Work-Around For High Pitch Noise on NX8220

This is just an FYI for any user of the NX8220 & possibly the NC8200 series (similar unit). If anyone is getting a high pitch whine/squeeling noise coming from the upper left corner of the notebook a quick work-around is to disable/uncheck "Allow The Computer to turn Off This Device to Save Power" for the last USB Root Hub in Device Manager.

This whining/squeeling noise seems to be a re-occuring problem with Pentium M based notebooks. Although HP was aware of this issue with their NX7000, N610/620 series, they didn't seem to fix it in these new units.

This problem only showed up when running with the Always On Power Management setting option, but my NX8220 seemed to produce the exact same noise on the Laptop/Notebook setting. It can only be heard while working in a quiet environment.

Let me know if there are others that have this same noise or if I'm just crazy and hearing things. [ ]

Thanks,
-Vb-

 

Hi Mate,

I am in the UK, with an NX8220, and have had the exact same problem as you with this high-pitch noise, which has been driving me crazy.

I am fed up of the noise from the Fujitsu hard-drive in the unit too, which has a high-frequency pitch coming from it!

I have seen another post of yours on this forum, which seems to suggest that you are having further noise problems with your unit? Did this fix work for you in the end, or are there further problems (noise) that you are having with your unit?

I have disabled power management on all hubs, and the problem has gone. I will now only disable it on the last hub as you say, and see what happens. My battery life has shortened approx. 45 mins less, to around 4 hours since I changed all hubs.

Cheers,

Rob (email: [email protected])



Rob Jones
HP NX8220 (UK)

 

Hi,

UPDATE - High Pitch Noise on NX8220

Make sure that the USB Root Hub with which you disable Power Management, is the one which is associated to the Bluetooth Module (you can check this by clicking on the "Power" tab for that specific USB Root Hub via Control Panel).

Weird problem, which is connected to the power saving or sleep feature of the Bluetooth module!?

Regards,

Rob

Rob Jones
HP NX8220 (UK)

 

Hey Bonkers,

That's funny that you mentioned the Fujitsu HDD, I have the exact same drive and it looks like it's doing the exact same thing...high pitched noise. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from (right side of the unit). I thought maybe it was the USB ports since most of the noise on the notebooks was fixed by disabling the Power Management for the USB Hubs (tried all combinations). Well, it took me a while to finally figure out it was the HDD that was making the noise...go figure. [ ]

Well, I still kinda have this problem. It's a bit weird, the problem seems to flip back & forth (having & not having the noise). After I enabled Bluetooth in the BIOS & Windows, the sound seems to be gone, but that kills battery power. So the noise does seem to be linked with the Bluetooth module being powered or not.

At this point, I'm gonna send my unit back and get a replacement, just incase the unit itself was the problem. Just hope the new unit works properly and is new!

Getting over 4hrs of battery life is pretty damned good! I recently ran some tests on my unit and it looks like 3.5hrs was the limit. I've reloaded the OS from scratch and installed only the drivers needed to make eliminate the ! in Device Manager. So far, things are going well, but I'll report back with any news.

-Vb-

 

Hi mate,

Just to let you know (although this may not be the case for you!) that I have had a new replacement nx8220, and it has exactly the same noise problem re: bluetooth module.

Also, the replacement's power button was intermittent in operation - would work sometimes, needed a very firm press right in the middle of the button to switch the laptop on/ off. Also, the hard disk in the replacement was a Hitachi Travelstar, which made a very annoying ticking/ clicking noise (couldn't get rid of it at all, via drive tools etc.) but no high-pitch noise - I prefer the Fujitsu drive against this one though - the clicking was really pissing me off.

If I (or HP) can get the bluetooth noise problem sorted, then I will replace the hard-drive later-on with something else which will hopefully be quiter...

Of note, I did a search on HP's website regarding "high-pitch noise" on notebooks, and these is a support entry for this dated 05-27-2005, and mentions to call HP support. I will call them on Tuesday - to see if they have a fix for this problem.

Let me know if you find out something more from your end.

Regards,

Rob


Rob Jones
HP NX8220 (UK)

 

UPDATE
------

I will be contacting HP UK Support ASAP, to follow this up.

I had an online "live support" call from HP this morning, where I was told:

---------------------------------------------
Mon, May 30, 2005 8:15 AM] -- Nandini Murugesan
I would like to inform you that the high pitch noise is common with the EVO N 610 C notebook. And now the issue is with the NX 8220 notebook.
[ Mon, May 30, 2005 8:16 AM] -- Nandini Murugesan
This issue has been identified as a DC/DC power board capacitor vibrating, which needs to be replaced.
---------------------------------------------

I will let you know how I get on!

Cheers,

Rob

Rob Jones
HP NX8220 (UK)

 

I've got a Dell Latitude D610 with the same problem: high pitched noise when running on full CPU speed with Bluetooth deactivated. So it is not just HP laptops that has this problem.

Thanks a lot for the tip about Bluetooth. I was getting more and more annoyed by the noise and I am happy to have found a way of getting rid of the noise.

We have a lot of HP laptops at work (nc4010, nc6000, nc8000). I will have a look at them to see if they also are affected by the "bluetooth noise".

 

Orjan,

The Bluetooth work-around for the nx8220 may not fix the issues with the nc4010, nc6000 or nc8000 notebooks. Their designs are different and therefore may also differ in the actual cause of the problem. You can give it a try and see if it helps. The only work-around for these units may be the USB Root Hub settings in Device Manager. Change the Power Management settings there for each one and it should get rid of the sound.

This noise seems to be related to the way Pentium M notebooks are designed in general. Users have reported this problem with Toshiba & Acer notebooks as well. With all these reports, wouldn't you think someone would figure out what the problem is and design it without the noise?

-Vb-

 

Hi to everyone,

it's my first post in this 3d since I reach this forum looking information about the problem you are discussing.

I have the NX8220 from a couple of day and I propably have the same problem you have. I say probably because my english it's not so good and I'm not sure if the high pitch noise in the almost continous access to the HD (a blink of the hd led activity every second on average).
Unluckly I have a basic versione of the nx8220 with a 1.6Ghz and without bluetooth and the work around you suggest (disable the power managemant of the USB root hub) doesn't work even if I disable all 4 the hubs.

I hope HP will provvide a bios or some kind of patch to fix this annoing problem.

Bye!

 

WLK,

This is a very good point. It would be a bit difficult to enable the Bluetooth module if the unit doesn't come with one. But the problem you're having, are you sure it's the same noise or is it something else? Yours could just be the Fujitsu HDD used in your system. Both me and Bonkersrob have found that the Fujitsu drives also cause a high pitched noise, but it's on the right side of the unit. There's no fix for this unless you get a different brand drive.

Back to the high-pitched noise due to the Bluetooth module. Have you tried the other methods, like plugging in a USB memory Key or HDD? Is the high-pitched noise for you happening on the left side of the notebook? Does it happen on battery or AC or both? Have you tried chnaging the power management settings to Notebook/Laptop?

-Vb-

 

Hi,

the noise in my laptop come from the bottom left corner, I think between the keyboard and the activity leds.
Change the power management setup didn't affect the continuos blink off the hdd activity led and the noise that it's syncronized.
Last night I checked the hd and it's not a Fujitsu but a Hitachi, so may be this is just a normal behaviuor. Now after disabling the the USB root hub power management I'm trying to detect if some windows service or background program it's producing the noise and driving me crazy.
Strangly the noise and hdd led blink doesn't occur running heavy applycation like game.

I keep experimenting.

Bye.
Changing the

 

For many hard drives it is possible to change the acoustic settings, i.e. noise level. You can trade noise for speed. For Hitachi drives use Hitachi's 'Feature Tool' that can be downloaded from http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
I have never changed acoustic settings on a hard drive but it could be worth a shot if the hard drive is noisy.

 

The high-pitched noise does go away (for a split second or so) when the HDD is being accessed. I think it's because power is being drawn from the system and therefore reduces the power flowing through the capacitor that's making the noise. I have noticed that on the nx7000 and also on the nx8220.

With the Hitachi drives, I did notice that they "click" more than the fujitsu drives. That's how IBM/Hitachi drives are manufactured (Hitachi now makes all of IBM's drives) as I've seen/heard this in older IBM drives. Changing the acoustics of the HDD (make it quieter) will actually slow down the HDD. That totally defeats the purpose of getting a faster HDD.

You could always contact HP to have then send you a replacement HDD under warranty and hope it's a Fujitsu or a differnent brand. The HDD should fall under the User Replaceable Parts Program. They send you a new drive, when you get it, you got a couple weeks to send the old one back.

-Vb-

 

Venombite - feel free to contribute to this thread, regarding the high-pitch noise issue:

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=907758

Let's get the ball rolling, and get this fault fixed hopefully...

Regards,

Rob

Rob Jones
HP NX8220 (UK)

 

Further to your point above - the Hitachi drives are really noisy, and I would prefer the high-pitch noise of the Fujitsu to the continuous clicking of the Hitachi anyday - what do you think Venombite?

Also, I've just bought a 40gb Samsung 2.5" ATA6 drive (only cost £50) along with a 2.5" USB2 caddy, but I'm going to try the 40gb in the nx8220, and if it's more quiet I'll let you know.

Does anybody have recommendations for the most quiet laptop hard disk? I read some varied reviews, and decided on the Samsung spinpoint after reading reviews in www.silentpcreview.com

I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers,

Rob


Rob Jones
HP NX8220 (UK)

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by bonkersrob

 

Bonkers,

I'll start posting on HP's forum and hopefully there's gonna be a solution to the problem.

Regarding the HDD's, I've used mainly (notebook drives) IBM, Toshiba, Hitachi (before they started making drives for IBM) Seagate & Fujitsu. From the listed brands, the Fujitsu was without a doubt the quietest one I've ever had. My Seagate was quiet from the start, but it's making more noise now. I have a 5 year warranty, so I'm not too concerned. The old Hitachi's weren't that good, but they were quiet, hardly any noise when idle (no clicks like the new drives). After Hitachi started making the drives for IBM, they switched from their design to IBM's designs and that's when the clicking noise started. The Toshiba drives I've used have all been generally ok. You can hear the drive when it's idle and it will also do the occasional click like it's writing every so often. The Toshiba's are probably the loudest drives I've used.

I never knew Samsung was coming out with/has notebook drives. I knew about their 3.5" drives. They were ok, but not real performers. Mainly a budget drive, but hopefully they've improved for their notebook drives. I read the article from your link and it's impressive. The Samsung was actually quieter than the Hitachi/IBM...actaully, quiter than all the drives tested. Let me know how it goes. I don't know if they have it here in Canada, but I'll look into it. Thanks for the info.

-Vb-

 

Hi Venombite,

Yes, tried the Samsung hard disk, and not too impressed - and it comes with a high-pitch noise which I can hear on the nx8220.

Can you recommend me a 2.5" hard disk which won't give me a horrible high-pitch tone?

I was wondering if I would be able to employ any sound-proofing on the nx8220 to stop the noise getting out? I don't think that the nx8220 supresses laptop hard disk noise very well!?!

Any help would be great, as this is very frustrating - all I want is a quiet (and no disruptive noise) laptop.

Any advice then please let me know!

Thanks,

Rob

Rob Jones
HP NX8220 (UK)

 

Bonkers,

There's not much you can do with the drive in a notebook. They don't provide enough space between the case body and the drive. You could try to line it with some rubber, but that'll cause the drive to heat up (lack of ventilation) and I'm sure you don't want that to happen. As I indicated in your other post about the drive, the only other dive manufacturer that makes notebook drives is Western Digital. I'm not sure of their quality or quietness.

-Vb-

 

Hi Venombite,

Interesting that you say that the Fujitsu is the quitest you have seen. I am getting the high-pitch noise from the Fujitsu drive in my NX8220 - a 5K100 60GB Hitachi which I have also tried does not have hardly any high-pitch noise - it just sometimes gives off a short "click" while idle. I have been told that the 40GB version of the 5K100 drive (single platter) should be quieter again, so I am tempted to get that one in.

The high pitch on the Fujitsu is evident, especially when you also know it's there!

Let me know what you think, but having tried the 5K100 I am tempted to try the 40gb version, as I don't want to be lumbered with a Seagate ST94811a which may give off a high pitch noise...!

Cheers,

Rob

Rob Jones
HP NX8220 (UK)

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by bonkersrob

 

Hi Venombite,

Now's the time for you to upgrade the bios on the drive, and turn the APM to maximum (less battery, more performance) and switch the acoustic management on, via the "feature tool":

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

This DOES make a difference - you will hear the clicking still, but not as bad IMHO.

Let me know what you think - I'm thinking of getting the 40gb version of this, which is supposed to be quieter again...

I also returned the Samsung Spinpoint drive - and they passed it as faulty. Once bitten, twice shy as they say - the only choice I see here is the ST94811a or the Hitachi 40gb 5K100 drive...

Oh - by the way - any sign of the high-pitch whining noise on the new laptop when bluetooth is off?

Cheers,

Rob

Rob Jones
HP NX8220 (UK)

 

I thought I had dodged this bullet with my replacement nc8230, but after about 4 weeks of ownership the dreaded high pitched noise has appeared.

It doesn't seem to have a specific point of origin. It seems to come from somewhere in the middle of the unit, and does not seem to be associated with the HDD, DVD, or fan.

It comes and goes, especially at power up, and is present < 5% of the time. I am going to live with it for now, because I don't want to make it worse by playing around with it.

I will keep an eye on this thread, hoping that HP will disclose the true nature of the noise.

It seems to me that the vibrating capacitor story is an over simplification of a complex set of circumstances that must be present for the noise to occur. An in-depth technical explanation would go a long way toward enabling a hacker with lots of time on his hands to find a solution. Come on HP, open up.

Thanks to all who have put pressure on HP regarding this issue.

dg

 

Hi Guys,

Just to let you know that I am in contact with HP 3rd Line Technical Support here in the UK, and they are going to investigate the problem.

Venombite - please let me know ASAP if your replacement nx8220 has the same high-pitch noise problem - as I can let HP know this, but it sounds like to me that all NX8220/ NC8230's have this fault.

I hope HP support can cure this problem - strange that quality control didn't pick this up in the first place!?

Can you all please refer to one of my previous postings in this thread, and please submit to the HP thread discussing this problem, so that we can get HP to look at this problem and hopefully sort it out - I don't want to be the only one moaning about the problem, when infact all of us NX8220/ NC8230 users are experiencing this problem - thanks!

Rob

Rob Jones
HP NX8220 (UK)

 

Bonkers,

The Hitachi I currently have doesn't really click all that much and it's not that loud. The occasional time it will do a small click or two and then stops for a while. It's hardly noticable to be honest. There's no high-pitched noise from this drive at all. It's a lot quieter (at this point) than all the other Hitachi/IBM drives I've used.

Regarding changing the Acoustic levels of the drive, you are effectively lowering the overall performance of the drive. To drop the acoustic levels when seeking/writing, it will move the heads slower, therefore dropping the noise. But decreasing the head movement will slow down the drive. You're probably gonna be at 4200rpm drive speeds when enabling Quiet Seek mode.

I'm not 100% sure eaxactly what the APM setting does for the HDD, but when it's on Performance mode, I think it just doesn't shut the drive down as much when idle. This way the drive doesn't have to spin up before reading/writing. Of course, this will effectively reduce battery life.

As I mentioned in a different thread, the Seagate ST94811a (which I use in my old Toshiba) is louder than the Hitachi I have and it clicks a lot more. You're best bet may be the Hitachi, but no guarantees. But for your current drive, you can always contact HP and have them ship a new drive to you. This is a user replaceable part, so they will just ship the drive to you directly and you don't have to send your unit in for service.

Regarding the high-pitched noise, yes, my new unit has this noise as well, but I just leave BT on all the time and it's ok...for now.

-Vb-

 

Hi Venombite,

Good point made - I have ordered a replacement hard disk for self-fit, from HP.

I'll let you know how I get on - wish me luck!

Thanks,

Rob

Rob Jones
HP NX8220 (UK)

 

Hey Bonkers,

Just wanted to make sure you called HP Support to send you a replacement drive under warranty, rather than ordering (paid for) a new HDD.

Good Luck!

-Vb-

 

I may have jumped onto this bandwagon too quickly, because the noise I have is more of a buzzing noise. After re-reading this thread, it doesn't seem like the high pitch noise that most people are complaining about

My noise comes from the upper left quadrant of the machine, and is not high pitched at all. When I turn the machine on, it buzzes once or twice as the machine comes out of hibernation, then stops. After a few minutes it comes on and stays on for a while. It is loudest when it first comes on, then seems to get a little softer over time; or maybe I just get used to it. When the fan comes on at full force, it masks most of the noise, but not all of it. If I put the laptop in standby and then start it up again, sometimes the noise doesn't come back.

It is definitely not associated with the HDD, DVD, fan, or USB hub associated with the Bluetooth module (changing the power management setting doesn’t affect it.)

I didn't notice the noise until about 6 weeks after receiving the laptop, and I can't imagine not noticing it if it was there all along. On a scale of 1 to 10, the annoyance factor is a 4 and growing as the buzzing becomes more persistent.

 

Mtnmasher,

This might still be related to the systemboard. Since you've had the system for more than 30 days, you can't return/echange the notebook for a new one. I do get a slight buzzing from the upper left corner as well, but I believe it's the fan or something rubbing up against something. If I press down on that area, the sound lessens, so I might just open it up and see if I can fix it myself if it gets too annoying.

You may want to possibly get the systemboard replaced, but that may cause a host of new problems you didn't have before. Since these models are very new, the replacement boards should also be brand new (the older the models, the greater the possibility you'll get a refurbished systemboard).

-Vb-

 

Hi Venombite,

Just to let you know that HP's 3rd line support are still investigating this issue regarding the high pitch noise on the NX8220. They were making contact with their manufacturing division, when I spoke to them last week.

Also, I received my replacement NX8220 hard disk - lo and behold a Hitachi Travelstar arrived, as a replacement for the high-pitch noise Fujitsu.

Which drive did you prefer Venombite? I can hear both of them - one with high pitch noise (Fujitsu), and the other with the noticable hard disk head movement/ clicking noise (Hitachi).

Regards,

Rob

 

Bonkersrob,

I prefer the Hitachi at this point. I do haer the occasional click, but the +90% of the time there's no noticeable noise. The Hitachi drive is WAY faster than the Fujitsu as well. It's capable of maintaining higher thransfer rates. When I ran the HDTune program to get some performance numbers, the Fujitsu drive would occasionally spike downwards (drop in performance). It dropped from ~30Mbps to ~3MBps a few times and this lowered overall performance, but the Hitachi maintained its speed from start to finish. The only issue now is the high-pitched noise on the systemboard. I just use the workaround and I'm happy for now.

-Vb-

 

Hi Venombite,

Many thanks for your info on that.

I've got to send the disk I'm not going to be using back ie. the Fuji or the Hitachi - "the defective hard disk" - has to be sent in return to HP.
A shame really, as I could still have use of the Fuji as a spare, where I am sure HP will probably bin it when it gets back to base.

Looks like I'm going to stick with the travelstar, as it sounds like an all-round better unit than the Fuji from what you say.

Cheers and thanks for all your help Venombite.

Rob

 

Bonkersrob,

That's not a problem, just as long as you're happy with the new drive. HP allows you to have the drive for upto 30 days (I believe), so it give you some time to test.

I personally find the Hitachi better than the Fujitsu because it doesn't have the high-pitched whine and it performs better with only a minor click here and there.

-Vb-

 

Hi Venombite,

Just to keep you (and the community here) informed about the high-pitch noise problem - here is a response I've had from HP 3rd Line Support, FYI:

"I have been advised that there will be some new software coming out very soon.. I am being updated as to when this will occur."

So watch this space, and let's hope this problem gets sorted!

Cheers,

Rob

 

This high pithc noise is driving me crazy. After a month no way to ge rid of it.

I hope hp will provvide a bios or some other fix to remove it. Bye.

 

Does anyone use LINUX on nx8220 and maybe now semi-solution for this problem?

:noisyfan:

 

Hi,

I am currently in the process of buying myself a new laptop. Currently the nx8220 tops my list, however, I find these reports of the high-pitch problem are very disturbing. Has anyone heard anything new from HP regarding this issue?

Cheers,
Tobias

P.S. I'm swedish, hence the typos/spellos

 

Tobiase,

To be honest, you shouldn't be turned off from buying the unit because of this high-pitched noise. This only happens when Bluetooth is disabled (or driver not installed). If it's on, you don't notice the problem. I have the nx8220 and I'm loving it, I don't really hear the noise as much as I used to (getting used to it) so I don't think it's too big of an issue.

HP doesn't seem to be working all that hard to try to find the source of the problem. Maybe they think if they "work" on it long enough, the problem will just disappear itself.

-Vb-

 

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I have to add that the problem is still persistent for non-windows users:

I bought an NX8220 and the high-pitched noise occurred. HP support immediately identifed the problem as being connected with the Bluetooth/USB-Hub and advised me to update the bios. This fixes the problem for Win XP - and only for Win XP. If you want to use Win2000 or, as I do, Linux, then the noise will occur again!

The only work-around for Linux that I am aware of is turning off ACPI, which is certainly not an acceptable solution!

HP Support denied any further help since they regard the high-pitched noise problem as fixed now. Linux is not supported by HP, hence there is no problem anymore from the viewpoint of HP. However, my work requires me to use Linux exclusively and I only use Windows for private purposes.
So after many more phone calls I was eventually offered to return the unit in replacement for another HP notebook, but finding this thread now by searching with google discouraged me that any other replacement will suffer the same problem when using Linux. I fell into the trap that the nx8220 has the Novell YES certifiacte saying that it is suitable for SUSE Linux and I can only warn other users not to do the same mistake...

 

Hi Chazar,

disable C3 and/or C4 CPU power saving states by appending "max_cstate=3" (or "max_cstate=2", if it doesn't help) to your acpi module "processor". For me (debian) it's found in /etc/modules-`uname -r`

Code:

cat /etc/modules-2.6.11-kanotix-11
...
fan
processor max_cstate=2
thermal
...

Why? Noise is somehow produced by the CPU changing rapidly between power saving states C1-C3 (and C4 when on battery). Track it by

Code:

watch cat /proc/acpi/processor/C001/power

Drawback: CPU gets slightly warmer and maybe less time on battery (not tested yet).

danone

 

Chazar,

Just updated the BIOS using the new F.0E bios for my nx8220 and I'm sorry to say that the problem is still there. Iafter the update, it did reduce the pitch of the noise from a high pitched whine to a somewhat toned down buzz. If you make any changes to the USB Root Hubs, the high-pitched whine comes back to how it was before the update. It sounds like it goes back to the high-pitched whine for a sec, but then immediately goes back to the buzz, and it does this every so often. Looks like they may have just modified the power management settings of the USB root hubs in the BIOS. The sound is less evident but still there. Especially if you were to use the glidepad. Whenever you move your finger across the pad, the buzzing gets louder. I must say it's better, but still not there. Nice find though. I didn't even know they had a new BIOS available. I must have checked just a few days ago and nothing. They don't even list it as new on their site.

I'd recommend anyone with this problem (using Windows) to try out the BIOS and see if it does the same for you as it did for me (turned the high-pitched whine to a toned down buzz).

-Vb-

 

w00t...the disabling of the power management for the USB Root Hubs eliminated the high pitch problem on my Gateway m275x. It was driving me crazy!

 

It's good to hear that changing the power management option for your Root Hubs fixed the problem. Too bad this doesn't help with the nx8220's.

-Vb-

 

I have had a similar noise on my NX9020, try running it on a 12v powersupply, my laptop is silent running from a car battery on an after marker 12dc power supply, worth a try.

 

I also have an nx8220, and this sound to me, makes the laptop completely unsuable.


I see no reason why I should be forced to put up with a high pitched whining from the lower left corner of my screen because HP basically stuffed up.


Working in a computer store I purchaced the laptop through Ingram Micro, under what is known as an Eclipse program, which means that HP can send prospective customers to come and view my laptop (given 3 days warning, instore viewing only etc etc).

However, any prospective buyers may well be put off the laptop because of this very problem. After discussing it with other work members, we have come to believe that it is a faulty transformer in the screen, so I have embarked on a mission to see how many times I have to send the laptop in for repair

(btw, I _use_ bluetooth, and 3 USB devices, so disabling usb hubs / bluetooth is _not_ a valid workround)