High pitched noise coming from laptop

Cianos

Hey,
On my XPS M1330, there is a very low volume but quite high pitched noise coming from it. It reminds me of the cat repellent devices you plug in to piss off cats. I've only noticed it the past couple of days. Any idea what it could be and how I could get it to stfu?!

Thanks

Alanstrainor

Is it coming from any particular spot on the laptop? Sounds like it could be a fan thats slowly dying.

Cianos

The laptop is fairly small so it's hard to pin point the exact source. But it seems to be loudest where, if you are looking at the bottom of the laptop, it's 1/3rd of the way in from the left side, in the middle on the vertical axis.

On closer inspection (my ear pressed against the bottom), the noise seems to drop briefly. Kinda like ;

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Jonathan

Google "m1330 cpu whine"

It is a WELL documented problem.
It is a motherboard problem that arises when the CPU switches to the low power C4 state.

Overheal

i noticed "high pitched noises" on my recent warranty repair form. so I imagine its a common enough occurence among faulty laptops.

Cianos

jmccrohan wrote: »

Google "m1330 cpu whine"

It is a WELL documented problem.
It is a motherboard problem that arises when the CPU switches to the low power C4 state.

It is only there when the laptop is in use. When it is in standby there is no noise.

Jonathan

C4 state is not standby.

It is when your computer is fully on but doing nothing. When idling the processor will clock it self downwards to save power.

Have a look at a program called Rightmark Clock, and look for an option to disable C4 state.

Cianos

jmccrohan wrote: »

C4 state is not standby.

It is when your computer is fully on but doing nothing. When idling the processor will clock it self downwards to save power.

Have a look at a program called Rightmark Clock, and look for an option to disable C4 state.

I got Rightmark Clock and disabled the C4 settings...but the laptop is still emitting that really irritating noise unfortunately.

You said that it typically happens when the laptop clocks itself down, but the noise is fairly constant no matter what I'm doing...it's not just there when the machine is idle.

fiveminutes

get a motherboard replacemnt until u get one that doesn't whine. Ring Dell they'll know exactly what your talking about even if they pretend they don't

You'll see hundreds of threads on this on the net, Rightmark CPU thing will help reduce it but it won't fully solve it(this was in my case with a Dell 6400 laptop).

I know how annoying this can be you spend most of your time with the laptop up to your ear trying figure out where the noise is coming from. If its any consolation it means the upper range of your hearing is still intact my father for example could never hear the whine and thought i was mad

seraphimvc

my thinkpad T61 has the same problem :(it is worse than my R52.i turn off all cpu power management in BIOS and turn off everything about C4 in RMclock,the whine is hardly heard now,while now i am hearing the harddisk spinning sound all the time now lol defo will have them check up probably change the mobo before the warranty run out.

anyone with a better solution i'd love to know.