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Hello,
I’ve got the i5 8GB Surface Laptop 3 (13.5-inch), and today, while browsing the internet, I noticed a fairly faint buzzing sound coming from under the keyboard. It was faint enough you couldn’t hear it from a couple metres away, and sometimes buzzed continuously, other times buzzed in short repetitive bursts.
It didn’t sound like the fan to me, so I opened up the task manager to see if browsing was straining the computer in some way.
I have updated the computer completely, but the buzzing persisted.
Is this a normal electronics problem? Is it actually just the fan? Or is it possibly a defective unit?
Edit/Update:
I took the device into the MS Store today to see if there was something wrong. The staff took it into the back and tested it. They found increasing the computer's workload caused the sound to increase and described it as a popping static-y sound. They replaced the device and I have a new one now. Unfortunately, I've found through usage that this one is also making the sound. I am waiting to see if a firmware update reduces the noise since it seems pervasive across the devices.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Of course, your reasoning is worthwile we’re all just disappointed in using escamotages like these on a machine worth 1500$.
having said that, i’ll wait mine that should arrive next week and keep you posted.
if the problem will still be there, and i think it’s the case, i’ll disable touchscreen rather than installing new softwares to reduce CPU performances.
What I mean is that since even if Nexus app stops the buzzing by preventing the CPU from going idle, would this really affect battery life that much?
I noticed in Resource Monitor that CPU percentage increases slightly when Nexus is open (from about 2% to 4%), and a 2% increase in the CPU use seems a pretty worthwhile tradeoff in order to get rid of the buzzing. In the absence of another fix I'll happily take it.
Sure, I guess that could be why. But would having a little dock widget really affect battery life that much? It's only using a minuscule amount of the CPU.
Did your new unit still have the buzzing?
The problem is that it isn't using CPU. As long as the CPU is used at the machine startup and continues, you probably won't hear the buzzing sound or have dock issues.
It's when the CPU tries to enter an idle state that it happens, which is usually shortly after bootup unless you run something intensive like a game. It's probably something with the design of the video card chipset and CPU placement, or at least what I thought when I was looking at it more. You notice how everyone in these threads with problems have the exact same setup? No AMD CPUs, only Intel with Iris Plus graphics...
Edit: Sorry, I mis-read, you mentioned Dock widget and not Dock. It's probably using enough CPU to prevent the idle state. It honestly may not be noticeable enough to matter for most people. I needed as much battery as I could on mine carrying it around for work, so even 15 minutes mattered. You could try the CPU idle state disable too. It at least won't require you to have another app loaded taking up memory and accomplish the same thing.
I also didn't get a new one, just returned it outright. I was going to get a new one, but decided against it after I kept reading that almost everyone had the same issue with multiple exchanges. I figure I'll find another brand or try again in 6 months if it looks like the flaw was fixed.
Sure, I guess that could be why. But would having a little dock widget really affect battery life that much? It's only using a minuscule amount of the CPU.
Did your new unit still have the buzzing?
Couldn’t agree more.
Limiting CPU cannot be a solution on this product but thanks for sharing regardless!
