Toshiba R700 Buzzing Noise When Turned Off

I just noticed my R700 is making a buzzing, whirling, sizzling high pitch noise while off coming from around the cpu fan/vga port side. The noise changes tones, and loudness, so sometimes it might be very quiet, while other times pretty loud.

The noise only goes away when the battery is disconnected.

Can anybody who owns a R700 let me know if yours does this? Put the laptop VGA port/fan output vent close to your ear when it's really quiet and the laptop is completely off. Do you hear anything? Best way to test is to pull the battery, and push it in while listening. On mine, the whining noise starts up as soon as the battery clicks in, and then it turns into a pulsing buzzing noise.

I also noticed the battery dropped about 1% in 8 hours while being off. I'm thinking a week would drop it at least 20%.

My guess is that the standby circuit coil has something wrong with it. To make noise you need power, so I am pretty sure this is wasting battery while off I've had high powered flashlights that made this kind of noise, but only while being on.

 

Hello,
If the fan remains on and/or some other hardware is running when the system is OFF then this would be cause for "GREAT" concern - IMHO -
I would recommend that you contact Toshiba and see about getting a RMA or taking it to an ASP.

The battery drain is normal if you are using the "SLEEP" feature - If you're turning the computer OFF "Shutdown" in Windows 7, there should be little to NO battery drain.

In Christ,
Trav...

 

Mine does this too. Weirdly, I've found it stops if I plug in a monitor through the HDMI port.

 

Thanks Tom. I think this confirms that probably most of them make this noise.

Plugging in a monitor in the HDMI port might use a little power of it's own causing the standby circuit to get different voltages, or it could ground the laptop, since the monitor would be plugged in. Try unplugging the monitor and see if that makes the noise come back.

I would think it should not make any noise...it is obviously a drain on any battery to make any noise.. but what can we do.

I'd be interested to hear if anybody has an R700/705 that does not make this noise when off completely. I still have 5 days to return mine for exchange.

Again, the noise happens when turned off completely. Not sleep mode or any special mode, totally off.

 

Hi Travelor,

This is in OFF shutdown mode. I'm more concerned about the noise than the drain, the drain seems to be very little. I just don't like hearing a computer that is off making noise. Could you please let me know if yours makes any noise? You need to be in a completely quiet room to hear it. I just heard it accidentally after I turned it off one night.


Thanks!
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Mine also makes this noise and I am seeing battery drain. I also tried hooking up a monitor via hdmi and it still makes this noise. I really hope there is a fix for this. I have been meaning to call toshiba, but I feel like it will be a big waste of time.

 

Hello, I called and RMAed mine and got a new one sent out. Just received it today. The new one still makes the noise, but it makes it much much less. There are times when I don't hear it at all, so I'm happy with the replacement. I actually have to put my ear right into it to hear it. The first one I heard from about 2feet away.

The BIOS problem which I posted on a different thread when the supervisor password is set happens on both machines.

Another oddity is that the first machine had to reboot 30 times to install all drivers for windows, while the new one I just turned on, it did it's recovery thing then it booted and that's it!.. Glad to see them doing something properly..

Good luck. Seems like the USA models don't do this.. according to Travelor.

 

Mine is a U.S. model and, like your replacement, I need to put it up to my ear to hear it. I would assume you still have the battery drain issue.

 

Not sure about battery drain yet, but overnight it only went from 100% to 99%.. usually it went to 98%. It is normal to use some battery I believe..after all it is not truly off since it's waiting for the button to be pushed. Try leaving a cell phone off for a week and half the battery will be gone. They are made to be used.

 

Bios update is out which might solve the drain problem :

But what I have heard, its a ,,feature,, of most modern laptops. Puttin them to sleep does drain some power from laptops.

 

The bios update does not solve the battery drain issue and there is still the buzzing noise

Yes in standby there will be some battery drain, but in this case, it is excessive. It also discharges/makes noise when off. Definitely not a feature.