Surface Pro 4, annoying noise from the back!

Dear all,

Did Microsoft solve this problem?

mine is surface pro 4 , ram 16 GB, Hdd 520 GB, core i7, the noise really annoying me so much.

what could i do? please help me.

best,

Replacing the device won't change anything.

This is a CPU/Chipset issue and likely related to the dynamic power state/clock speed variations.

Anythnig running in the background will generated this "singing crickets" noise even if you stare at your screen. A lot of people won't hear it because their environment is too noisy but a quiet room easily reveals it. The SP4 with the m3, being totally silent, may appear more affected by this curiosity.

Unless Microsoft changes the way the SP4 is built, it won't change. Either you get over it or get a refund and buy something else.

Just got my replacement unit and I am still experiencing the exact same noise, I will probably return it and buy something else.

Here is a video of the noise on an i5 unit, so an i7 user can hear what we are talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P90axF499\_M&feature=youtu.be

I am also seriously considering returning the device.  As another user mentioned, it simply hurts my ears when studying in a quiet room.  Not acceptable on a premium device and not unavoidable - my iPad Air 2 is completely and utterly silent.  I could go to the MS store and try to find a quiet unit, but the chances of that are small from what I've read here.

If anyone from MS could shed any light on this issue we would all be very grateful.

Well, I've done some digging and it seems this noise was reported way back on the first Surface Pro. It appears to be to do with when the CPU enters various c-states (when idle).

There is a thread here about it.

One of posts suggests the following workaround, essentially disabling the idle state:

You can disable the ACPI C2-state and C3-state by setting a registry key. To do this, follow these steps:

1. At a command prompt, run the following command:

reg add HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Processor /v Capabilities /t REG_DWORD /d 0x0007e066

2. Restart the computer.

Note The computer idle power consumption will increase significantly if the deeper ACPI C-states (processor idle sleep states) are disabled.

To continue to benefit from these energy-saving states, remove the registry key that you set in step 1 after you install the hotfix that this article describes. To do remove the registry key, follow these steps:

1. At a command prompt, run the following command:

reg delete HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Processor /v Capabilities /f

2. Restart the computer.

I have found this improves the noise a lot but the question of course is what adverse impact this will have on battery use or heat etc. Time will tell I suppose.

It's pretty annoying that this has been known about for this long and Microsoft/Intel have not addressed the problem properly.

So I'd like to know for sure one way or the other whether other Surface Pro 4 users can hear this noise from the back of their device (easiest to hear from the vents at the top near camera).