New Kaby Lake XPS 13: coil whine

Also, it has been suggested that we can disable C state to reduce the coil whine, but I would like to know how that affects performance/battery life.   If that will negatively impacts the battery life, it kind of defeats the purpose of one of the biggest selling point of XPS 13.  

As Dell hasn't been providing updates on the forum, I'll follow up with the (lack of) information I was able to get out of "ProSupport Plus".

I had followed this thread for a while waiting for a fix (likely, new motherboards) to be available. After a lack of updates on the thread, I decided to call in on February 6, as I was nearing the end of the time during which I could return the computer if Dell was unable to provide a sufficient fix.

Within the first day, I was told both by the first point of contact and the technical analyst from the "resolution expert center" that an updated motherboard was supposed to be the fix, and was supposed to be available on January 7th, but that they couldn't yet find it. Despite having paid for "Next Business Day Onsite Service", my ticket sat for a week (February 6-13) with no help. It's not clear if they were getting their information just from this thread, or from elsewhere. On the 13th, after I followed up myself (not having heard from anyone for 6 days), I was told that "[at] this time, we do not have an ETA for the motherboard revision expected to resolve the coil whine issue".

After I pressed to see if I could return the laptop if I waited for a fix but none was forthcoming, I was told "[Dell] won't be able to grant the return of the system months down the line if you decide to keep the system until a revised motherboard is released." So, it sounds like if you're waiting for a fix to be made available, you may well be waiting for months, if such a fix is even made available at all.

(As an aside, I tried to make the return, got offered to do an "unlike exchange", and after another day and a half, was told that no comparable machines were available for such an exchange, with vague hints toward 15" devices. Five days after *that*, I'm still waiting for a return label to finally return the laptop and be done with this.)

To Barton George, I appreciate your efforts in getting a good Ubuntu machine available from a major manufacturer. I really wanted it to work, but I can't deal with a computer that sputters and whines constantly while I'm trying to use it. Unfortunately, several of my friends and coworkers were also considering the XPS 13 with Linux, but have been put off by my poor experience (both the coil whine and "premium" technical support) as well. When these issues are finally resolved, I would suggest proclaiming it loudly, as many people will not be paying close attention any longer.

@apschmitz i apologize for your experience.  We are still waiting to hear when the new motherboard will be available. I would like to share your experience with people in our prosupport group and see if i can get a better handle on what's going on.  Which country are you in?

thanks!

Barton George: I'm in the United States. I also made a guess at your email address and tried to send you the service request number, so hopefully that got to you. Thanks!

you guessed correctly :)  Let me look into this, stay tuned

@Barton George

As a few others here, I'm stil waiting for a fix for the coil whine for my december 2016 brand new 9360 full specs. Dell-Justin C was very helpful and we had understood that we were about to get a new A02 motherboard very very soon (just waiting that the new boards reach the maintenance stock). Are you following his work ? Do you think we'll soon be able to get a fix for the coil whine issues we experience ?

Thank you very much for your help

Hi Greg_FR, Justin-C has been doing a great job working with the information he has been given and which i have been tracking.  Its obviously time for me to go back to the team he got his information and get some real clarity on where we are.  I appreciate your patience and stay tuned!

Hello Barton George,

Thank you very much. We definitely stay tuned and have high hopes on you ;-)

I got the XPS 9360 in the mail today, ordered on 2/21/2017, and it has the coil whine problem. The high-pitched noises are no fun and I am even in my office right now and still hearing it.

Thanks for letting us know. I will make sure the team addressing the issue sees this. Stay tuned

inventortechie, you should strongly consider returning it for a refund ASAP.

I received my XPS 13 9360 in late December. It has very loud coil whine. I made the mistake of trying to fix it through troubleshooting/tech support. After many hours on the phone, sending the computer to Dell, getting it back without a fix, more hours on the phone with tech support, and then finally finding this forum, which suggests there is no fix for the issue, I asked Dell for a refund, and was told it was impossible due to the 30-day time frame having lapsed (personally, I don't think they're entitled to this window since they knowingly sold me a flawed product without a fix). Just this morning, I spent over an hour on the phone and was transferred to 4 different employees, all of whom repeated the same questions. Now they want me to send the computer back to Dell for a motherboard replacement, but I'm doubtful that this will fix this issue.

This is a flawed product from a flawed company. Save yourself the hassle.

@Barton George,

Thanks for following up. I'm in the U.S. Dell is again asking me to ship the computer to its Houston location (already sent it there once). This time to replace the motherboard. As another user has mentioned, motherboard replacement hasn't fixed the issue. I'd rather not send the computer until this fix has been definitively resolved. This is turning into a massive waste of time and resources, which shouldn't happen for such an expensive, "top of the line", computer. Thanks again for your assistance.

I just friended you on the forum.  If you accept my request you can then send me your contact info directly and i can work with you to get this addressed while we are addressing the larger issue re the coil whine and replacements.

thanks

@amccusker,

I apologize your experience.  What country are you in?  Im going to fwd this directly to the team working on this.  thanks