Inspirion 1000 Noise w/ Battery Power

Question

Hey, Obviously my first post here, please be gentle. =) I recently (last week) purchased a Dell Inspirion 1000 notebook. I was attempting to install a usb optical mouse on the device but XP was continuously not recognizing the device. Figuring it was a conflict between the mobo (or bios) and the particular mouse, I upgraded the bios from A02 to A03. With the upgraded bios the mouse works perfectly. Unfortunately, with the new BIOS version of A03 I've noticed that whenever I run on battery power the notebook emits a horrible squealing/hissing/whirring noise. This noise increases in volume as the cpu load increases. In fact, I opened the XP Task Manager and the lovely CPU Usage graph matched the level of the noise coming out of the system perfectly. So, for whatever reason, when running on battery power with an Inspirion 1000 (A03) the system makes a hissing/whirring/squealing noise, which increases in volume proportionally with the CPU usage. Why and how can I fix this? Of course, I did call DELL and the solution (after 2 hours) was to send the system in to the mail-in experts for fixing. That isn't really something I want to try 1 week into my new system. Any advice? Thanks!

Loonie2k · Answer

I thought about the fan possibility... however, this jus started after the BIOs upgrade. Also, it only occurs when on battery. Also, I don't feel any airflow coming out of the system accompanying this noise. I mean, definetely not the fan that blows air on the copper heatsink that I can see through the back.

Any other thoughts? How many fans does this baby have?

ejn63 · Answer

It sounds like a noisy fan. If it is, and you're that close to the time of purchase, I'd return it and order a new one.

ejn63 · Answer

Assuming you haven't left a disc in the optical drive, the only other source of noise would be the hard drive.

Loonie2k · Answer

I suppose that's the only logical thing left. However, it doesn't make any sound when on A/C power only when on battery power. Plus, it doesn't sound like any hard drive i've ever heard. Finally, it would seem that the noise would be much louder with heavy hdd use but instead the noise level increases with cpu usage.

I'm thinking it's somehow related to the CPU based on the fact that the noise increases as cpu usage increases. However, I haven't a clue how/why that would be happening. Anyone know?

jdibella · Answer

I have not tried my computer with power but I too have noticed this same problem. My laptop (600m) is less than a week old. I'm not very happy about this but I noticed that you can no longer here the hiss when their is heavier CPU usage. Any ideas?

jdibella · Answer

Well, I just called and had a new laptop sent to me. I'm not about to deal with any problems. The technician tried to get me to have my laptop's fan "looked at" for possible malfunction. I told him that being that my laptop is a week old I will NOT have it looked at and I want an exchange right now. He said "Ok sir I'll have that done right away."

New one is on the way.

Loonie2k · Answer

I finally got through to someone at Dell who was able to help me out. After about 45 minutes on hold, I spoke with a rep. who was able to contact the engineering department about this problem. They confirmed it was a definete issue with the A02 bios. They told me they would work on a fix and get it up ASAP. Yesterday, Dell released bios version A03 for the Inspirion 1000 which includes a fix for the "battery optimization algorithim". It seems to be working much better now.

Thanks Dell!

carlosfernandez_b931b1 · Answer

i just figured out what causes it. when booting up hit f12 and then keep click on the tabs until u find a section that has windows battery utization. turn that off. and no more noise

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