ACER VN7 792G makes buzzing noise

Hi,
I bought the laptop from amazon.com on July 23, 2016. Currently, I live in Armenia and as I know Acer does not have official service center here (the nearest one is in Russia).

I have some problems with the laptop. It makes strange buzzing noise or some sort of quiet coil whine whenever I move the mouse, scroll a page or anything. The noise comes from the upper left corner. I've tried to use the laptop wifi card, HDD and DVD removed, but the noise is still present. I am sure that that noise does not come from the fans. The noise is very audible in silence. During the recording process, I was scrolling the Google Chrome page which was causing the buzzing noise and also an install wizard was running.

It will be difficult for me to send it for a repair as it is connected with big expenses. I need a piece of advice about the part causing the annoying sound. I would like to replace the part myself.
You can find attached the recording of that noise. Also, find enclosed the image indicating the area that the sound comes from. I understand that helping without diagnosing the laptop is not easy, but still, any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!
Regards

https://soundcloud.com/jamesthomson90/record20170226193151

https://soundcloud.com/jamesthomson90/voice-009

Accepted answers

All comments

Nivenor

Firstly look at this: http://imgur.com/a/kykBk

The noise you recorded is most probably a coil whine. Area highlighted on the photo is the CPU area. Most probably, sound comes from the one of CPU power coils.

What you can do:
1) Try to unplug USB devices. Maybe it sounds strange, but unplugging a device from the left USB port and plugging it to the right port (or vice versa) can help sometimes.
2) Try to set minimum CPU state = 100% or maximum CPU state = 99% in Windows advanced power settings. Sometimes the coil noise appears only on certain CPU load level or certain CPU frequency range.
3) Try to boot Windows in safe mode or boot any Linux distro from USB flash. This can help you understand, can your issue be resolved in software level, or it cannot. Sometimes the coil noise appears only when CPU is loaded by certain sort of software tasks. (E.g. one of my laptops whined with VMWare services running in background.)
4) Forget about warranty and go to the nearest well-respected service center.

VODA

Thank you very much for your answer!!! I will try and post about the results.

RadeonHD

I have noticed the same coil noise on my vn7 laptop ever since I bought it. If you find a way to solve it please post here.

VODA

Unfortunately, nothing helped. The buzzing sound comes from the back of the laptop and is present all the time, it simply intensifies when scrolling or doing anything. Time to go to a service center!

https://soundcloud.com/jamesthomson90/voice-012

!

IMG_6935.jpg

PacoRodriguez

I have the same noise (or it sounds very similar, high pitch whizzing which gets louder when I move the mouse, and comes from the top left corner of the laptop) in my Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51). This laptop is new from a couple weeks ago and I only heard it for the first time today.

@Nivenor's suggestion #2, changing the maximum processor state from 100% to 99%, fixed it.

Nivenor said:
2) Try to set minimum CPU state = 100% or maximum CPU state = 99% in Windows advanced power settings. Sometimes the coil noise appears only on certain CPU load level or certain CPU frequency range.

To give more detail to the solution that worked for me:

Windows 10 > Settings > Power & Sleep > Additional Power Settings > Change Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Settings > Processor Power Management, and change "Minimum processor state" and/or "maximum processor state" from 100% to 99%.

The noise stops when I do this, and if I change it back to 100%, the noise comes back!

See this VIDEO which shows me changing back from 99% to 100%, and the hissing noise starts when I click "Apply":
https://youtu.be/tANIdOgPHXo

What is the cause of this noise? Should I be worried about the health of my new laptop? Should I take it for maintenance? I live in the UK.

andylb

PacoRodriguez said:

I have the same noise (or it sounds very similar, high pitch whizzing which gets louder when I move the mouse, and comes from the top left corner of the laptop) in my Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51). This laptop is new from a couple weeks ago and I only heard it for the first time today.

@Nivenor's suggestion #2, changing the maximum processor state from 100% to 99%, fixed it.
Nivenor said:
2) Try to set minimum CPU state = 100% or maximum CPU state = 99% in Windows advanced power settings. Sometimes the coil noise appears only on certain CPU load level or certain CPU frequency range.
To give more detail to the solution that worked for me:
Windows 10 > Settings > Power & Sleep > Additional Power Settings > Change Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Settings > Processor Power Management, and change "Minimum processor state" and/or "maximum processor state" from 100% to 99%.
The noise stops when I do this, and if I change it back to 100%, the noise comes back!

See this VIDEO which shows me changing back from 99% to 100%, and the hissing noise starts when I click "Apply":
https://youtu.be/tANIdOgPHXo

What is the cause of this noise? Should I be worried about the health of my new laptop? Should I take it for maintenance? I live in the UK.

This Topic is old and dead. You have a different model, please start a new Topic for your question, thankyou

VODA

I use the same trick to get rid of that noise.

As far as I know, the coil whine is a result of voltage changes inside the CPU, and it is a pretty normal phenomenon in physics. I don't think it will cause any problems in terms of laptop longevity. Also, it has been already three years that I own this laptop, and I haven't had any problem so far, besides the annoying buzzing sound. I don't think that it's something that people at Acer can fix. You either should return the laptop and search for one without coil whine or live with it. I live in Armenia.

PacoRodriguez

I have the same noise (or it sounds very similar, high pitch whizzing which gets louder when I move the mouse, and comes from the top left corner of the laptop) in my Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51). This laptop is new from a couple weeks ago and I only heard it for the first time today.

@Nivenor's suggestion #2, changing the maximum processor state from 100% to 99%, seems to fix it:

Nivenor said:
2) Try to set minimum CPU state = 100% or maximum CPU state = 99% in Windows advanced power settings. Sometimes the coil noise appears only on certain CPU load level or certain CPU frequency range.

To give a more detailed explanation of how to find this:

Windows 10 > Settings > Power & Sleep > Additional Power Settings > Change Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Settings > Processor Power Management, and change "Minimum processor state" and/or "maximum processor state" from 100% to 99%.

The noise stops when I click "Apply", and if I change it back to 100%, the noise comes back!

See this VIDEO which shows me changing back from 99% to 100%, and the hissing noise starts when I click "Apply": https://youtu.be/tANIdOgPHXo

What is the cause of this noise? Should I be worried about the health of my new laptop? Should I take it for maintenance? I live in the UK.

PacoRodriguez

I have the same noise (or it sounds very similar, high pitch whizzing which gets louder when I move the mouse, and comes from the top left corner of the laptop) in my Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51). This laptop is new from a couple weeks ago and I only heard it for the first time today.

@Nivenor's suggestion #2, changing the maximum processor state from 100% to 99%, seems to fix it:

Nivenor said:
2) Try to set minimum CPU state = 100% or maximum CPU state = 99% in Windows advanced power settings. Sometimes the coil noise appears only on certain CPU load level or certain CPU frequency range.

To give a more detailed explanation of how to find this:

Windows 10 > Settings > Power & Sleep > Additional Power Settings > Change Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Settings > Processor Power Management, and change "Minimum processor state" and/or "maximum processor state" from 100% to 99%.

The noise stops when I click "Apply", and if I change it back to 100%, the noise comes back!

See this VIDEO which shows me changing back from 99% to 100%, and the hissing noise starts when I click "Apply": https://youtu.be/tANIdOgPHXo

What is the cause of this noise? Should I be worried about the health of my new laptop? Should I take it for maintenance? I live in the UK.

andylb

@PacoRodriguez PLEASE start a new topic for your question, click "Ask a Question" on the main page. Posting in old topics with multiple questions becomes confusing to those of us who answer the questions

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