High Pitch (Whine) Noise Issue - Dell to fix by BIOS update

@Brandmiller
What do you mean by "card"? PCMIA Express card or USB adapter? Or an inside card?

i had the fan changed in my vostro1500, now I've got an extra noise I didn't have before. It,s a vibrating, humming, high pitched kind of noise.
It makes me think maybe the interference on thz headphones and other high pitched noises noises are mainly produced by the fans...

 

It's a little 1" square or so piece that is what has the two holes in it that are on the side of your laptop and your mic and headphones plug into - that part isn't actually part of the mainboard and it connects with a wire to it.

I think there are a lot of issues here..

My fan makes a lot of noise now as to where it never made any at all except for when it occasionally came on - not a big deal though, it is just moving air noise.

 

It saves THEM money to just send you the part, they have done that several times for several machines for me no problem.

 

To fix this problem, I read on the net you can change the usb power settings to "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"
Which I have done, and it has worked for me.
My question is, what does this actually do?

 

Hey Guys,

I got my Vostro 1500 about a month and a half back. The screen in OK, the headphone whine is there. And I get that high-pitch squeal once in a while too. This noise/squeal has a quite interesting pattern. The squeal is more frequent if -
1. The Lappy is on batteries;
2. NO USB device is connected;
If I connect a USB mouse with the system, I don't get these squeals for like 'all the time'!!

Maybe you guys can try this and post the results...I think that a USB device keeps the processor from entering C4...just my two $$....

 

I've got news for you vostro fans.
I didn't have a noise issue untill I had to have my fan changed by dell.
The new fan sometimes makes whining, moaning, squeels sounds and it bothers me.
It only makes noises when the vostro is idle i.e. not doing much!! When the notebook is hot and the fan is at a high rpm it doesn't make the disturbing sounds, only the quiet sound of gushing air!!!
I've reclaimed and they're sending me a new fan soon.

AND the fan is on the left next to the audio plugs, so I think our noise problems are not from CPU, motherboard or bios. It's very straight forward interference and sound from the cooling fan

 

i tried rmclock and dled the AO3 bios , it doesnt work... is there other solutions or an updated bios? i have seen ppl here talking about AO6 but i dont know where to get them...

edit : whats the latest bios currently available for 1520?

i think the noise is much more louder/ disturbing when i load stuff or run programs, when i watch movies ( not doing much ), its not much of an annoyance.

 

Hmmm sounds interesting...Actually the sound which I am referring to seems like a screeching sound coming from the bottom-left side on the machine. I thought at first that the hard disk was dying, but this only happens once in about 2-3 days and that too only on batteries...Lets see how your new fan fares...pls do post back here the results!

 

Good and bad news.
First the bad, I got the 3rd fan yesterday and replaced the 2nd one. It's exactly the same and makes the same noise and interference as the one before it. I can only guess they came out of the same box from the same batch. The 1st one I had didn't make any of these noises.
And the good;
the noise and interference so often complained about is definitely from the cooling fan, not the CPU (!!), motherboard or bios.
If there is a better bioses availabable to take more control of the fan speeds and voltages and thus reduce noise and intereferences is a question only dell can solve...

or maybe higher quality fans, not the cheap $2 chinese fan they're using...

 

The CPU high pitch whine is a different issue to the interference with the headphone jack. Brandon (post #150) fixed his headphone interference when dell sent him a replacement for the headphone/microphone jack.

There have been cases when the CPU high pitch whine disappear or alot less noticeable when certain hardware has changed, such as bluetooth card, wireless card, and fans like in your case.

Personally I thought it was the CPU fan that caused the noise at first. So I ran the fan test with dell diagnostic, at high and low speed and I didn't hear a thing.

I tried alot of scenarios and I have pretty much pinpointed when the whine starts. For me the noise stops when the computer is under constant load such as running dreamscene and turning on the LED strobing effects (I have a M1710), regardless of fan speed.

btw this CPU whine problem has been reported on other brands as well like Apple and HP with intel core duo / core 2 duo processors, I seriously doubt they would be using the same cheap $2 chinese fan.

 

I can't accept that a siliconchip can whine, sorry
Transformers, Elcos etc... sure, but a CPU no-way!!!
It's definitely from the fan, I know because I've tried 3 so far and I'm going to keep getting them sent to me untill I get a quiet one...

 

Its not the fan. Its a combination of many parts that reset the way the electrical load ever so slightly to create the sound through a combination of the CPU/heatsink and mobo. The new mobo A04 fixes the problem and is addressed on another thread.

In working with Dell last year when I had the prob on my m1210, one of the first things we recognized that any slight change in electrical properties could create or eliminate the problem. We discovered this while replacing pieces, one at a time and installing them in an identical system. They worked fine and without the whine.

The whine sounds like morse code. You can take all the components out and replace them and the parts you remove will work fine in other machines.

As for your fan being replaced 3 times...I had similar with HD/mobo/DVD and know of at least 2 others that had the same with the new m1330 LED/LCD.

Find my other thread and it discusses the new mobo release that solves this.

 

Dear Flamenko, intermittent high screech noise is being emitted from
my new M1330. thought originally I had eluded this problem w/my replacement M1330.

If u were in my shoes--would u send it back and ask for another replacement
when their fix is complete? There's no way I could (in my present stat of mine) begin to understand the nuts and bolts of this pc.
Many thanks! Mt9

 

You can call and ask for the mobo replacement specific to that revision or you can call and ask for a replacement. Its your choice. The good part is that you get to keep yours until the new one arrives and then decide which is best. One has to go back though

 

hi flamenko

I received my new replacement today how do I know what notherboard revision I got, the bios says A06

 

I believe if you remove the ram cover and two ram chips, it is labelled below. Im not positive but recall seeing this elsewhere.

 

Hi All

As I Following the topics about whining here & do all the solutions here & update my bios many times and finally have no luck. rm clock just make the noise lower but not make it completly off ! the power saver usb is not make any change .. but yesterday I just make something special for myself.. The noise completely gone and the laptop is work like the day when I bought it...

I noticed that when i use it`s built in webcam logitech the noise gone at all .. I rollback it`s driver but the noise still there,so I install it again.then I roll back it`s USB built in microphone and finally I got rid of the damn Cpu Whining . now in system properties I have had the generic usb audio device .I had the xps 1210m With t7200 cpu .. and windows vista home ..

now I just lose my mic for the sake of whining .. that`s great

so it`s not bad to try it ..

 

Don't know if this has been mentioned already, but the bios update will most likely just prevent the cpu from entering one of it's power modes which is responsible for making the noise. Same thing as the RMclock fix.

 

so whats this about changing a perfectly good and fine motherboard to apparently stop the fan noises, and several aother smaller but still disturbing noises?
My problem is the fan, I know because my first one didn't make any disturbing noises but the last two, obviously from the same batch, whine in the middle /second power position...

 

The whine from the inspirons isn't caused by the fans, but the CPU. And not all are effected by it.

 

oh please, don't say it... a whinig CPU Oh come on, since when do CPU's whine There are no moving, vibrating parts...
Tell me which part of the cpu is whining?

The whing is from the fan and other whistling, crackling noises from the HDD and maybe, just maybe a very very little noise from some of the larger electronic components on the motherboard (transformers, elcos...)

 

Well, as you apparently don't know, a CPU contains a lot of (millions) of transistors, operating at frequencies well above the audible spectrum (22KHz). If their operating frequencies where brought down into that operating range, it would probably be audible. Some people (myself included) are for instance able to hear a whiny noise from some cellphone chargers because the transistor(s) in them are operated at a too low frequency (probably a little over 22 KHz). Now i'm not saying that this is necessarily the problem with the inspirons, because I remember reading somewhere that it was caused by some capacitors (which also can be VERY audible), but more an answer to you inquiry about what parts of a CPU are audible.

 

zagnut has answered this in the post above mine, but I just want to say....dont post about stuff you clearly dont have a clue about!

First read up on it, THEN put your point across!

You've posted this exact thing in at least 2 other threads! And you say you have had 3 fans, but they all whine....well the reason you have the whine after going through 3 fans is cos it comes from the CPU!!

The new A04 mobo fixes the issue...presumably by not letting the CPU use the electrical frequency range that causes the whine...but thats another story.

 

You really can't talk unless you have the issue. It's supposed to be something with the voltage being supplied to the processor or whatever, but it's definitely the CPU.

 

well, I've never heard of or seen a noisy CPU. Not a 486er, Pentium or AMD...

My noise problem and I think most of the vostro laptop noises and in headphones thru electrical interferences are from the fan....

The fan has three phases of operation and due to poor quality or maybe wrong electric current, actually whines and moans quite loudly in the middle setting. Much more so than in the first quiet or the third full speed modus...

The loud fan could be attributed to a bad batch from the production line.

My first fan was quiet (was replaced due to an overheating problem with BSOD every ten minutes!!).

The other two loud ones came from the same depot and most probably out of the same box! Hence a bad batch theory...

 

DUDE i have whine noise and it is not from the damn fan . It might or might not be from the cpu but it is not the fan.!!!!!! This is a wide spread problem

 

aha? you've got a whining Asus S96S...? I thought this was a purely dell problem...

 

You're talking about two different things. Earphone noise has nothing to do with CPU whine. My CPU whine is noticeable, from a distance, and I hear nothing out of the ordinary from the earphones.

Also, it's not necessarily limited to Dells. It's an industrywide issue.

 

If your 1st fan was quiet, and it still spun up to the highest RPM when trying to cool, then WHY did you have it replaced!

If the fan still spins (works) and its overheating, its down to poor fitting of the heatsink, or not enough thermal paste, or poor thermal paste! I would have just asked them to refit the heatsink, and add a dolop of arctic silver 5 in the process.

No point in changing a fan if it still spins up. And if it didn't spin up, then you cant say it was a quiet fan...cos it never moved, so of course it was quiet!

 

I too have this high pitch cpu whine noise you guys are all talking about.
It seems to have gone away with NHC putting the cpu setting off dynamic although it is a pain when running on battery.

I also get a static whine when i put the system into Standby. The whine is in volume to the light blinking.
Does anybody else's do that??
I also get headphone static/cpu noise. Its annoying.
When will they fix these problems?

 

Using vista and setting the option do not allow vista to power off bluetooth, the noise disappear.Using XP the os doesnt give the power option.Anybody knows how to overcome this? maybe a new driver?dell 1520 bluetooth 355.

 

I just had my motherboard replaced twice...Both with the a04 model and the squeal still exist. They also sent me out a new charger, but that did not help either. I showed the noise to to different techs and they both confirmed that it was abnormal.

 

Don't dismiss what other's are saying when you clearly have NO idea about what you are talking about and have done Zero research...

 

I did it for the second time on another dell laptop.. & I`m killing the Noise ...

so why didn`t try this one ?

 

I just have changed my motherboard back (after they tried to get rid off the whine by changing the mainboard without success) and the headphone/microphone jack with the cable to the mainboard was changed as well. And guess what? The whine is gone. No whining over headphones or speakers connected to the 3,5" audio jack.

 

Has anyone else got this to work successfully?

 

Where can I find USB built in microphone? What's the name of that thing in Device Manager?

I had Win XP and Insprion 1520.

 

I had Insprion 1520 and I have whine sound coming from bottom left corner, near touchpad. There are HDD, Express Card slot and modem above it.

Another idea: may be that sound comes from modem or modem build in speaker?
May be we should try to remove modem from system?

 

I'd also like to know what the name of the device is in Device Manager for rolling back / disabling the USB microphone driver you mention. Regarding Max128's comments and some others on the exact location/source of this sound, I'd like to mention that my laptop has two sources of high-pitch whining.

One is definitely coming from the CPU, high-pitch and annoying but only really audible if it's really quiet (which is still inexcusable for a laptop this price).

The other is slightly lower pitch, but louder, coming from more of the front of the laptop. It's position is very, very odd though: it appears to be coming from directly below where my right hand rests while typing, which as far as I know isn't above the hard drive or really anything. With my hand over that space I can't hear it, but move my hand to the left side of the keyboard or away from the computer completely and it returns.

I may try rolling back the driver, but in all honesty with this and a few other problems I've encountered I'm likely to just return the entire thing and get a non-dell.

 

elderwynd
Also I had HP 7400nx notebook and whine sound there too.
Comes from directly center of keyboard.
So I dont think that notebook replacement give result.

 

I got my motherboard changed some time ago and the whine disappeared. Service man told me that the whine could be caused by a bad junction or even a loose screw (indeed, there are many part attached with screws even in the mb). These junctions or screws could theoretically start resonating. For me that sounds reasonable.

 

Then perhaps the children that Dell has building their systems in Malaysia need to be sent back to Screwing 101.

 

trying what the guy said in the earlier post, with Vista home premium i went to control panel-->hardware management--->imaging devices---> laptop integrated webcam then i rolledback'ed the drivers, it has been whineless for about 5-10 minutes now, when it was just whining, let me know if this works for other people!

 

nope started again...ugh

 

Sorry if this is stated somewhere else in this thread already - I couldn't find it.

The bluetooth or webcam 'fix' is actually the same as using RMClock. By preventing the usb device from suspending, you prevent the CPU from entering C4 and so you don't get the noise. This is at the root of the infamous "run photobooth" 'fix' for macs.

 

I was looking around on the Dell XPS forums and found another 'fix' for this problem. The official stand on the sound is what has been already said here: it is the CPU conserving power. They suggest turning on Bluetooth, but that did nothing for me.

A motherboard fix seems that it would only prevent this down-clocked CPU state from being engaged, and it seems silly to me to give my processor meaningless tasks when it could do something useful (not to mention I'd rather have a software fix that I can uninstall later than a more permanent hardware fix). Thankfully another poster on the forum had the same idea, and provided this link: Protein Folding from Stanford. It's a distributed computing app that not only prevents my computer from entering that too-low power state but also may help cure cancer!

I just installed it and set it to use the lowest possible CPU time, and the whine went away! Does anyone else know of other distributed computing applications for different causes?

 

That is a good idea elderwynd. You can search the net for BOINC client, and maybe subscribe to Seti@home and tens of other distributed applications...

EDIT: You can go here too

 

Just RollBack The integrated Mic ... !! That`s All.. It Works For Me ! About 4 Months ..... My Windows Is Vista Home Too

 

Hi, all.

Just wanted to drop a note in and let everyone know we are working on this issue. There are a lot of variables to chase down, but we have teams working this problem.

It would help the engineers if we could get a handle on motherboard ship date ranges by platform. We can determine when your motherboard was shipped by the board's PPID number. For most systems, the PPID can be found under the system RAM near the DIMM slots. You may have to remove one or both of the memory modules to see the PPID. If you feel like it, please post your PPID numbers here, or on the DCF thread we have going on it here:
http://www.dellcommunity.com/suppor...p_general&message.id=262456&jump=true#M262456

 

Haha, almost a year later (09-17-2007) from the start of this thread...