New Kaby Lake XPS 13: coil whine

Thanks so much for the details, Jared! It is really great that you were able to share all of that information. Keep up the great work!

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.

Indeed. :) There is work going on behind the scenes, some of which might come as firmware updates.

From what I can share, some of the noise is from third party chips and some is noise inherent to the capacitors we use. From our investigations, we believe the A02 boards to be within our noise tolerances, but we are continuing testing of customer capture boards.

I'm told by the system architect for the XPS 13 that we consciously choose a type of capacitor less commonly used by major OEMs that shows better durability over time versus the alternatives. However, that type is more prone to coil whine. The gain is better assurance that the capacitors we use won't fail over the extended lifetime expected of a business notebook. Our hardware folks are looking at how to reduce coil whine while still meeting our targets for system lifetime. To be honest, speaking personally, I expect that this type of change would be more extensive than a board spin.

Sometimes I wish I could loan you guys my XPS-13 Developer Edition that I bought in January. It has absolutely NO whine, is now triple booted with Ubuntu, Antergos, and Kali, and is the best laptop I've owned in a long time.  It shares that distinction with my 2006 MacBook Pro (which still runs!). Anyway, whatever was done with my laptop (Kaby Lake 7000, 512 GB SSD, 16 GB memory) worked!

That's great to hear curtvaughan2. Have you put the GPU under load?

Thanks. I have a Windows 10 XPS13 which is quiet except for playing Minecraft or using Adobe Premiere Elements. But even that is intermittent. Stressing the CPU by encoding video with ffmpeg doesn't so far cause any noise. So I'm presuming the GPU.

Interestingly, if the noise comes from capacitors and other components oscillating, I wonder if the engineers have considered experimenting with encasing the components in something like epoxy, etc. LOL. I'm *not* recommending anyone try that. :-)

I have not specifically tested its graphics capabilities, but you've tickled my curiosity and I will do that this next week. Good idea. If that somehow induces whine noise, I'll certainly post it. I sympathize with those who have spent around 2K for some l emons versions of this machine. I suspect that there are a lot of people like me who don't post much, since we have no complaints.  Anyway, I'll push the GPU a bit and report back.

relevant 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. Indeed. :) There is work going on behind the scenes, some of which might come as firmware updates. From what I can share, some of the noise is from third party chips and some is noise inherent to the capacitors we use. From our investigations, we believe the A02 boards to be within our noise tolerances, but we are continuing testing of customer capture boards. I'm told by the system architect for the XPS 13 that we consciously choose a type of capacitor less commonly used by major OEMs that shows better durability over time versus the alternatives. However, that type is more prone to coil whine. The gain is better assurance that the capacitors we use won't fail over the extended lifetime expected of a business notebook. Our hardware folks are looking at how to reduce coil whine while still meeting our targets for system lifetime. To be honest, speaking personally, I expect that this type of change would be more extensive than a board spin.

This is great reply and what we expect from Dell!

I have only used Dell Laptops!

Good morning @DELL-Justin C.

My Xps 13 9360 arrived one week ago. I ordered it on april 16 2017.

I'm suffering from very bad coil whine, and my coworkers are blaming me for disturbing them, so I can't use it in my office.

Here is the screenshot. Are you saying me that I received a model with the first revision of the motherboard?

What should I do?

Yes, perhaps is because of the A00 model.

Here I recorded a video with the horrible sound: www.dropbox.com/.../EGF_6605.mp4

Just curious (as an observer). Are you thinking this is a first version because it says "A00" at the end of the Motherboard PPID, where we know that A02 motherboards are the ones that fix the coil whine?

It is sad if A00 motherboards are still being shipped. I wonder how this happened.

FYI for anyone researching this issue and to see if it's gone, it's not.

I received my 16GB i7 6560U yesterday (May 24 2017). Checking the bios it had a manufacture date of only May 18 2017 and still has the 00 motherboard and a screaming coil whine that sounds like a bee having an epileptic fit under the keyboard.

I've been buying Dell XPS since the m1330 back in 2007 and have never been so disappointed in a machine. Perhaps only because this machine is so perfect, a dual booting workhorse with a stunning trackpad and connection set. To the engineers, you really crafted the perfect laptop, but overlooked something even 300 dollar Aldi laptop gets right.

To mess up and pinch pennies on the wrong components is one thing. But to come out and make a statement saying some coil whine is "within specifications and working as intended" is just a PR slap in the face to anyone dropping €1500+ on a machine.

You must be seeding machines without coil defects to reviewers since none of the major sources have mentioned it. It's only owners threads, after the purchase, where I find out this has been an only mess for months (years?).

@Alan Slade,

Send me a friend request with your service tag and email address. I'd like to start a case with you.

@Gardiner.d,

You're welcome to send me a PM and we can work together on your case.

@Greg_FR,

To answer your question from page 15. The replacement motherboard stock we have now is a motherboard version with reduced noise. You're welcome to call and proceed with SLN305206. I would be happy to hear about your results from that.

@Community,

I will now address the reason why you're seeing A00 motherboards after January 1st 2017.

-Systems manufactured before Jan 1 2017 will show A00 ( we all know this )
-Systems manufactured between Jan 1 2017 and mid February 2017 will show A02 motherboards ( I don't  have the exact date in February )
-Systems shipped after mid February 2017 will have new part numbers that will show as A00

• This is due to an internal numbering change and not a physical motherboard change. When the part number changed, the A-revision number was set back to zero ( A00 )
• These new part numbers implemented in mid February 2017 and onward are the same motherboards as the A02 motherboards shipped between Jan 1 2017 and Mid February 2017 and therefore contain the reduced noise fix. They just have different numbers on them
• These new part numbers are available at the factory and are also available in service stock. They're outlined in SLN305206 ( give this document ID to Dell tech support if you call )

Thanks so much for your communication and transparency on this issue, Justin! That number change sure is confusing.