New Kaby Lake XPS 13: coil whine

I've got a service call for the new motherboard (from SLN305206 as I bought my laptop in October). It will probably happen Monday. I'll leave some feedback afterwards :).

Looking forward to your feedback Gardiner.d.

@DELL-Justin C

Thank you very much for this clear update.

As I own a pre-2017 9360, I have a question concerning SLN305206 : when the motherboard is replaced, do we only get "another new motherboard of exactly the same kind" (and we play a kind of coil whine lottery) or do we get a "somewhat fixed" or "pre-tested" motherboard regarding the coil whine issue ?

Hmm... I am guessing dmidecode on linux give you that info too? I got mine in March 2017, and I get a A00?

Base Board Information

       Manufacturer: Dell Inc.

       Product Name: 06CC14

       Version: A00

       Serial Number: /6VP0YF2/CN1296372Q0075/

       Asset Tag: Not Specified

       Features:

               Board is a hosting board

               Board is replaceable

       Location In Chassis: Not Specified

       Chassis Handle: 0x0003

       Type: Motherboard

       Contained Object Handles: 0

Hi, I bought a DE xps 13 9360 in late April 2017 and it still has coil whine that can be heard through headphones (but only while on AC power), when scrolling a webpage like gmail (but only when the fan is also spinning), and while running glmark2 (with the noise being noticeably worse while not on AC power). For a laptop that costs this much, this is pretty much unacceptable. We were considering converting some of our engineering laptops over to XPS 13/15s, but I'm recommending that we stick with Lenovo until this issue is actually resolved. Given the amount of time/number of iterations that coil whine has been a known issue, I now have a complete lack of confidence in any product manufactured by Dell, will adjust my purchasing decisions accordingly, and will recommend that others do the same.

@dietchinator,

I think your concern is reasonable.

I documented my experience in a previous comment on this thread. Following that comment, I received excellent support from both Justin and Barton. Ultimately, I was able to obtain an XPS13 with the new motherboard. However, the coil whine, while less prevalent than the original motherboard, is still present, apparently to a greater degree than what you're experiencing (sometimes it is embarrassingly loud). As far as I know, Dell has no further plans to address this issue.

You might consider yourself lucky.

Hi Barton George,

The system was Windows 10 Pro based. I returned the computer to Costco for a refund.

Thanks.

Another issue that I think is related is there is a huge amount of feedback trying to use the headphone jack with a microphone. It is unusable. I've had to switch to using a USB mic. My belief is this is related to the coil whine issue. So this is something to test as well to see if you are affected. I'm not sure if the fixed motherboards have this problem as well?

I'd like to also highlight the feedback on the 3.5mm headphone jack -- there's so much it's unusable. I can't see any way Dell can claim this is "acceptable" in any laptop, let alone a top of the line product. The headphone jack, one of the listed features, is unusable.

thanks for the response Rich and I apologize for your experience.  I realize you have already returned your system but for your reference, he is a summary/status of the coil whine issue that Justin and I put together  en.community.dell.com/.../20994429

@vwbkn0 I apologize for your experience.  We have our team call today and ill bring it up.  Stay tuned

As promised, I am back with feedback! Unfortunately, it is not all good news.

My motherboard was changed according to ''SLN305206''. Unfortunately, the coil whine was not reduced. It is loud enough to hear while listening to low volume music. While it is mostly ''acceptable'', meaning that I can forget about it, sometimes it reaches another level. I'm not clear to when it happens & why. The last time I was playing videogames (Eve Online).

Sorry for the late feedback. There are floods in my regions. A lot of roads are closed. I talked to the technician and we agreed to fix my computer once the highway re-opened. As indicated above, the swap was done.

Should I document the coil whine? If it is helpful, I'll attempt to record it.

This is embarrassing for Dell. I love this laptop, and so does everyone else, except for the coil whine.

As soon as I start editing videos in premiere pro, it's an embarrassingly loud squeal that I have to deal with.

All in all it's a perfect laptop, except this.

Why Dell isn't all over this, I do not know. They are such a big company and sell so many systems to businesses that they are beyond giving a *** about consumers. We are clearly just pests.

Good on ya Dell. Won't buy another. Nothing has changed over the last 10 years clearly.

I don't think they are annoying the issue. It's just very hard to solve. When you deal with laptops and packing a million things in such a small space, things get quite complicated.