XPS 8930 SE, vibration, hum is back again

A power supply could have a component hum/buzz.  Hard to say what it is from this distance.

GK

I did order the 850W power supply, instead of the 460W, it's a higher wattage for sure, but do these types of high watt tend to cause more noise issues? The highest I've had before is a 650W in my old Dell Inspiron. Also, I was wondering if it was the way it's seating in the case, as it tends to go away once it's reseated.

I can't speak to PSU capacity and noise, but I know that circuit components within can vary and sometimes a coil or whatever can make electrically-induced noise.  Still, you have to find the source of the sound, not just suspect things.  Sometimes you can use a tube like a paper towel tube up to your ear as a sound pipe to listen around to locate the source of the noise... it will get louder as you home in on it.

GK

NOISE 101?

bad fan in PSU now?, or just full of lint caused it to unbalance and when ANY motor goes off balance other things shake, and those thing can make noise too, In sympathetic even resonant vibration,.

pluck a Guitar string just 1, and see strings next to it vibrate (bingo?) in your case the noise is conductive.

the higher wattage PSU will run cooler, and if running cooler the fan controls see that and spin the fan slower or even not  all below 20% full load. (if dell did there job right, that is, and WHO KNOWS THAT?)

why not just wait and try it, and post the results

or blow out the current PSU  (using walmart CAN-0-AIR,  on the shelf there, below keyboards.)

or put wood tooth picks in the gaps or PSU to frame or hinge points, or even duct tape it down. (easy stuff)

or have a real shop that can hear good find real sources of noise, not the side show, (sympathetic noise point the actual source)

all motors in any PC can fail and all can make too much noise or vibrate and cause other things to make noise.

My PC here 5 fans (DIY z270) all mine are quiet , all are good, all are run via fan controller I control.

if one failed, my simple stethoscope finds it in minutes, or a card board tube to my  ear, finding it.

Ask others how to find noise true source. (it's a show and tell thing and needs dismantlement's and even lock jamming up any loose parts, lets say you lock up  a loose hinge, and omg the PSU fan is now load and ugly.

Most fans that fail are bad, full of lint or wires hitting blades or missing blade or one cracked, all cause noise;.

bad bearings in a fan too. loose and bad.

In many cases the huge fan noise is 100% normal say gaming, and it's just doing its job,,  removing KILLER heat.

seek live help.

the things one can do to find this is huge.

with case side off,  and making noise, (IS IT) push things and see if pushing things end the noise.

for sure PSU box. use wood dowel to push things to keep fingers safe, only danger inside is fingers hitting live spinning blades, so do hot hit those blades. or they break.

Ask wife or  GF for kitchen towel used card board tube,  you just got a free useful tool.

use it. find noise,(one end to ear, other and scanning all things in the PC at 1inch away) (approx)

me, I fix cars too and have a tool called electronic, stethoscope and has clamp on microphones.

making a dangerous job 100% safe on cars. and useful on all machines made by man even computers.

Tools make jobs more easy,  and is why good shops have lots of good tools. (and skills)

max age of this PC is 3 years old

ever clean it of lint inside, after 3 years, they can get very dirty in places inside, and even run to hot and fans do speed up.  like this.

lint can even cause  fan blade to go OFF BALANCE< ponder that. first.

we do ours every year, blow out, and inspections.  (a wise normal service job)

and never looks like those pictures of doom.

The latches "seem" to work, but they seem like when they lock, it's a very lose lock. Hard to explain, they just don't have that lock in feel to them when you move them to the lock position. This PC is just a little over 2 weeks old, and it is very clean inside. These problems have been right out of the box, before I even opened the PC. As a matter of fact I was hoping not to have to open it for awhile at least, I don't think there should have been problems like this right out of the box. All I know is when I swing the power supply out then in again, relock it, then close it's good for a few days. I been trying to narrow this down, but it's difficult, and this is a very new setup for me, my last Dell was an ancient Inspiron 530 that I managed to keep running for years. I think this new tool-less design might be creating issues that otherwise might not have been there. In other words, if there was a way to screw down the power supply to the case, this might not even be happening at all. Just very frustrated, this PC cost a lot, was brand new, and I would hate to send it back over an issue like this.

Right now after re-latching it in last night, it's dead silent, and normally by now, it would be buzzing and humming, sometimes very loud. I probably should just put the felt pads in on the side panel like I was going to, that will at least dampen the vibration and noise, but the underlying problem has to be with that swingarm and power supply, otherwise this wouldn't have stopped after reseated it. It also proves to me that there aren't bad fans, because a simple reseating and dead silent. If it was a bad fan, it would be buzzing intermittently no matter what I did. I had a bad power supply fan on my last PC, and it didn't matter what I moved it was pretty much there. This is different because I can reseat something, and the sound disappears for quite awhile. There has to be some connection there. Right now all I have is that the latches in the back seem like they don't like hard, and the pivot arm for the power supply that swings out seems to sag a bit too, I have to hold it up a bit to get it to slide in the proper position.

I'm starting to wonder if the case was damaged while they put in my custom parts request. I had the 850W put in, instead of the 460W, and I did have a Blu-ray drive put in, instead of the DVD. I'm wondering if when the standard parts were swapped out, (if they take a standard and swap them) the case wasn't damaged in some way. Or perhaps in shipping, but the box was in very good shape when I received it. Starting to wonder if a case swap might be in order....

@SevL- They don't swap out parts from a previously built PC to install upgraded components when they're ordered.

It could just be a change in (CPU) fan speed and/or the PSU fan turning on. The PSU fan is normally off, unless/until it's needed. Opening the case, swinging the arm out and back, and then re-assembling may give a warm PSU enough time to cool down so its fan doesn't come on when you re-boot.

Can you tie the noise to CPU and/or GPU temps and/or to watching a vid, playing a game, etc? In other words to things that might cause increased heat...

disconnect power from optical drive.

is the sound gone?

For now, the system is still quiet on almost day three now, and the only thing I did was reseat the swing arm power supply and relock. I guess at this point I'm wondering if anyone else on here has had issue with this mechanism and system for the power supply. I believe this was used in not just the 8930 but even the 8920 or lower? Just curious if anyone else has had issues in this particular area, and what if anything was ultimately done about it. I do not believe it is the Blu-ray, as this has been pretty much quiet the whole time I've owned the system. At this point I think the vibrations start because the swing arm and locks are not seating the way they should or are coming out of place within a certain length of time. In other words not sitting where they should. Has anyone else had issues like this with the style of Dell case? Just curious to see. Thanks to anyone who responds.

The hum disappear when I touch the casing on the left side...

The noise is from the metal casing  on my xps8930. I am to lazy to fix it better with duct tape or something else. When I touch it it disappears for a few hours or days more...

Try that

---

@pierre gr wrote:

 

1. I am to lazy to fix it better

2. The hum disappear when I touch the casing on the left side...

The noise is from the metal casing  on my xps8930 with duct tape or something else. When I touch it it disappears for a few hours or days more...

 

---

1. You are not alone. Seems to be a common theme lately.

2. In my experience, the vibrations are caused by either of two things:

a. Parts to move or spin (fans, spinning-platter hard-drives, etc.) . Sometimes those can be replaced, or sometimes you can install rubber grommets or other vibration isolating materials.

b. All this "tool-less or screw-less" case constructions. It's great once-a-year when you actually have to get inside, but the rest of the time it causes a lose frame and pieces that start vibrating easily. 

The fix is to insert a screw, maybe some tape. In the past, I have also strategically placed kitchen-cabinet-bumpers that compress-down on pieces when everything is closed-up.

@pierre gr - This thread is 2 years old...

Just get some stick-on felt strips and put them on the edge(s) on the inside of the panel to stop the buzz.