XR341CKB Coil whine ?

Just picked up one of these monitors, all seems good so far, no dead pixels low blb etc. But i did notice that when I lowered the brightness from 80 (or as bright as the sun) to anything below 40-45~ depending on what colours were on the screen (white,blue black all seem to cause it) I get a very noticeable sound coming from the display. Higher then this and its quite.

I have read a couple of threads on here but even though I have seen a few people mention this it seems to have taken a backseat compared to the backlight turning on/off issuse some are having (again apparently solved by burning you eyes out by having the screen very bright).

Has there been any reponse from ACER on this problem or any soloutions found ? Would hate to have to return the monitor only to have a replacmeant that suffers from other issues.

Accepted answers

All comments

Samg381

I can attest to this. I'm on my second monitor and I can hear popping and whining on and off occasionally.

badger

No word from ACER on this problem at all yet ?

Samg381

Nope. As you said, the freesync monitor is overshadowed by the Gsync one, and we're not getting any attention really. I've already been through two monitors so getting replacements alis futile.

badger

It does seem that way. I really dotn want to sent my screen back if I dont have to only to get a worst one. But I also dont want to end up sending it back in a months or twos time only to get a refurb back.

Samg381

That's the nature of the beast my friend. I'm not sending this one back. My only hope is for Acer to push some software where you can update the firmware.

badger

Thats what I am hopeing for, that or you need a new power supply brick. Does seem like ACER has an issue with not testing these units at lower brightness levels and having an under spec part in the unit that only shows issues at lower levels.

Even more annoying is I work for a small Electronic manufacture and I could most likely fix it if I wanted to void my warrenty

Windholic

Dear Acer team, I really want to like my new X34, but I am by now on my second screen (with all the hassle of staying at home to receive it) and both have the same issue:

Coil Whine on a White / light background. Very easy to test: Open Powerpoint, go into presentation mode - hit 'B' for Black screen, absolutely no noise - hit 'W' for White screen, and there is a very clearly audible coil whine. For those without PowerPoint, just open google on full screen.

Based on what I have read in forums I am starting to believe that this might be Europe specific - US/Canadian users seem to be OK. I don't know if it has to do with the power brick now adjusting correctly or anything else, but please look into this.

I have two weeks left to return this and as much as I want to like this monitor: Either there is a solution in two weeks or I am out and will wait for something else.

mdm

Put sound to 0 and no noise.
The noise is from the speakers!

badger

Hand on heart I was going to say that was aload of **** as it makes no sense what so ever. But i just tried it now after getting home and you are right it only bloody works, so I sugegst the others give it ago and thanks for suggesting it Smiley Happy

mdm

Probably some ugly frequency interference with the back-light DC control when brightness set under cca 50?
I know coill whine from GPU, CPU (yes, had it!), and it is not like this, and it was clear (to my ears) to come from the speakers.
Still, not deal breaking but annoying...

badger

Yeh thats all I can think off, something that shoudl of been picked up in teh developpment stage (would of for us anyway...).

Not deal breaking really noone should be spending 700+ on a screen and not have a decentish set of headphones or speakers to go with it.

CutterSlade

I am sorry to say so, but the problem is definitly not solved.

I had two of these displays here at home, and both of them showed a quite annoying noise when displaying mostly white content on screen (especially with high contrast motives). The noise was emitted by the screen itself (mostly left hand corner and middle of the bottom) and not the speakers, so it was no surprise that turning down the speaker-volume to zero made no change.

Acer, this is a big deal! This problem is much more annoying than the wake-up problem (which i could live with) and all in all a clear deal breaker.

In german hardware-boards every user is mourning about this problem and 90% of them are returning their units.

I would really like to see someone from the official side respond to this, as it was done in the LED-wake-up-thread.

badger

Well it solved my issue when I tried it last night with a random selection of colours on the screen at a lower brightness. Mine had more issues on blue or even black screens then white. Noise was comming from the bottom left corner but wasnt a constant whine.

Not saying its fixed all noise issues but it seems to have fixed mine so is worth trying for people with this issue, whether it fixes it for ever only time will tell. I will check it all again once im home from work tonight.

And I would agree with you that this is a much bigger and more annoying issue then the backlight problem that seems to either clear its self up or has a user workaround at the moment.

CutterSlade

Turning down the brightness didn't solve the problem for me, it didn't even reduce the noise.

I think I tried nearly every possible soultion, but none of it worked.

Again: Here in germany every owner has this problem. This is a great problem not only for the owners but also for the reputation of the company. Acer, please respond and recognize this problem!

mdm

Oh yes, mine is the XR341CK FreeSync one. Is your the X34?
If so maybe it is an whole other issue like the G-sync module fault..?

badger

@ CutterSlade Sorry I meant it worked at lower brightness on a random selection of colours after muting the sound, before hand i had to have the brightness at 45+ for it not to make any noise.

Once again its been fine all evening, playing BF4 and looking at OCUK forums and all has been well.

CutterSlade

Mine is the Gsync version and the noise becomes louder the more Hz the display is set to. At 60Hz it's pretty silent, but everything above that is noisy.

badger

Think that's a different issue I think, one that only effects the Gsync units at higher refresh rates and I would guess is a component whining in agony. Seems that it's an issue for some at 100Hz and you have just been unlucky to get one effected even lower down the Hz's range.

mdm

@ CutterSlade
Figured you have the X34, even if the title of the thread clearly says XR341CKB, you missed it.

People seems to mix the X34 and the XR341CKB all the time in this forum, and even sometimes some of them not getting it is a "almost" totally different monitor (except the panel itself), even the OSD menu is and the options in it, the G-sync module...
It has then become so hard to tell which one are the people referring too practically in every thread referring to them.
Very confusing...
It is so much harder then to grasp and follow the situation and the precise issue, isolate it, and ultimately to be helped by Acer.

CutterSlade

Ok that's true and I apologize for the confusion.
I thought that the coil whine problem would be the same, no matter if it's the Gsync or freesync version of the display, as it seems to be the panel itself that is emitting the noise. I guess, the reason why the Gsync version is suffering even harder is, that you are able to squeeze more Hz out of the panel.

Quick Links

Top Members

Weekly

Puraw 220

Jack22 125

GAMING6698 60

vsparky 60

Diya1811 55

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™