HP ENVY 15 Gen 2 Noise Issues

Hi,
I just bought a HP ENVY 15 11xxtx series and have a few quirks that you guys might help me out with.
There is a high-pitch morse-code like sound coming from the front grills of my envy. I have gone through 3 units with the same problem and am tired of replacing it again. I just have to accept the fact that this might be a design problem. Anyone else have this annoying sound.

It is definitely not a Hard drive whirl nor is it the fans. It seems to be coming from the left CPU side. On one of the units, I did a SSD upgrade and the sound is also still there. It gets pretty obvious when i scroll down a webpage (It sounds pulsating) or do any task that either accesses the HD or is CPU intensive (Morse-code like sound) .

Thanks

 

I have gotten it from my power supply when plugged into certain outlets. Does the sound happen on battery power as well?

 

It happens both on battery power and the wall plug.
Its driving me insane. I saw a message on the gen 2 thread quite a while back which he had uploaded a mp3 clip. Thats the same exact sound. But his fix did not work for me.

 

This is going to sound odd, but might I ask how old you are? Also, when a CRT Television is on, do you hear a buzzing?

The reason some people might hear the noise while others don't may relate to the range of pitch one can hear narrows as one grows older. Younger people tend to have more capacity to hear such things. So that you've gone through three units with the issue may not indicate that you've had especially bad luck, but instead, that all units have this issue, but only some can hear it.

Just a thought...

 

What was the previous posters fix?

 

No noises from my Envy, very quiet...

 

i hear it from both the laptop and power supply when the room is completely silent... drives me nuts when i'm in the library trying to do work.

 

I can still hear CRT's buzzing even though I'm nearing 30 , and I hear nothing from my Envy 15. So it's entirely possible that he has something funny with his machine.

 

Uh oh. This doesn't bode well for myself, seeing as how I'm considering the Envy 15. I can hear the electronic buzz/whine from TVs, lights, phones, speakers, lots of electronics and I'm 33! ... Sometimes all the buzzing in my head does make me a little nutso. If I get the Envy, hopefully it doesn't add to it!

 

you can't really hear it unless the room is completely silent and you're right next to the laptop... if you have other things going on in the background then you won't hear a single thing.

 

I agree with wannaget.hai. You cant really hear it unless its silent. However my workplace is rather quiet and the sound is quite annoying.

The original poster was cmdcmvx. His attached mp3 file is at
http://foodsly.com/envy/Envy-Noise.mp3 (Hope you don't mind cmdcmvx

My sound issue is exactly like his. He claims he has fixed this issue by moving a USB device to another port. But with mine, there are no USB devices connected and the sound is still present.
It is most obvious when you are scrolling down a web intensive page. It starts pulsating.

 

I'm getting this noise too and it's very irritating. I thought it might've been the hard drive, but after reading this thread, I guess it isn't the case (the USB solution didn't work either).

Does the 1st Gen make this noise too? If not, could it possibly be the new gpu chipset or the usb 3.0 controller making the noise?

If anyone finds a solution to this problem, please post it ASAP. Thank you.

 

Just an update. Got another replacement and the noise is still there. To confirm this issue, I was in a quite place in the house and my wife heard it as she was sitting next to me and was not aware of the issue. I thought I was the crazy one Does gen 1 have the same issue?
so far we have 3 gen 2 users confirming this in this thread. any gen 1s? do you think problem can be solved with a firmware upgrade?

 

I did not have that noise, however the upper right side (where the ports are) fan had a very bad grinding noise whenever it kicked in. The fan sounded like it was shredding something. Usually after about 5 minutes of this the machine would lock up or go black.

If I turned the bios option to disable fans always on, when that fan was off the machine was almost silent. I've since sent it back for an exchange.

 

sorry to bump this thread, but... JKCT83 have you found a fix for the noise issue yet?

 

I had the same problem and it's coming from the left hand side as well. I can take fan noise, which is annoying at most. This high pitch sound gave me the headache and drive me nuts. One of the few reasons i decided to return the Envy.

 

It's coil noise, and it's there because they decided to skimp on the filtering. It's getting more and more common i see.

Undersized coils will vibrate when subject to a ripple current high enough. The switchmode power supply operates at frequencies way beyond human hearing, but when the devices are driven hard enough they produce harmonics that make their way in the audible spectrum. There is no fix apart from beefing up the motherboard yourself, which i don't think you'll be too happy to do.

 

but why though? I mean it can't be good for business because of the numbers of returns likely cause by this issue alone and then at least for me, I just thought "there is always something wrong with HP."

 

A search founds others with the issue... so I'm not insane and the high pitch sound is real. Glad to know I'm not at the "hearing things" crazy level yet.

 

I've sent my Envy in for repairs because of this issue. I clearly explained to them that it was the SSD's causing the noises and they are replacing it. I should receive it by the 19th and will let you guys know how everything goes.

 

It's a almost a 14 day turnaround? Wow.

 

Although i hear nothing from my Envy, i've had this issue with another laptop. The high pitch noise is like scratching nails on a chalkboard and it drove me crazy. As some of you mentioned, it was especially annoying when scrolling webpages. Back then i found a solution to the problem. The noise was emitted from the processor itself, a T5600 1,83ghz core 2 duo and disabling something called "C4 power state" or something like that, made the sound disappear. I haven't found this option in the bios of the Envy, but maybe there's a third party program for that?

 

Sounds like coil / choke whine. It's pretty common these days on high-end desktop graphics cards. My GTX 285 makes a screeching sound if the FPS is too high - turning on vertical sync (which limits FPS to 60) generally fixes it.

If anyone is really feeling adventurous, they could locate whatever coil(s) are causing the whining noise and try dabbing a bit of hot glue or clear nail polish. It's supposed to quiet them down. I'm not responsible if you void your warranty or damage your computer, of course.

 

I also think is the SSD noise. I returned my envy 15 due to the sound coming out my laptop.

 

No problems here.btw I have another question to ask which port is the USB 3.0 & why I can't boot if I plug hdd to USB ? (cold start)

Sorry for the stupid question . New to hp envy & USB 3.0

 

use the usb 2.0 it is actually in your e-sata you can plug into it. usb 3.0 is on the side of your e-sata port.

 

OK thank you. I have buffalo USB 3.0 backup drive it's really annoying

hope bios update gonna fix this soon

 

@bigspin:

A bios revision will not be able to fix this problem. As i understand it, you want to install Windows from your USB drive, correct?

This is not possible when using the two USB 3.0 ports, because it's simply not supported by any version of Windows yet. This is the exact same case as when sata ports first came around. You had to install a driver before the installation could continue.

Just use the eSata/USB port for the installation and you'll be fine.

 

It's not for windows install. I can't boot if I plug any USB drive (including Mouse) to 3.0 ports.

 

I use varnish usually, hot glue is too thick. It has worked on all desktop cards i've tried it on.

 

I'm getting this high pitched noise as well. Is there a guide to fixing this problem?

 

The the high pitched whine is really bothering me. Giving me a headache really. I dont think many people would actually notice it but I have pretty good hearing. It's very faint but persistently up and down depending on what im doing. The noise is still there but significantly lessened by unplugging my usb mouse.

i know the loop command in RMclock would work, but thats hardly a solution when it heats up and reduces your battery. I really wish hp provided more bios options.

Are there any other solutions? I'm a bit hesitant about actually doing it, but how would i locate the coil to apply the varnish?

EDIT: rmclock doesnt work with icore processors. Searching google there doesnt seem to be a way to fix this if the bios doesnt offer a disable c4 sleep state option.

 

Well a coil gonna be a thingy that looks like this: smd coil - C?utare Google

Cover all you can find, let it dry, and hope for the best. Hmm. C4 state you say. I bet that in C4 state the power supply to the processor is entering pulse skipping mode because the load is very low.

Pulse skipping is usually what causes coil noise (because in effect pulse skipping results in irregular pulses thus varying frequency), i know because i've designed and built a power supply that uses pulse skipping as method of regulation. If the switching frequency is lower than 60-70kHz it'll whine when it's in skipping mode. But usually CPU power supplies operate at several hundreds of kHz, so they shouldn't whine. Or at least if the parts were of proper quality.

 

Could that cause the coil to overheat? If the varnish gets in anywhere it shouldnt, could it cause serious damage? or is varnish/glue pretty harmless to circuitry?

 

Varnish is even used as an insulator for very thin wires, so it certainly will not cause electrical damage. I don't think the coils will overheat either, once the varnish dries it forms a very thin layer which heat easily gets thru.