Awful noise coming from G9-793 - not a fan, not from speakers

touchnova

About 4-5 days ago my Predator 17 (G9-793) started making an awful noise while gaming.  The sounds starts with a random grinding noise, almost like a bad processor or hard drive, but it's not mechanical, more electrical.  Over time it evolves into a sort of whine that gets louder and louder.  Here's a video I made recording it and moving my phone mic around different parts of the case.  The grinding noise is hard to hear at this point through the whine, but it's pretty easy to make out around 0:55-1:00 in the video.  Have read other threads about this problem, some say it's definitely speaker noise (which mine is not), so looking for any input/advice.  I've had this laptop about 10 months and after only a few days of this noise I hardly want to use the thing...very loud, very annoying.

Well, Acer let me post the video link as a comment on a similar thread, but won't let me post the youtube link in my own post.  So just paste this onto the end of youtube . com: /watch?v=l_iyRQ830oI

touchnova

While others have suggested "remedies" to this issue, the ONLY solution is to send your laptop in to Acer for repairs...specifically, a motherboard replacement.  Bottom line - this device, despite the cost, was produced and shipped with a faulty primary component.  There is another, recently admin-closed, thread here in the forums that chronicles the fact that many, many owners of the g9-593 and g9-793 have run into this same issue and have had to send their devices in for repair.

However, 7 months later, I'm sitting here with completely dead laptop that will not power on.  I've reset the battery, tried powering the laptop with the battery disconnected, tried powering via battery-only...the device is completely dead.  Despite being a laptop, I have taken this device outside of my residence only once during my ownership, for approximately 2 hours.  It has literally been sitting in the same place and used as effectively a "desktop" the whole time.  This device has not been dropped or mistreated in ANY way...it is in perfect, MINT condition since I use attached keyboard, mouse and monitor.  That it simply died is nauseating, and now that I have to send it in to Acer (yet again) for repairs...another 3-week process where I am unable to produce work effectively...even more nauseating.

ven98

If it isn't a speaker issue, then it can't be anything else except a very awful kind of coil whine. Can you find out the about location of where the sound is coming from? You can perform a battery reset. Disconnect from charger, turn off the laptop and follow the instruction.

From what I hear on the video, the noise is just unbearable. If battery reset doesn't help, you will have to contact Acer and request your device to be taken a look at.

touchnova

Gotta be honest...less than excited about this.  If it's coil whine, and if Acer even worked on the thing, at best all they'd do is replace components with the same components and...10 months down the road, the same thing would happen.  I did discover, however, that if I turn all graphics settings down as low as they'll go, the machine never makes the awful noise I have been hearing.  But why...why would I spend a few thousand dollars on a "gaming" laptop to have to play on low just so the thing doesn't end up sounding like a belt grinder after a few hours of play?  I've been exceptionally pleased with this laptop for the last 10 months.  But now...very, very disappointed considering this seems to be an issue not entirely uncommon with this model.

ven98

Have you tried limiting your fps with V-sync to see if it will make a difference?

touchnova

Yeah, I play with V-sync enabled and FPS is fixed at 60, everything else just follows (followed) NVIDEA's game-ready optimization...which happens to be max.  I only really play one game, Path of Exile, which isn't on the extreme end of 'demanding' compared to many modern games.  But it's run quiet for the last two days with settings on low, so I'll fiddle around with increasing quality incrementally to find a sweet spot.  It's less than ideal, but at least I can be in the same room as my own laptop...lol.

ven98

This is unacceptable from my point of view to lower the settings just because you can't bear with the noise. I have owned a predator for more than 10 months and it didn't develop this issue, so I don't think it is common. That is why I suggest you to contact Acer and request your device to be taken a look at. Even if it develops the same issue after 10months(which I doubt), at least it will be 10 months of quietness . Getting it repaired will be worth the waiting.

touchnova

I think you're right.  I have 2 months left on my 1-year, so now is the time if I'm going to do it.  I'm hesitant to send it out with 2 internal hard drives full of content though, as my work/income is based off of this machine.  I wonder if they would allow me to pull my drives and send it to them that way...lots of intellectual property on them, both that of mine and of clients.  But thanks again for your input and support, nice to hear a voice in the darkness!

Rares95

lithics said:

I think you're right.  I have 2 months left on my 1-year, so now is the time if I'm going to do it.  I'm hesitant to send it out with 2 internal hard drives full of content though, as my work/income is based off of this machine.  I wonder if they would allow me to pull my drives and send it to them that way...lots of intellectual property on them, both that of mine and of clients.  But thanks again for your input and support, nice to hear a voice in the darkness!

Same for me.... I will send them with and block the access to the HDDs with Group Policy and BACK THEM UP

ven98

The problem is no matter what is the issue with the laptop, whether it is a coil whine, noisy fans or non responding keyboard they will always pre-install the windows(not reseting to factory settings, but deleting the current OS with all info and installing it a new). They also wipe out the secondary drive and all partitions that have been created. Even if you lock the drive, there is still a way to unlock it or at least format it.

Rares95

ven98 said:

The problem is no matter what is the issue with the laptop, whether it is a coil whine, noisy fans or non responding keyboard they will always pre-install the windows(not reseting to factory settings, but deleting the current OS with all info and installing it a new). They also wipe out the secondary drive and all partitions that have been created. Even if you lock the drive, there is still a way to unlock it or at least format it.

Should it be ok if i include some Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut thermal paste for them to use it?

ven98

Custom thermal paste voids the warranty. They are allowed to repaste with the thermal paste provided to them in the service centre only. 

touchnova

Hold up.....you're saying they erase all content on both drives by default?  They don't even *try* to save content?  What on earth kind of policy is that? 

ven98

lithics said:

Hold up.....you're saying they erase all content on both drives by default?  They don't even *try* to save content?  What on earth kind of policy is that? 

I am just sharing my experience of when I sent my laptop to Acer. Maybe if you ask them not to erase the data from the secondary drive, they will not format it.

touchnova

Got the word from Acer - no dice on them leaving my content intact. The first thing they do is go factory-fresh on the hard drives.  Have deleted all of my content off of the device, removed all applications I've installed (except Firefox for now) and will be boxing up the laptop and sending it off tomorrow AM.  Very bummed about this, but am hoping they can resolve the issue - the coil whine and electrical discharge have only gotten worse.  For those interested, I documented the experience of going from a silent laptop to coil whine/electrical discharge back to a silent laptop using Heaven Benchmark 4.0.  It took approximately 4 minutes for the first audible electrical discharge to occur, and by minute 12 it is unbearable.  Video length is 20 minutes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=l14DSzdY_wQ

Queen6

Sounds more like mechanical interference with one of the fans that is triggered by thermal expansion.  I had a similar problem with an Apple MacBook Pro several years back, noise kept coming and going, only relationship was movement of the notebook.  Eventually I pulled it apart to find a fair size bug wrapped up in the fan.  Similar to this only ever happened if the computer was warm and didn't sound like the typical failed fan noise one would expect.  Once cleaned up never reoccurred.

FWIW I live in the sub tropics and frequently work in the tropics, with insects seemingly being drawn to electronics... 

Q-6

touchnova

Queen6 said:

Sounds more like mechanical interference with one of the fans that is triggered by thermal expansion.  .......  Eventually I pulled it apart to find a fair size bug wrapped up in the fan. 

Thanks for your reply.  I am 100% positive this is not a mechanical issue.  I have removed the back cover to my laptop and examined both fans for anything that might be causing interference.  There are no obstructions to the fans - not even dust buildup.  One clue to this in the video(s) I linked is that the sound is loudest in the front-left corner rather than near either of the back corners where the fans are located.  You can clearly hear the fans spinning up and down in the second video I linked (my most recent comment above) before the electrical discharge and coil whine begin - it is a low, almost pleasant sound compared to the other noises.  Also, I can manually set the fan speed to maximum and the electrical sounds my laptop makes never occur.  You also mentioned the sound of yours coming and going had to do movement of the notebook - mine is stationary and does not get moved, yet the electrical noises come and go depending on usage/workload (gaming, video editing or other heavy graphics work). I have done a lot of testing and it is definitely not a mechanical noise, but I appreciate your feedback.

Queen6

I know it was a rather obscure response, equally as is the noise being generated, and generally once the load is off one would expect any noise induced by the components to also dissipate.  If your really pushing the notebook to the point of extreme temperature rendering etc. some of the Caps may be breaking down in which case a new mainboard is the only solution, equally if that's the case your going to need to address the cooling or it may very well reoccur.

Similar to you my primary use is not gaming, however I need a powerful portable solution as I frequently travel abroad.  Have you considered an eGPU over USB/TB-3? as this would reduce the internal load significantly and depending on the external GPU speed up rendering, admittedly would take some research to be sure of getting the right hardware.

Q-6

touchnova

Queen6 said:

...... If your really pushing the notebook to the point of extreme temperature rendering etc.....  Have you considered an eGPU over USB/TB-3? as this would reduce the internal load significantly...

Thanks for your follow-up.  I keep a close eye on temps and never reach a point where they are outside of the safe range.  Whenever I get even close to temps that concern me I manually turn on fans to maximum speed.  Granted, I do spend extended periods of time on my device, so over time a condition has clearly developed which has resulted in the noises I'm experiencing.  However, if a top tier laptop of this price range only lasts 11 month, then I would say I made a bad purchase.  This also speaks to your second comment about getting an external GPU...I didn't pay several thousand dollars for a top of the line laptop to then be forced to buy an additional, expensive GPU and an external mounting option simply to be able to use the laptop as it was designed and intended.  Either it's high quality, high performance and expensive as a result...or it is simply expensive "in pretty clothes".  I'm inclined to believe this laptop should perform as it was designed and intended.   Moving forward, I will likely build a tower setup instead of depending solely on a laptop, but being that I sometimes, however rarely, travel for work, the mobility factor was the deciding factor that let me to purchase the laptop.  99% of the time it stays in the same place, located on top of a cooling pad with good airflow - and that 1% of travel time...I'm very, very careful with it. This laptop is effectively my livelihood, and I treat it as such. Thanks again.

Queen6

Fully understand your position, personally I'd go with a desktop solution, however I travel internationally for my work so it's not an option.  Being in a similar position I look to do the best to keep the temperatures manageable, given high temperature & high current draw are potentially detrimental to electronics.

Overall I'm pleased so far with the Predator 17 making for a well priced portable workstation. Given we're dealing with consumer based hardware hopefully yours is just one of the small percent of premature failures.  There's always the likes of Dell's Precision line, equally I'm not convinced that they offer much more in reliability and certainly for me I'm looking at 2-3 times the price of the Predator 17, with the customary replacement coming up around the 24 month point.

Good luck with the repair

Q-6

Phoenix1966

Well, I'm in the same boat as you and am glad I read this post as I would not have expected both drives to be wiped. I'll make sure to back everything up before sending this in. Like you, my livelihood is tied to this laptop and I also thought I had made a wise choice in a "high end", portable solution that apparently craps out for many of us in under a year.

orudie

There is another forum thread with the same noise problem for Acer Predator G9-593 laptop. Too bad I can't post a link here to the forum thread I am talking about because this stupid forum tells me I have to be registered here for a longer time in order to post links. Anyway, it seems like I solved the issue and posted a solution there. Just look for the forum thread with "Acer Predator G9-593 buzzing noise" in the title.