth all the hassle and if replacing the system will fix the issue or if this is just a general problem that I have to learn to accept. I've used an old Leveno laptop before and I couldn't notice the cpu whine =/

 

i don't really know. Flamenko will tell you his tearful story of how he was trying to fix cpu whine on 1210 which culminated with replacing 1210 with 1330. Unfortunately, 1330, it appears, is plagued with the same issue. Of course, it's entirely possible to get one without the whine. Also, there was a post here somewhere linking a solution which involves downloading some program which disable power-saving mode or something which eliminates the whine.

 

Well Flamenko is getting his M1330 to as a free replacement for his M1210 that had this same problem.

So he has not found a solution yet, because he is still waiting for his M1330 which has the same problem.

 

wow...i returned my m1210 because of this noise...then i place an order for the m1330 in hopes that this whine is gone in the new santa rosa chipset...very disappointing to hear.

 

Is the sound the same as this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErkhU2qK-fM&NR=1

 

yes it is exactly that noise

 

CodeMonkeyX: I've found the RMclock thread, but I haven't found a way to actually get rid of the noise completely still... except it's not AS annoying as before.

 

ok so I was researching into the solution for this and found that it's just Core2Duo's problem so there is nothing much we or any manufacture can do. One guy on another forum claims it's one of the microscopic components of the processor that oscillates at a frequency audible to our ears.

The main source to the problem is the C4 state as many posts have already confirmed. So I'm going to try to go into bios right now to see if I can disable this.

Disadvantages of doing this:
1) Reduction of bat life (15 - 30 mins)
2) cpu wears down faster
3) overal system temperature becomes much hotter
4) fans tend to turn on more often and maybe become audible

 

ok... I'm almost able to reduce the noise to a complete silence (other than HDD noise). I've even set HDD to Acoustic mode just to make sure I didn't make a mistake.

What I noticed about the characteristic of the Santa Rosa processor (on M1330) is no matter what you do to the bios it's still going to whine a tiny bit. Here's what I did:

1) Restart comp from vista
2) press F2 when the Dell screen loads (wait for the words "Press F12 or F2 for boot menu" to appear before pressing F2)
3) go to performance tab push the right key (expand the tree) make the follow adjustments

Intel Dynamic Acceleration : off
Intel Speed Step: Off
Hard Drive Acoustic : silent (optional)

you may still notice the whine is there but it's been reduced by half and that's pretty much as quiet as M1330 can get bios tweaking.

 

This isnt encouraging. I can only hope I guess.

I certainly cant get an HP now...same same as this:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=85477&highlight=pavilion+whine

Sony, Samsung or Gateway??? Nope

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=142556&highlight=pavilion+whine

Toshiba or any manufacturer??? Nope

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=103747&highlight=pavilion+whine

Lenovo/IBM?? Nope

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=129007&highlight=high+pitched

Not good news. Its a duck shoot where we can only hope I guess.

 

my dell from about 4 years ago (inspiron 500m i believe) has that EXACT sound from the youtube video. I guess this is the "whine" everyone is describing. That laptop definitely does not have a Core2Duo being that it is 4 years old. However, if you plug something into the USB ports, the sound will stop.

Another annoying thing from that old dell is that when its powered off or hibernated and plugged in to charge, there is this high pitched constant whine sound (different from the youtube video since it is constant and much higher pitched). As soon as you unplug it, it stops.

Right now I have a sony vaio that has absolutely no processor noise (about 2 years old)

My m1330 is supposed to arrive in about a month...if it has noise problems I will just flip out.

 

yea... it's not very helpful... but I'm thinking now.. what if... what if the problem isn't the processor but the hard drive? Besides the processor having parts inside that oscillates at an audible level, the hard drive becomes the second thing that can cause this whine. What if it was that disk inside the hard drive doing it? In this case, there isn't much we can do but get a SSD drive which majority of us couldn't afford. Does anyone have a M1330 with SSD drive to confirm this?

My 3rd suspecion (which i will have to further investigate on) is the possibility of interference with wireless products (which CodeMonkeyX mentioned when he spoke with the Dell Rep). I'm going to do a test running an intensive app/game (which I have yet to install) to run on my m1330 and then let it power down in a cool state and see if there's any weird whine coming from it.

I'm now trying to re-enable all those dynamic and speed step features but turning off just bluetooth and no it's not working.

What's very contradicting with the posts made before is that the CPU whine is actually more noticeable when it is under load than idle.

 

Guess all you want Murdoc. The answer is something noone wants to believe.

Ive lived wit this prob for months and months now. Ive spent hours on the phone with Dell, Ive spent hours with a Tech at my house and Ive spent hours myself replacing parts to try and figure it out.

3 motherboards, 3 CPUs, 3 hard drives, 2 dvds, 2 batteries and yes ram...they all work fine until the batch is mixed together in this system (in my case)

Dell has discovered one thing..If you take the parts out they work fine elsewhere.

The noise comes from the CPU/heatsink specifically.

Its been around since 95 in just about every brand; its like a ghost and shows up in certain systems when it wants.

Noone including Mac knows what causes it; they just hope it doesnt come out with a new system.

I havespent so much time with their L2/L3 repair trying to figure this out its ridiculous...

No answer in sight except hope that a new system is not subject to this or, in few cases it has worked itself out.

 

Just found this....

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=151467

Post if it helps and rep me if i did good...Im close to the toaster oven prize I think.

 

Same here, when I play with RMclock I can alter the sound.

If I use the HLT command then the sound goes away completly. If I adjust the power settings the sound gets quieter but still there.

I found that to follow the guild posted you have to download the RC2 version of RMClock. And when I enter the settings they say my system locks up, have to reboot.

AMD?

You are loosing a lot of performance and cooling/battery life doing that though. Also when I tried it made little difference.

 

AMD nope....Found a few of them as well...

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/65692/

 

Yeah my m1330 has the whine too I just noticed, it is freaking annoying. I will try the RMclock thing

 

Don't forget to vote, see my sig.

If the idea gets like 20,000 points it might get fixed.

 

Whew, I must have lucked out with my m1330...

Perfect quality, no dead-pixels, and no sound.

I have a pretty loaded machine too, with the 200 GB 7200 rpm... I thought that the 7200 rpm drive would MAYBE have a high-pitched whine... however, this computer is whisper quiet, I mean, completely silent... and I'm anal about sound, I couldn't tolerate a loud laptop...

I watched that youtube video, and there is no way I'd keep my laptop making that SCREEEEEEECH!

I wonder what the percentage of computers with this prob is?

 

What processor did you get? If they come out to fix it I might request they they bring a different type of CPU to try. If it is silent I will pay the upgrade cost.

 

I voted. I hope they fix it!!!!!!!!! it's not very audible if you face straight at the laptop, but from the side it is really piercing. is this what you guys experience too?

 

Monkey, u keep asking what cpu others have, what about urs? what cpu can potentially ahve the whine issue?

 

I got the low end 1.5Ghz. Thats why I am trying to see if they all do it or just specific speeds. Maybe specific motherboards

 

motherboards are all the same, I would guess. No one knows for sure what actually causes this. You might wanna try getting a replacement and see how it works out for you.

 

CodeMonkey...can I offer some advice?

Do you have NBD or CCare? Call and have them at least document it. Let it go for a few weeks or so and see if it works itself out. It has in some...

I would then call again and suggest a motherboard/CPU change with a poss upgrade.

I have no doubt you have read all my posts relating to this; its very frustrating. I now have 3 systems that Im wondering if will suffer the same..

I know the noise intimately as i listen to it each time I type on this machine.

I too had hoped Santa Rosa woud have helped.

PS I would want to be one of the first documented then in the middle of the pack.

 

flamenko, you still haven't got your m1330??? Damn, i remember you got a sick deal on that 50% coupon offer (i used the 15% offer)...

Anyways, i have a 2.0Ghz 7300 processor CodemonkeyX

 

I know what you are saying, and that is what I am planning on doing. See if I can get a replacement CPU and see if that helps. Maybe request they bring a 2Ghz chip with them to test aswell. If that does not work, and I am getting close to my 30 day return cut off I might just send it back, I do not want to go through what you have for several months.

Also, I am wondering if I will get used to it or not. Because I read your posts before I bought the machine I was alert to the problem and listening intently for it. I wonder if I had never known about it if I would have noticed it at all.

After a week or two I will decide.

 

Remember you snobro....

Did you get your system yet? Yes, I got the 1/2 off then many concessions after that. If you remember, I also had a replacement system which was upgraded.

Sooner or later.

 

What would be helpful is a poll that asks people that hear the whine in their system what CPU model they have (i.e.: T5250, T7100, T7300, T7500, etc.). Then we could see if any specific CPU is more prone to the problem than others.

 

It's really not particular cpu-related. It's a common problem with hard-to-track causes.

 

I'm contacting Canadian dell tech support right now as I type this post.. I'm going to take flamenko's advice and report this problem.

 

I hear it with my 1.8 1330XPS and my belltones are not even it

 

CodeMonkey - I have the 2.0Ghz model and my M1330 has the CPU whine. It's not particularly bad, but it's definitely there.

 

Its too bad the author couldnt add a poll to this thread. I would like to know he ratio of people experiencing this...

Just praying its not there with my SSD.

 

Well I got off the phone with a dell tech support. I was on a wireless home phone which created interference with my wireless card and the problem was the pitch is not loud enough and way out of range for the tech to hear it over the phone. I was going to suggest sending him the youtube link to look at it but he said the company has a firewall which would block external access. He claims that he hasn't heard of any high pitched problems relating to CPU (so I guess not many people are aware of it). He says this could be coming from the CPU fan (which in that case, there's nothing much we can do). He guided me in doing a hard drive diagnostics and the overall system appeared quieter (the way it should) when they switched off my hard drive temporarily. Which makes me think whether I'm too sensitive or not.. but it really does sound like the pitch that was posted on youtube. He's clueless about it and so he would suggest either I just accept it or just return the system before my 30 day guarantee period expires.

PS: I have 7300 2.0GHZ Core2Duo

 

Did you contact XPS support? Because that sounds lame.

The XPS support person I chatted with never suggested I just live with it or return it, and if they did I would have probably just asked for returns right there and then.

Sometimes I wonder if I am just being too picky, but you know I dropped 2G's on this thing. I would like it to work how it should, and it should not have a whining sound coming out of it.

Also, if it were the fan it would be a more constant whine. It would not be this kind of up down pitch, on off, etc. More of an analog whine you could say.

 

Murdoc did you call 866-398-8977 for XPS Support?

They are very different.

 

so is it just with Core 2 Duo processors..cause i've hardly heard about it happening with an AMD

 

No its not just Core2Duo, it includes all processors...posted earlier in this thread.

 

i ordered my m1330 over the phone with an xps rep. and when i asked him about this whine problem he said there was no documented problem with this. only thing documented was the loud slot loading optical drive. was he lying? seems like they HAVE to know about this problem

 

Of course there is no documented problem, the system hasnt been rleased yet. Would anyone believe Dell would knowingly release a product with a problem.

This specific problem is documented by every notebook manufacturer for several years now. I truly dont believe they know that it will occur until the consumer gets the system.

Dell has even accounted for a certain amount of allowable squeal in their information briefs...

This is the same sound in 2003 from Dell...

http://www.dellcommunity.com/suppor..._general&message.id=28653&c=ca&l=en&cs=&s=gen

 

Well I called regular tech support and Inspiron section transferred me to XPS support. They also gave me the number that you've posted there so yes I was talking to an XPS support. His name is Mina btw.

 

Earlier on in my dealing with this problem with my M1210, they tried to sell me on this article:

http://support.dell.com/support/top...d=C52692E4CE9511DBB9679B7BDD97D5D3&l=en&s=gen

If you type in 'high pitch squeal' into Dell.ca (or .com Im sure) your mouth will drop at the number of forums attributed to this.

 

well.. I told him it sounded like a mores though he kept trying to hear that pitch through the phone and said "I heard no sound so prolly M1330 is like that". He says "if I can't hear it then it should be really quiet so there's really nothing to worry about." And yes, it seems like Dell XPS support is not aware of this cpu whine issue at all. When I first spoke to my tech support he was like "what? Cpu whine?" I had to tell him that it was a high pitch noise coming from the cpu itself before he understood what I was talking about :laugh:

 

i've heard of hardly anything like this on the AMD processors...

 

I really cant believe you spoke to XPS Support. In all my conversations with them, I have never once encountered that.

Not doubting you but i would suggest you call XPS support yourself to be sure...

And re: AMD Processors....your clever word 'hardly' was noted. On one of my above posts I account and link a AMD situation.

Dell Word of the Day: Piezoelectricity

 

Well the thing is.. the transfer broke lol.. I got rejected and I had to dial the tech support number myself. Sure enough, that was the response.

When after dialing a number I heard a voice saying "Welcome to Dell XPS tech spport line..." so I'm pretty sure it's the real XPS support line. Besides if this guy isn't responsible for XPS problems, he wouldn't even bother helping me (like that inspiron tech support lol)

 

I've spoken to 3 XPS tech support guys. One of them had no clue, he even tried to argue at some point that I've got LED screen with LED of green/red/blue color! After I corrected him, he acknowledged the error. Of course, he had no idea when I mentioned CPU whine. Second guy didn't give a flying f**k about anything and just told me to return the system and re-order it. Third guy turned out to be the most knowledgeable and helpful. He didn't blink an eye when I mentioned the CPU whine, and didn't ask for any explanations or anything, so I figured he knows about this issue in general. After I laid out all the issues before him, he suggested a replacement (via customer care)

The bottomline is that among XPS techs there are jerks, stupid guys and really nice and helpful ppl. I guess it was my luck that I ran into one of each type :laugh: