New Kaby Lake XPS 13: coil whine

Well it seems the problem is still there with the new model, too:

https://redd.it/546886

and:

https://redd.it/544fr3

Thank you for supporting Linux, but it is a real pity, that the "MacBook killer" (also in the same price league) is having such a hardware design flaws.

@Community

I’d like to take a moment to clarify on Ravi C’s comments from his post.

First, an introduction:

There were 2 situations on previous models regarding coil noise:

Situation 1:

-the coil noise could only be heard in a very quiet environment but could not be heard in say an office environment ( during meetings, climate control running, while working at an office desk ).

Situation 2:

-coil noise could be heard in busy office environments ( during meetings, climate control running, working at office desk )

Dell Engineering deemed the behavior from Situation 1 to be: working as designed

For systems in situation 2: Dell came out with a motherboard revision for certain models previous to the XPS 9360.

In regards to the XPS 13 9360 noise:

-I've been advised by Dell engineering just this morning that starting in late December all new 9360 orders ship with changes to reduce the noise to levels as described in situation 1 above.  These systems have an A02 motherboard which features the fix.

-Dell engineering is still working to make the A02 motherboard available within replacement motherboard service stock. ETA to come in the future.

-Also please note that not all pre-A02 systems were affected by this noise concern as described in situation 2 above.

-Fast ship systems built before late December that remained in stock and sold after late December, will not include the A02 motherboard. Fast ship = our pre-built versions that ship next business day. Also known as ‘smart selection’ systems.

-You can check your motherboard revision by entering the Dell ePSA diagnostics. To do so, power on your system and when you see the Dell screen, start tapping the F12 key till you see the diagnostics start. Once in the ePSAs, you'll see a little button in the lower right hand corner of the screen. Click the button and you'll get a new menu. Then, click on 'system configuration' and look for the PPID. At the end of the PPDI you'll see the revision "A0X". As outlined below:

Button in lower right hand corner:

Click System Configuration:

Then you'll see your motherboard version at the end of the PPDI. For example "A01"

Heh, Dell tells XPS (13" and 15") customers the same lie for last 4 years that they are investigating, working on issue, "that is normal", etc and then new XPS version comes out with *exactly* the same problem and lying cycle starts again.

Don't buy XPS or this sound will make you crazy.

www.youtube.com/watch

Hello @DELL-Justin C,

I am another one very disappointed and very frustrated buyer of your "Macbook killer"(NOT). It cost me 2200 EUR. My past ultrabooks (not Dell) cost around 1300 EUR and I had no problems. Now I decided to move forward making the great mistake to buy this thing. I appreciate your effort into this thread but I want some answers for the sake of my hundreds wasted hours trying to solve the numerous problems.

Note: I will not mention the SO BAD sound card. The speakers produce a crispy noise all the time. The sound is so awful even with headphones. I have noticed that on Linux also (dual boot). I will not also mention the *** wireless card (Killer??? not at all). It gives me a download speed of 500KBytes (tested on Ubuntu too) while at the same time and location, other laptops and my smartphone of 100Euro, get the speed of 10MBytes (20xtimes the Killer). Instead, I will focus on the subject of this thread.

1) WHY WHY WHY in the first place you let that defective product go into production? Dell just put together the pieces and you hadn't money to pay at least 1 person to use that for a while??? Please don't answer me like "Not all the units are faulty, just a few ones". You know very well that this isn't the case. Try a simple search on google and you will figure it out by the number of results and endless conversations.

2) OK let's say that you decided to lower the quality of your product in sake of quick money. I know how business works. But you exceeded the limits. Me and thousand others completely lost our enthusiasm. I would like only to give me a rational explanation why Dell refuses to address this issue all these years. It is definitely unacceptable. We feel like you wanted just our money and you didn't just pass your machines under quality control.

2) WHY and HOW all other companies have managed not to have coil whine? Dell's official response is that it is a normal situation if the sound cannot be heard in noisy environments. Listen to that: The "Macbook killer" produce that annoying zip sound even on noisy environments.

3) NO, I can not  accept the solution of the famous "Situation 1". I work mostly in quiet environments and I want my ultrabook COMPLETELY silent as ALL other brands. We are on 2017!!!. Will the new motherboard manage that? Should I wait or return it back like thousand others??

Could you please give me a rational explanation for all of these?

I know Justin, this is not your responsibility. You did your best - I believe that. Please just show my message and all the thread to your supervisor. That should be Dell's FIRST priority. Dell should address this problem at last. You loose money.  At least do it for you, not for us. Just take a look at the forums to see how many people returned this faulty ultrabook back and went for more reliable brands.

Thank you in advance.

Kind regards

I got the XPS 9360 in the mail today, ordered on 2/21/2017, and it has the coil whine problem. The high-pitched noises are no fun and I am even in my office right now and still hearing it.

Hi, is the A02 part replacement on stock now (mine 9360 motherboard is A00)? I also have the same problem and kind of in a hurry in need of this laptop, so is there any way to make the replacement process as fast as possible?

emamul.ahmed, coil whine is caused by inductors entering resonance. It has to do with their power state and their design. Software fixes don't address this issue. In some cases, the noise can be reduced, but it is an uncommon scenario. Edit: There was also talks about changing the C-states. Which I don't recommend. Also, people must be careful when playing the audio drivers. This thing can be finicky!!!! I had a problem where I had to reboot for the computer to recognize my headphones. A rollback didn't even fix the issue. After wasting hours of my life trying to fix it I reverted to a factory image.

My machine as a constant low pitch whine. I don't care much as it is not high pitch. However, if I watch videos, transfer large files or play videogames, there will be annoying high pitch squeaks.

I intend to get my board replaced once the A02 version is available to the in-home repair engineers. As I understand from my correspondance with Justin C. (few months back), a dell representative is supposed to let me know when that happens. If I am made aware, I'll let you guys know. If not, I'll just follow this thread along with you people!

Out of topic, but useful - Killer 1535 WiFi Crashes

Many will experience crashes when downloading large files or taxing their cards. Browsing in general is not affected. Fortunately, a fix came out about 10 days ago! While Dell hasn't updated their driver yet, it is available on Killer's website. Download this, install it and problem fixed!

www.killernetworking.com/.../e2200-e2400-wireless

Just an update from the German community where A02 is being rolled out.

One user has reported that there were no improvements in terms of coil whine.

Seems like we might be in for a long and bumpy ride.

I hope that other users will report improvements.

de.community.dell.com/.../32470

relevant

I don't think they are annoying the issue. It's just very hard to solve. When you deal with laptops and packing a million things in such a small space, things get quite complicated.

Indeed. :) There is work going on behind the scenes, some of which might come as firmware updates.

From what I can share, some of the noise is from third party chips and some is noise inherent to the capacitors we use. From our investigations, we believe the A02 boards to be within our noise tolerances, but we are continuing testing of customer capture boards.

I'm told by the system architect for the XPS 13 that we consciously choose a type of capacitor less commonly used by major OEMs that shows better durability over time versus the alternatives. However, that type is more prone to coil whine. The gain is better assurance that the capacitors we use won't fail over the extended lifetime expected of a business notebook. Our hardware folks are looking at how to reduce coil whine while still meeting our targets for system lifetime. To be honest, speaking personally, I expect that this type of change would be more extensive than a board spin.

FYI for anyone researching this issue and to see if it's gone, it's not.

I received my 16GB i7 6560U yesterday (May 24 2017). Checking the bios it had a manufacture date of only May 18 2017 and still has the 00 motherboard and a screaming coil whine that sounds like a bee having an epileptic fit under the keyboard.

I've been buying Dell XPS since the m1330 back in 2007 and have never been so disappointed in a machine. Perhaps only because this machine is so perfect, a dual booting workhorse with a stunning trackpad and connection set. To the engineers, you really crafted the perfect laptop, but overlooked something even 300 dollar Aldi laptop gets right.

To mess up and pinch pennies on the wrong components is one thing. But to come out and make a statement saying some coil whine is "within specifications and working as intended" is just a PR slap in the face to anyone dropping €1500+ on a machine.

You must be seeding machines without coil defects to reviewers since none of the major sources have mentioned it. It's only owners threads, after the purchase, where I find out this has been an only mess for months (years?).

@Gardiner.d,

You're welcome to send me a PM and we can work together on your case.

@Greg_FR,

To answer your question from page 15. The replacement motherboard stock we have now is a motherboard version with reduced noise. You're welcome to call and proceed with SLN305206. I would be happy to hear about your results from that.

@Community,

I will now address the reason why you're seeing A00 motherboards after January 1st 2017.

-Systems manufactured before Jan 1 2017 will show A00 ( we all know this )
-Systems manufactured between Jan 1 2017 and mid February 2017 will show A02 motherboards ( I don't  have the exact date in February )
-Systems shipped after mid February 2017 will have new part numbers that will show as A00

• This is due to an internal numbering change and not a physical motherboard change. When the part number changed, the A-revision number was set back to zero ( A00 )
• These new part numbers implemented in mid February 2017 and onward are the same motherboards as the A02 motherboards shipped between Jan 1 2017 and Mid February 2017 and therefore contain the reduced noise fix. They just have different numbers on them
• These new part numbers are available at the factory and are also available in service stock. They're outlined in SLN305206 ( give this document ID to Dell tech support if you call )