weird noise from a laptop

[ssemeniuta]

Hi Guys,

 

I have a relatively new lenovo y720 and when its GPU is under load it makes noise that is typical to fan being slightly off balance or hitting a wire. I wanted to figure out which fan was it, so I have unplugged both CPU and GPU fans from the motherboard, so that they do not make any noise at all, and unplugged the HDD as well, just in case. That leaves zero moving parts in the laptop. However, the noise still persists. I wasn't able to record it - my microphones aren't sensitive enough. 

 

The sound depends on the GPU load - I can modulate loudness, pitch and frequency of clicks by e.g. adjusting a videogame's settings to vary the GPU load. Switching to integrated graphics removes the noise as well.

 

The best thing would be to send it to warranty, but it's not really an option for the next 4-5 months - I have to travel frequently not staying for more than 2-3 weeks in one place and I'm already away for the first trip. So now I'm mostly interested in whether it is safe to use the laptop and what exactly is the cause of the sound. One thing I'm sure of is that it's not coil whining - examples of what I found on youtube are high pitched and fairly uniform. What I hear is more like rapid clicking. 

 

Thanks in advance.

[Theguywhobea]

It's coil whine

[Guest]

Coilwhine maybe? Not sure, I can't hear that frequency due to being old AF.

[MegaLukey]

I would agree, it does sound like coil whine, which is totally normal in almost all cards, and is louder I believe on Nvidia cards

[ssemeniuta]

Thanks for the replies!

 

Ok, so I guess I was wrong to believe it's not coil whine. Every example of it I could find on youtube did not sound like what I hear, so I thought it's not whine. I can see this happening though, if coils vibrate at lower frequencies. A side question - how low pitched can coil whine be?

 

Coil whine itself is harmless from what I understood. It's annoying at worst, essentially unfixable and not covered by warranties. Do I understand correctly? I've never encountered this before.

[genexis_x]

Just RMA it