CF-19 high pitched noise

Hey all, firstly, BIG thanks for the detail provided on the forum for the toughbook's. It's been invaluable.

However, one issue i just can't pin down, even searching here, that I've just noticed tonight. Machine is a CF-19CHB23BE.

I have a very quiet but noticeable high pitched whine coming from the front left palm rest area (near the status lights/front hotkeys). It appears to "flutter" when pressing keys / clicking the mouse or the flicker of the hdd activity light.

Already tried cleaning and reseating the battery, adjusting the screen brightness, and reseating the hdd. I had also considered the backlight inverter but there's a good 12" between that and the "source" of the noise.

Any suggestions guys?

 

Do you have the charger plugged in ? I would pull the battery and try it with just the charge too.

 

Will give that a try, if I can remember where I put it...

 

Question comes to mind. Are you using a SSD or platter hard drive?

 

just a thought here ...
the area you referenced might have a small switching regulator circuit in it .
(i am leaning toward the motherboard)
the inductors and capacitors in these can be subject to square waves (it is how a switching regulator works) that will cause the symptom you are hearing .
normally , the inductors are "potted" so that nothing can move and thus mechanically cannot generate noise .
capacitors are more often the culprit ... their dielectric and physical structure can start to change and thus create noise .
another type of capacitor (electrolytic) can start to go bad and create the noise you hear .

also ... it might be possible that the sound is being generated elsewhere and being transmitted mechanically so that it appears to originate in another area .
(think leaky roof)

without more poking and prodding that involves the removal of the bottom plate , it would be hard to pin down .

referencing the above post ...
you could try removing the hdd/ssd carrier and boot up the machine ... you should be able to do the "F2" and go into bios .
once there ... listen for the sound .
if you have a spinner drive and the sound is not there , chances are your drive is starting to head south ...
time to replace it (with/to a ssd if possible) by cloning the existing drive before it fails .

 

+1 to CWB32
it's a normal noise of working cf19 )

 

ya know , i knew the title reminded me of something ...
my *ex* mother-in-law .
/me calls therapist to schedule an appointment