Surface Laptop 3 Faint Buzzing Sound

Anonymous
2019-10-23T21:50:20+00:00

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.

Surface | Surface Laptop | Install and update

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-12-10T15:57:42+00:00

    I saw too much issue of SL3 on reddit. Hope this is the only issues which i will get.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-12-11T16:28:15+00:00

    Is this buzzing sound only happening on the 13.5" model?  Or is it happening on the 15" model as well? 

    I have the 13.5 and I am experiencing the same buzzing sound under/near the power button.  I'm debating on whether or not to return it at this point.  I wish Microsoft would give us some insight on the problem...especially if it can be fixed with a firmware update.

    Perhaps the 15" model is not not experiencing the same issues?

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-12-11T18:05:55+00:00

    I have noticed the same sound coming from my new Surface Laptop 3, and after some investigation, I have made the following observations:

    The buzzing is not affected by load on the CPU, but is consistent while the laptop is on.

    Putting the battery on high performance mode does not affect the buzzing in any way.

    The sound is coming from directly beneath the keyboard between F12, the power key, and the +/= key.

    Pitch can be altered slightly and briefly by pressing the "page up" and "page down" (F11 and F12) keys.

    Pressing the power key while the unit is unplugged causes the buzzing to stop immediately.

    If the unit is plugged in, the buzzing persists, even if the power key is pressed, which leads me to believe that this is a battery related issue.

    Hopefully this can aid in developing some sort of solution. I think this is a fantastic device, and it would be a shame if there were any kind of widespread defect that would warrant a recall, or hardware repairs.

    All the best.

    My surface laptop 3 got the exact same problem as urs. I feel like this issue might be caused by the speaker and its driver.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-12-12T15:10:11+00:00

    I felt the noise very like sound come form an old HHD, of course, I known SL3 uses SSD.

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-12-12T15:15:24+00:00

    If just the fan's noise, you do not need to worry about that. It will disappear after 2-3 days when you finished update.

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