High-Pitched Noise?

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Snowman88 · #1 Post by **Snowman88** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 2:45 am

Hello. I am new to the forums and am the proud new owner of a Thinkpad T60. I was hoping that maybe some of you could help me out with a problem I am having.

I have pretty sensitive ears AND I tend to be obsessive about new computers (horrible combination!) and I have recently noticed a rather faint, high-pitched noise being emitted from my computer. It seems to be coming from the fan area, but I am not entirely sure. It is not too loud; you need to be in a quiet room and looking for it, but I can hear it.

I noticed that the sound almost entirely disappears if I mess with the power management settings and lower them to something like Maximum Battery Performance or Word Processing. In other words, anything lower than what I usually run it on, which is Maximum Performance. Does anyone have any ideas what this could be, and whether I should be concerned about it? It really isn't that bad, but like I said I can hear it if the room is silent and just want to know whether I should be concerned.

Thank you so much for your help.

#2 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:12 am

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

From your description, it sounds like have a singing inductor. It could be on the motherboard or the inverter board that powers the LCD's backlight. Since it appears to change volume/tone when you play with the power/performance settings, I'd say it's on the motherboard. While it is probably not something that would affect the functionality of the laptop, I can understand how annoying it can be. One of my T23 systems has this same problem. It's there whether it's being powered by battery only or with an AC adapter. It changes volume if the power settings are altered. There's three fixes that I know of:

- apply something like hot glue around the offending component
- replace the part
- replace the motherboard

I've learned to live with it but I have also considered the first solution. Assuming that yours is a new system and still covered by a warranty, you could ask your seller if it's possible that you can try another system.

Snowman88 · #3 Post by **Snowman88** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:31 am

Hello RKawakami -- thank you for the detailed and helpful response.

A singing inductor? That sounds like a person more than a computer part.

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but from the sound of your post it seems that this does not necessarily indicate a malfunctioning or defective part. It is definitely annoying, but I think that I might be even more annoyed by the inconvenience of having to fight to get a whole new system. As long as it is not something that will cause problems, I am most likely inclined just to keep my current system.

Is this a common issue or a rarity? If it's a rarity I may look into trying to fix it, but if it's common and another system might have the exact same problem, I'm not sure if it's worth it.

Edit: Just to confirm, I tested again, and the sound is there whether it's on AC or battery, though it does seem to be a bit louder on battery than on AC. Like you said, adjusting the power settings is what affects the noise.

Again, thanks very much for the help. It's always appreciated.

heiss · #4 Post by **heiss** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:50 am

Well, I'm pretty sure that what snowmann is experiencing is a noise from the fan. I don't think this is from motherboard or inductor because the sounds starts whenever the fan kicks in. I actually opened up my TP and took out the fan and checked out where the noise comes out. It was exactly from the fan itself--not from the wind that is blowing out of the fan. I think this issue is a rather common for the TP60 users, including me and has been dealt with in numerous threads. You will easily find them if you make a little bit of effort. It is quite annoying of course. But if the noise is minimal as you describe it you may consider yourself LUCKY!

z_24 · #5 Post by **z_24** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 9:39 am

check out here
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=3516
I had the same problem before, and thankfully after tweaking my CPU power management it's gone. But the problem still present during battery power

.
It is not a fan problem because before every time I had to scroll a page full of pictures or icons the noise appears. If I stop scrolling it disappears. So, it's definitely the power management problem as described by the link above.
This is a common problem among Core Duo 1/2 laptops.

#6 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:10 am

I'd have to say that if it really is an inductor with slightly loose windings, and not a fan with noisy bearings, then you will probably get as much life out of your system than if you had one which didn't make any noise.

The one T23 I use every day does exactly the opposite thing that z_24 experiences; my system emits the whine all of the time and stops (or stutters) when I scroll. I had received this system and it failed to turn on. When I opened it up, I noticed that a part (an inductor) was missing next to the CPU

. I replaced it with one from a dead T23 motherboard I had and it has been working fine ever since (Sept 06). It has also been singing the whole time

.

brentpresley · #7 Post by **brentpresley** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:42 am

I've got this problem on my T60p in battery mode. Turning on Bluetooth kills the noise.

My T42 had the same problem (and my wife's Dell, and . . .).

It is an EXTREMELY common problem on Centrino notebooks and I have heard is related to the design of power management circuitry (i.e. this is a design problem at the chipset level, and nothing that Lenovo did wrong).

You will find a LOT of fixes out there for this, so just use one that works with your laptop.

propellen · #8 Post by **propellen** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:47 am

I'm experiencing the same thing.
The sound comes and goes, it doesnt bother me too much.Not on this thinkpad. But I can definitley confirm that its there!

I had some simmilar problems with previous (centrino) laptops. They were MUCH worse..

Snowman88 · #9 Post by **Snowman88** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:15 pm

Hey guys. You're great, thanks for the helpful responses.

Just to clarify, the sound does *not* only kick in when the fan starts; it is a constant high-pitched noise that lessens if I lower the CPU load via the power management settings. I just thought it was coming from the fan area. So from everything you have all said, I think that it probably is what sounds like an all-too-common problem on Centrino computers. There is also a staticky/pulsating sound that some of you have described: it seems to be there along with the high pitched noise and comes in "pulses" every few seconds, and is particularly noticeable when I scroll up and down a page. Also, not too noticeable unless you're listening for it. Are these two noises -- the constant high pitched sound and the more staticky pulse -- part of the same "feature"?

I am eager to try the fix that you suggested, z_24, but I am a bit hesitant to mess with things as that solution sounds a bit complicated and I am really not too techie with computers. Is there any harm in following that procedure? Also, I noticed that the procedure is designed to remedy a noise that comes from the processor's throttling / adjusting its speed. My noise seems to be constant, and not only when the processor is adjusting itself. Is that still the same issue?

Thanks again, all!

sugo · #10 Post by **sugo** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:16 pm

With my X60s on battery, there is high pitch noise whenever CPU state moves to C3. If I disable CPU power management in BIOS, CPU stays at C2 at the lowest thus no noise. But that's far from ideal as far as battery life is concerned.

My T42 on battery is dead silent when fan is off and hdd spun down.

setzer71 · #11 Post by **setzer71** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 1:59 pm

Aye, I have the same noise problem here with my t60p. Right now, I have a usb device plug in to circumvent the noise. I'm wondering if the IBM depot repair can fix this. Does your unit make a constant high pitch noise when you put it on standby? Mine does, and it drives me bonkers when i'm in a quiet room.

brentpresley · #12 Post by **brentpresley** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 7:06 pm

setzer71 wrote:Aye, I have the same noise problem here with my t60p. Right now, I have a usb device plug in to circumvent the noise. I'm wondering if the IBM depot repair can fix this. Does your unit make a constant high pitch noise when you put it on standby? Mine does, and it drives me bonkers when i'm in a quiet room.

This is NOT an IBM/Lenovo problem. It is an Intel DESIGN issue.

There is NO permanent fix. Only workarounds.

PLEASE don't waste the tech's time by complaining about something they have no control over.

claudeo · #13 Post by **claudeo** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 11:19 pm

It is an Intel design issue but it can be exacerbated by individual mechanical tolerances in parts or in assembly (e.g. rigidity of the surface mounting of a component, microscopic variations in dimensions in inductor parts may result in very high pitch noise, the kind most of us don't hear unless we happen to have a "tuned" hearing component that resonates). Sometimes a component replacement fixes the problem, sometimes something that has some tuning action, sometimes nothing will fix the problem because the overlap between the "irritable" and the "irritating" frequency ranges is too broad.
It is usually fixable by technical means, but whether it is worth the cost is the big issue here. For example, old hands have learned long ago how to silence some noisy inductor circuits by mechanical damping with a dab of silicon, and such tricks that are not efficient to apply to a mass market product like a laptop computer, especially since the noise may only appear when the assembly is rigidly back together.

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