Xps 12 High-Pitched sound

Back for another entry in this endevure to fix the noise :)

Had the technician come out today. Once again we replaced all the parts that we suspected, no progress. The noise is still there above the "O" and "I" key. We determained the sound was comming from something interfearing with signals on the montherboard. Its either this or he just said BS so i would stop asking questions haha. Probably the latter of the two reasons. We did try taking the SSD out which removed the high pitch noise coming from the "Q" key however the loud noise (In comparison) from the "O" and "I" remained. I will need to fix my screen bleeding so my run with dell technicians is not over, im sure they love me by now haha. 

Screen-Bleeding picture

http://i.imgur.com/2It7hFE.jpg

I've wondered if the SSD might be involved in some way, because I've occasionally noticed that the properties of the sound change in some way with storage access. This is difficult to decouple from CPU and power load, of course.

Something I'd like to encourage anyone with suitable resources to try is booting without the SSD installed, such as from a live USB stick with Ubuntu. I actually have an adapter for mSATA-to-2.5" SATA (got it on Amazon for less than $10), which means I can presumably stick my SSD into a USB3 external enclosure. Maybe I can even boot that way, with the SSD some distance away from the XPS chassis, which should enable me to distinguish between SSD sound and motherboard sound pretty easily -- I just don't know if I'll get around to it before next week. I'll try it and report back, but if anyone else can try something similar in the interim, it'd be nice to have corroborating results.

Good work Guys,

AtLL - when the SSD was replaced and the sound was back, what was the status of the machine - i.e. was it booted to anything, e.g. Windows, or Diagnostics? Or, didn't it make any difference what the machine was doing? E.g. Was it the case that if the SSD was installed, the noise was there, and if is wasn't, there was no noise, regardless of whether it was running Diag's, Windows, whatever?

As before, I don't believe the SSD is actually MAKING the noise, though the extra power drain, or the booting of the machine, might be causing whatever is making the noise to operate in a different (noisy) mode. Pinpointing the source of the noise using the cone is probably the right approach. From there, they can look at why anything else is causing the noise maker to start making the noise, if you follow that?

martin_rm - you are on to it! Thinking like a true computer detective! Don't let them fob you off with BS! Signal interference might be the case, if it was noise coming out of the speakers (which would be truly bad design and the same in all units), but if the machine is operating correctly in all other respects (and some "identical" units don't have the problem), it's almost certain that it's not "signal interference"...

You paid good money and deserve a good machine! I hope you get a new one, that's quiet! Please do keep us posted.

FWIW, it sounds (pardon the pun again) like the 9Q23's are a somewhat different design from the 9Q33. I know ours have the Haswell (Lower Power) CPUs, but I'm not sure at which point they change. I think you can (could) get 9Q33s in both Ivy Bridge and Haswell CPUs, but I don't know for sure. But, if you are going to upgrade to the 9Q33, make sure you get the Haswell CPU. It makes for a much better machine, with much less heat, therefore much less fan noise and longer battery life to go with it. Most of the time, I don't even notice the fan running on my one. (I only found out using the cone that it runs much more often than I thought, but it's slow enough to not be noticed.)

After all your trouble, you deserve a reward! Good Luck. 

Hi st380021a,

Good idea - and just to add to it - anyone with an external USB CD or DVD ROM drive could also try your proposed test.

This might be easier:

Just plug in the USB drive and trying booting any bootable disk - even a Windows disk... (May need to change BIOS settings, of course)

Hi all,

 booting into Dell Diagnostic > no noise <

 Booting DOS from USB > no noise <

Today my XPS will come back from assistance, will tell you results.

My results from the diagnostic test, the noise remained, however at different frequencies throughout the test. This leads me to believe its load dependent. At least in my case. Im not sure how to boot dos from usb, can you please share?

My thoughts exactly, i think the lower powered core is one of the main factors for this sound not appearing in the 9Q33 seriers. Hopefully ill be able to swap because i doubt another full systems overhaul will fix it. Ill have to use someone elses computer to make a bootable disk since none of my computers have dvd burners (#UltrabookNation haha) I will look into this later. I dont have any windows disks either. . . since windows doesnt like giving you tangable disks anymore. They prefer you buy a new OS if your hard drive crashes. Anyways we will see what ill do with the computer, waiting for a reply from Terry and other dell support staff. So far they all have been very helpfull in the matter ( I get an average of 3 calls a day from dell :) they love me). 

martin_rm:

I concur. On my one, when it's making the noise, the sound "quality" is load dependent. If simply removing the SSD drops the load enough for the sound to disappear, it must be a significant load... And that must be the critical load level. Maybe a lower power consumption CPU would work! If you could get one...

To boot into DOS from a CD, you'll need a DOS bootable CD. If you have a good CD burner program that can make bootable CDs, you'll need a DOS Boot disk image, or you'll need a real, DOS boot diskette and a floppy drive from which to load the image when you create the CD. Probably much easier just to download a Bootable ISO image from the Net, and burn that.

What I would do first is simply try booting from any Windows install disk (CD/DVD). Just let it stop at the first screen, if it gets that far. It's not DOS, but it is another boot environment to see how it behaves.

PS.

Actually, if you happen to have an old Windows 95, 98 or Me CD laying around, I think they all start in DOS. Try booting off one of those. May not work due to hardware differences, but worth a try. Just don't let it do anything but boot! I think repeatedly pressing the F8 key while booting will interrupt the boot process at CONFIG.SYS. You can then drop out to a vanilla DOS environment.

Dell Replaced all parts again and used a different SSD drive (samsung).

Problem still there.

Your model is a version 9Q23? They can't all be doing this or there'd be an uproar on this thread.

Sounds like the Tech's are not briefed on what this problem is. Replacing every part is a shotgun approach.

It can't be the whole machine that's to blame. If it's coming from a single part, surely, it's a matter of knowing what that part is, and just replacing that part...

Obviously, the new noise-making part is also faulty! Dell just doesn't seem to be onto this problem.

Where does your sound come from now, anyway?

Are they going to give you a new one?

Well dell had me send my laptop out to their testing facility in texas, so hopefully they will be able to shed some light on the matter. If they dont fix it they will put it up to the board to decide the best course of action. I referred them to this forum when diagnosing so possibly whomever is experiencing the same issue i have will be given the same solution. 

No solution but my XPS 12 9Q33 started the high pitched noise about a week ago and does it every 3-4 minutes.  Can't really tell where it is coming from but it is annoying.  Hesitant to call support until I see that someone has had this resolved and knows what it is.

Funny thing,  I also have a Dell XPS 15Z and about a year ago it started having a "growling" sound.  The tech replaced the hard drive and it still does it.  I didn't pursue it but should have.  Get some funny looks in meetings when it growls.

Rick

Hey 191y,

That was quick! I just submitted a request via email to Dell, but I suppose dropping a line to Terry wouldn't hurt either. Thanks!