i7 A possible problem with the whole 8th generation of Intel laptop processors?

[FarleyCZ]

Hi there,

I'm not sure if I'm just browsing through too many random horror stories, but it's definitelly wierd. 

I'll try to make the explanation quick.

 

My colleague bought Asus ROG gl503vd laptop few moths back and I really liked it. I knew they were going to update that cool chassis with 8th gen Core i7-8750H processor, so I waited a bit. Last month I bought that baby and I really love the laptop. ...except, since pretty much day one, there is this scratchy high pitched noise comming out of it. It's not the harddrive, it's not the fan, it's comming most likely from CPU's PCB on the mother board. Whelp, I packed it, sent it to a local ASUS service center and it stayed there for three weeks. It came back with replaced motherboard (which also means a new processor in laptop terms) and the noise is still there. They wrote in the report that the noise was eliminated a little, but it's supposed to be a natural behaviour of the laptop and it's within tolerances as it's not louder than 10db. (I'd really love to know where they got that number.)

 

Well I did my digging anyways and found out I'm definitely not alone in this. What's more interesting, people report exactly the same problems not only on other ASUS laoptops, but also on Dells, HPs, MSIs and even MacBooks. ...and there is often (not always, but very often) a one common detail. 8th gen Intel CPU. 

 

This is how my gl503ge sound:

https://youtu.be/Ho_0b9IxuaM (before repair)

 

There are few others:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIVJHgDCUSw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VbElCtHvOI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89INEtXhd7s (little lost in mic noise on this one)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEO3cn406Ig (this gui amplified it nicely, this choppy one is exactly what I have after the repair)

 

And here are various topic across various manufacturers dealing with the same coil whine-ish issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssrep9dqdmU

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/8ptfu8/would_you_accept_this_level_of_coil_whine_dell/

https://www.dell.com/community/Linux-Developer-Systems/New-Kaby-Lake-XPS-13-coil-whine/td-p/5088148/page/30

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/8zyuyx/is_anyone_noticing_coil_whine_noise_in_their_new/

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/HP-Spectre-x360-8th-Gen-i7-Noise/td-p/6394376

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2018-mbp-15-coil-whine.2128494/page-2 (This guy exchanged 5 macbooks...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGswmkw-yJA

(Also I've joined this post of various gl503ge ang gl703ge users with the same issue:

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?103230-Asus-ROG-Strix-GL503GE-SCAR-wrong-ram-slot-scratchy-noise-cpu-always-on-max-clock)

 

It's something that has to do with C1E power states as turning C1E off makes it mostly go away. (but also renders i7s power effciency useless) ...and when idling you can hear it mostly when CPU gets small bursts of work. Also unplugging the laptop from the wall makes it go away in lot of cases including mine. 

 

Is it possible that Intel screwed something up in Coffee Lakes and they make various PCB boards scream?

 

Please help, because we often invested in over 1,2k USD laptops and we can't even sell them brand new, because they emit sounds like that. ...and manufacturers see it as a normal thing, so RMAs do not work either.

 

Cheers,

if you reed this, love ya, Linus,

Martin.

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, FarleyCZ said:

scratchy high pitched noise comming out of it

This is probably coil wine, ad thats from the cpu or other parts buck converters. Nothing to do with the cpu, and happends in lots of parts. Its worse in some designs than others, and sometimes its on random devices in a batch.

[Snipergod87]

coil while is rathor common in electronics, my guess is it's the boards power delivery that is doing it.  CPU's are unable to coil whine as they do not have coils which can vibrate causing the noise.

 

My system has coil whine but it only appears when benchmarking my system, any other intensive load and it is fine.

Most common whiners are PSU, GPU, and other voltage regulation components.  Usually enough glue in the right place will stop it.

[FarleyCZ]

Yes. But it seems like new gen laptop intels somehow make power control boards behave wierdly, which causes the coil whine. That colleague of mine with virtually the same laptop has no coil whine at all. The only difference is that his laptop has 7th gen i7, mine has 8th gen. ...and I'm on second mother board right now.

[FarleyCZ]

2 minutes ago, Abyssal Radon said:

CPU's cannot coil whine. That must be a defective part of the motherboard or something in the laptop that's doing that. I have this beast:

And I cannot hear any sort of high pitched whining from the laptop at all, even when it's playing a game or some demanding workload.

This is actually what I need to see. That returns my thought train back to manufacturers an their PCBs not being able to handle those new i7s. 

[Snipergod87]

However the motherboard's for the 8th gen chips are different, and most likely are some of the internal components are quite different as well, parts are sourced from multiple suppliers.

[FarleyCZ]

True. But then it's simply a faulty product that is somehow allowed by those manufacturers to be considered flawless. Is there any way we can fight this as customers?

[FarleyCZ]

Don't worry, nobody's hating anyone. It's just our hands are tied when it comes to the boycott. Stores won't accept it back and service centers won't do anything with it as it's considered "tolerable". I can't sell the thing as the second anyone hears that sound, the price is on third of what I've paid for it and I simply do not have another 1,2k USD to throw it into a bin and try my luck elsewhere.

[genexis_x]

IMO it's a QC issue. Common with Asus

[FarleyCZ]

4 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

IMO it's a QC issue. Common with Asus

Well I will write them a few angry emails. They are selling a product that has a solid chance to devaluate the minute you bring it home. And they are covering their ass by saying it's normal.

[genexis_x]

48 minutes ago, FarleyCZ said:

Well I will write them a few angry emails. They are selling a product that has a solid chance to devaluate the minute you bring it home. And they are covering their ass by saying it's normal.

Every laptop will have chance of QC defects. Also, Asus after sales support is horrible from what I heard

[FarleyCZ]

I know, but they should call it a deffect, not a feature for god's sake. I'm deeply dissappointed. I buy a laptop every 4 - 5 years, it's my main computer and I make mainly music on it. Coil whine is a real problem in my particular case.

 

What do manufacturers use for determining what is a fault and what is a feature? Are there any norms and rulebooks or do they just decide by their own will?

 

I want to know where can I find that 10db tolerance that service technician was referencing.

[FarleyCZ]

Ok, service center was super cool. Offered return on second RMA. I'm just having trouble to find anything as good to replace it with. 

 

I wonder. Does it hurt the CPU in the long run, if I keep C-states disabled?

[Froody129]

2 minutes ago, FarleyCZ said:

Ok, service center was super cool. Offered return on second RMA. I'm just having trouble to find anything as good to replace it with. 

 

I wonder. Does it hurt the CPU in the long run, if I keep C-states disabled?

No but your battery life will likely be bad

 

Coil whine is a reality of electronics and most parts whine to some extent. Nothing is defective, it's just luck depending on the combination of hardware, and usually there's enough fan noise that you don't hear it anyway.

 

It is possible for coil whine to diminish over time. I had coil whine on both my 980ti and 1060 and stressing the parts hard for a full day or more quickly lowered the noise and eventually it almost disappeared. 

[FarleyCZ]

Yeah, I get that already. Yet ... it's super annoying especially in quiet room.