New Kaby Lake XPS 13: coil whine

Hi Justin,

Having similar issues to those mentioned. I sent you a friend request. Thank you.

Hi Jared,

1) Can you share what has been done on the A02 motherboard to addressed the issue?  Did Dell use a different type of capacitor that has a reduced noise level and changed to new third party chips without noise?

2) I've recently sent my 9360 manufactured post Jan 2017 back for coil whine, can you tell us what are the root causes of coil whine for the 9360 that has the A02 motherboard?

3) Can you share what are the specifications of the acceptable level of coil noise?  Perhaps something like decibel measurement?  This will help potential customers determine if Dell's acceptable level of coil noise is acceptable for them; for instance, my home office is very quiet, I can hear as low as 20-30 db (I have a db meter, don't ask why I have such a thing).

Looking to buy a new xps 13 9360, can anyone tell me if the coil whine issue has been fixed as of yet?

Per the Dell reps on this thread, there are no complete fix to the coil whine that completely eliminates the noise; only hardware revision that reduces the coil whine to a Dell engineering deemed "acceptable level" of noise.  We do not have any specification what that  "acceptable level" of coil whine noise is neither.

There are also some new 9360 that supposedly have the hardware revision but yet is not within that "acceptable level" of coil whine noise.  Mine was one of them, which I returned.  To-date, there are no new revisions of the 9360 that has the coil whine completely eliminated nor are there plans to have one.

It also strikes me that there are not reviews by the media on the 9360 that exposes this coil whine issue.  What's even more striking is that, looking at the number of users reporting this problem on the internet, it feels as if every single 9360 has this problem if you listen carefully enough.

So sad, there is nothing out there that comes close to the 9360, with screen size to laptop size ratio, powerful specs, replaceable battery, high resolution screen and aluminum/carbon fiber case.

Was the whine always there or just under high load?

I cannot speak for anyone else, but the 2 different 9360 that I had, both had coil whine under light and heavy load, it is constant.  But under light load, the whine is lower than high load.  At first I thought it was something with the speaker, but it is not, it is coil whine.

My 9333's coil whine was so bad it drove me to wear BOSE noise-cancelling headphones all the time.

My 9350 and 9360 don't have noticeable coil whine, other than a little peep now and then. I think I'm just lucky, though... maybe something about how I use them avoids the coil whine...

I still have a 9333 (from 2014) with zero coil whine.

I'd stumbled across this thread before buying my XPS 13, but I had no idea how bad it would be until I heard it myself.

I don't have much information to add, other than my XPS 13 with a 06/29/2017 manufacture date, Core i7-7560U has the squealing issue and it is pretty bad.  Doing any software installation with 'apt' is a good way of making it sing.

Do ALL of the XPS 13s make this sound?  If I exchange it for another one, is there a chance that I could get 'lucky' and get a quiet one?

It's a lottery I think. Mine is silent until I use the GPU (presumably). It squeals when playing Minecraft, when I demoed Adobe Premiere Elements, and once when configuring Windows 10 updates.

Normal use, developing using Eclipse or encoding video with Handbrake doesn't cause the squeals. Weird.

Shoot... just got mine in the mail a couple days ago and I also have the coil issue across (ubuntu default install, Fedora, and fresh Ubuntu install). I don't know if it's better than what other posters were talking about but just having text scroll through xterm causes the thing to whine. Don't get me started on the touchpad...

@DELL-Justin C

Thank you for all the answers and support.

I'll call DELL support tomorrow and give them the SLN305206 document number to get a motherboard swap. I hope they will know what I'm talking about and will proceed... (I'm in France)

I'll keep you updated. Anyway, I've another issue with my 9360 that obviously requires a motherboard swap so... (my system developed random BSOD with memory corruptions).

Any Windows 10 users with issues only when under GPU load, have you tried the latest GPU drivers recently released via Dell?

I just bought an XPS 13, 7500U with the QHD screen.

I had it out of the box for about an hour before deciding to send it back for a return due to this coil whine.

There is minimal coil whine under usual loads, but whenever the processor turbo boosts (starting applications, compiling etc) the coil whine is very audible and not what you would expect from a £1600 laptop.

Is this more prevalent on the XPS 13's or are the 15's just as bad?

I wondered about ordering another XPS 13 to see if I could get one without coil whine, and the customer service agent says coil whine is not an issue any more.... perhaps they should be updated?

1:31:52 PM   Customer James

Initial Question/Comment: I bought an XPS 13 two weeks ago which had terrible coil whine, can I buy more XPS 13's in the hope of getting one with less or no coil whine, and if not return these to Dell?

1:31:57 PM   System System

You are now being connected to an agent. Thank you for using Dell Chat

1:31:57 PM   System System

Connected with Michael_Paul

1:32:12 PM   Agent Michael_Paul

Welcome to Dell Sales Chat, this is Michael your Online Chat Sales Advisor. Hope you are doing well.Just in case the chat gets disconnected can I have your Mobile number?

1:32:17 PM   Customer James

077xxxxxxxx

1:32:17 PM   Agent Michael_Paul

Hi James

1:33:47 PM   Agent Michael_Paul

Sure , I will help you place the new order , so if you have any problems as well then you can come back to me directly , We do not have the Issue any more so you can be rest assured about it , may I know which XPS 13 are you looking at

1:35:17 PM   Customer James

Sorry perhaps I didn't explain properly, I returned the XPS 13 (which I bought two weeks ago) yesterday, it did have this issue. I'm looking for one which does not - I wonder am I free to continue to purchase XPS 13's and return them if they continue to have this issue?

1:35:55 PM   Customer James

I am looking at the version which was on order number xxxxxxx

1:38:19 PM   Agent Michael_Paul

if the issue is a big concern where in you are not getting the correct machine or the machine you recived is faulty then you can return the machine