Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
Community Manager
•
54.9K Posts
0
104084
XPS 420 Screeching Noise from Power Supply
All,
We hear your complaints and are investigating the issue thoroughly. We had thought that the issue was with the Western Digital and Hitachi hard disk drives but this is not so. We are working on a new power supply for the long term solution. At this time, getting a replacement power supply or system exchange will not correct the issue. When the new power supply is validated, I will let you know. Please be patient.
For now, I need your DCF username. This is the list of usernames I already have -
paulbeattie87
bajor1
Buzzi
Siraolo
shirovin
cobralightning22
ballenjr
chucksten
packerFan07
spinningcircles
dguo0619
PaleGreen1
H_P
We hear your complaints and are investigating the issue thoroughly. We had thought that the issue was with the Western Digital and Hitachi hard disk drives but this is not so. We are working on a new power supply for the long term solution. At this time, getting a replacement power supply or system exchange will not correct the issue. When the new power supply is validated, I will let you know. Please be patient.
For now, I need your DCF username. This is the list of usernames I already have -
paulbeattie87
bajor1
Buzzi
Siraolo
shirovin
cobralightning22
ballenjr
chucksten
packerFan07
spinningcircles
dguo0619
PaleGreen1
H_P
Dell customer care/service. If already out of warranty, click here. Find your Service Tag
DELL-Chris M
#IWork4Dell
613JDM
131 Posts
0
February 13th, 2008 10:00
ThePug628
200 Posts
0
February 13th, 2008 11:00
Is this the same issue? If so, please add me.
bill-p
1 Message
0
February 13th, 2008 15:00
Please add me to list - had power supply replaced yesterday and disks today and still have high pitched noise from power supply.
Davestar99
110 Posts
0
February 13th, 2008 20:00
wynand32
366 Posts
0
February 13th, 2008 22:00
MMTWRX
52 Posts
0
February 14th, 2008 08:00
John XPS 700
225 Posts
0
February 14th, 2008 09:00
Are you sure its just XPS 420 supplies?
My 1KW XPS 720 supply is always making annoying screeching/buzzing noises...
John XPS 700
225 Posts
0
February 14th, 2008 10:00
steve_89
552 Posts
0
February 14th, 2008 10:00
John
Not to jump to 720's but mine is quiet and calm.It has the 750w supply.
paulbeattie87
241 Posts
0
February 15th, 2008 17:00
In all honesty apart from the screech which Dell appear to have fixed by replacing most of the computer although as Chris has said that wont fix it. I have been extremely happy with my 420. One of the best computers I have owned its just so quiet!!
Most of the user affected seem to have a 8800GTX card which I did notice Dell have stopped installing them in systems now. Not sure if you managed to get dell on the phone to install one though. Its a brilliant system.
AME5
1 Message
0
February 16th, 2008 03:00
Please add me to the list.
I have this problem too.
Thanks!
Geowizard
2 Posts
0
February 16th, 2008 17:00
I just opened up and installed my replacement 420 tower (totally messed up the hard drives after the tech had me reformat the hard drives to try and fix an internet problem) and the new unit is also making a incredibly high frequency "whining noise" (sounds like one of these electronic anti-rodent" repellers). I thought it might just be me, but my wife heard and her high frequency hearing has deteriorated! This noise is unacceptable. The first unit didn't make this noise. Do I have to send this unit back as well?!! Seems like it may be time return the whole system and try something else!
cobralightning2
13 Posts
0
February 17th, 2008 00:00
Chris: My noise problem has been fixed from dell replacing my 2400 pro video card with a 2600 xt card.
I don't know if this is the same noise that everyone else is hearing but it sounds similar. They best way to troubleshoot it is to uninstall adobe flash player and see if you still get the noise. If you don't get it anymore then I would try getting your video card replaced, but I guess the video card and the PSU could be linked together in causing the problem. I know it wasn't the fan on my video card, because the tech had me stop it and it still made the same noise.
If you do find you have the same problem a quick fix would be to download firefox without adobe flash player and use it to browse the internet. Then when you want to watch videos use IE7, but the noise won't matter since you are watching a video.
I am no expert, but this is what worked for my noise problem. This computer is now the quietest computer I have ever owned.
TimRogersCool
15 Posts
0
February 17th, 2008 13:00
BobT36
206 Posts
0
February 17th, 2008 22:00
Same, John, I have the 1k XPS H2C with the 1kw power supply and its making me hate to be in the same room as it, I even havto sit wearing my headset for general browsing if so!
I've got to phone and ask for some tech support about bluescreens while gaming and crashes when turning on SLI so I'll ask them about it then if I get the chance.
So yeah this screeching/buzzing problem is with the 720's as well, the hard drive emits a low thudding rattle when its being accessed but I can put up with that, however this high pitched buzzing from the PSU (Itd definately that as I can hear it clearly coming from there when I put my ear to the back of the case) is enough to send one looney. Scrolling, browsing and definately gaming sets it off to high levels.
System Specs:
Operating System: 32bit Windows XP Professional
Processor: Intel® Core™ Quad-Core Processor QX6850 (3.46GHz,1333MHz,8MB cache)
Graphics Card: DUAL 768MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800GTX graphics cards
Memory: 3072MB Dual Channel DDR2 800MHz [2x1024, 2x512] (Only shows up as 2.5 gig on me comp for some reason, maybe due to the OS?)
Hard Drive: 1TB Serial ATA RAID 0 Stripe (2x500GB 7200rpm drives with DataBurst™ cache)
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi Xtreme Music PCI Soundcard
Power Supply: 1KW Power Supply
Other Cards: D-link wireless adapter, AGEIA® PhysXTM physics accelerator.