Brand New VPCF132FX High Pitch Noise

Hi,

Bought a Sony Vaio VPCF132FX yesterday from Future Shop in Canada ( Sony VAIO 16.4" Intel Core i7 740QM Quad-Core Laptop (VPCF132FDB) - Black : 16" Laptops - Future Shop)... not long after turning it on I started noticing a high pitch noise... sounds like feedback or some kind of vibration noise. I've read tons of posts on a bunch of forums, watched videos, and tried a few tricks to try to stop the noise but nothing works.

I noticed a lot of the posts on this issue are about a year old, and haven't found anything new on this.

I was wondering if anybody knew anything about this problem, any status on a repair or anything that may help? Other than this noise, I really like the computer so far, and don't want to return it. However this noise is so annoying that I'll have to return it if I can't fix it.

Thanks for your help

 

It's possible the high pitch noise is coming from the processor. Hold your ear up to the exhaust fan and see if the high pitch sound is coming from this area.

My Atom processor makes a high pitched noise when the computer goes to sleep or the screen turns off. Nothing I can do about it since that's the frequency it runs at. Does yours make the noise 100% of the noise?

 

Yeah it does seem to be coming from the exhaust. This noise comes and goes... haven't used it enough to find a pattern though.

I've been reading a lot over the last day, and I am thinking about switching to the same VAIO but with the i5 processor instead since it doesn't sound like I actually need the i7 (or the BD-rom) for what i'm using the computer for. Any indication of the same problem with the i5?

thanks

 

Count my "no" vote.

Are you sure it is not the HDD? It is likely to be producing such noise too. What HDD do you have in?

 

This is a well documented issue with the F series and it has cropped up alot in the owner's lounge thread. There is no known fix.

I used to own an F12 and thought it might be a piezo electric type effect (maybe related to the c-states whine some people complain about). After a while though I started to notice it come and go within a certain fan rpm range (iirc roughly 1600 to 1900rpm). If you can't stand this noise then you better sell up and find something else.

As far as I am aware, nobody with the i5 variant complained about this noise. Then again, theres not much reason to go with the i5 variant because it doesn't have several features which arguably make the F series worthwhile for the money - in particular the 1080p VAIO Premium Display and the faux leather palm rest.

 

I've had a chance to spend a lot of time with the notebook this evening. It seems the noise is related to the CPU usage... it's like around 6-10% CPU usage, it does this high pitch noise.. the fan seems to work in a similar patter as the noise. anything over or under that % and it's fine.

anyway... maybe i'll get sony to take a look at it. thanks for your time.

 

I think you're hearing the fan whine rather than the noise from the CPU/chipset.

The fan whine is unique to the F. It's an acoustic resonance that occurs in a specific rpm range. As the fan speeds up or slows down and passes through this rpm range, you'll hear a whining/whistling noise for a couple seconds. The following video illustrates it:

YouTube - Sony Vaio F12 - VPCF12Z1E

There is no way to keep the fan at a constant speed to completely eliminate that noise. But you can use a laptop cooler and/or limit the CPU and GPU clock speeds to keep the fan running slower on average. I don't see why the i5 version wouldn't be similarly affected. Although the i5 presumably runs a little cooler than the i7, at low CPU utilization the bulk of the heat probably comes from the GPU.

The CPU/chipset noise is higher in frequency and normally too faint to hear over the fan unless you put your ear near the keyboard. It's varies with the sleep state, so under normal use it toggles in frequency & amplitude in a manner that some equate to Morse code. This noise has been reported with many different laptops having Intel Core 2 Duo and Core i processors.

Some early F models had the sound devices configured such that the noise was picked up by the microphone and amplified through the speakers. There is a fix for that configuration issue, but I think Sony corrected it a while ago so your F13 probably wasn't affected. There is no fix for the CPU/chipset noise itself other than to disable the lower power states, but very few people are bothered by it and many or most people don't even notice it.

 

Thanks... I am not able to watch the video right now, but the way you describe it, the fan seems to be my problem. So in your opinion, should I get the fan replaced?

 

As far as I am aware, Sony do not and have never recognised this as an issue. Like I said, read the Owner's Lounge thread. I'm pretty sure some people have sent their F series back for repair/replacement and got an F series back with exactly the same problem.

Furthermore I can confirm that a notebook cooler does exactly squat since I used mine with a Notepal U3. All it did was blow room temperature air against the plastic baseplate. It does nothing to change or improve airflow over heat generating components like the cpu core and it does nothing to help exhaust hot air from the inside of the chasis. As soon as you put the computer under any sort of load, then cpu/gpu core temperature and fan speed will ramp up. As the fan ramps up past 1600rpm and below 1900rpm you'll hear the intermittent whistling noise.

 

Me and another guy had the same problem on our Z13. Just search for the thread I've started for this.