XPS2 video card noise - Page 2

i seem to hear noises from the monitor itself, however this only happens when i'm viewing something very high resolution, like certain webpages... for example, when i'm browsing www.hardwarezone.com, and then i switch windows and return back to it, the webpage would "load" twice before letting me see what's on the screen again... this happened on my i5150 too... however, if i were to change the usehr key from 0 to 1, then the noise disappeared...

No sound at all here (apart from the fans) while browsing that hardwarezone site. I haven't got any hard drive clicks either. BUT: sparkles visible especially under artificial light.

ftp://aiedownload.intel.com/df-suppo...ENG/readme.txt

okay then could you try this for me? could you go to the link above and then try to go up and down using your mouse scroll? a couple of times... do you hear a buzzing sound when you're scrolling? (put your head closer to the monitor)

Sorry, ethan, I can't hear anything at all scrolling that page.

well you really have to have a good ear to differentiate between the high pitch hiss and the fans. Turn of the fans and you will hear it better!

yea i hear the annoying buzz when i web browse and scroll my mouse. Is there any fix for this or should i just send it back?

Bloody hell just received my 9300 2 days ago and just discovered this annoying low volume buzzing (fan must be off to hear it) while scrolling up and down a webpage. Was PERFECTLY happy about this new lappy until now. Glad though at least I'm not alone in hearing it i.e. this is no auditory hallucination!!

N.B. Just checked - buzzing is present even when on battery mode....WTF??!!

Anyone else notice this annoying buzzing (must turn off fan to hear it - e.g. while using i8kfangui.)

I noticed that the low volume buzz is only present if I scroll up and down inside Internet Explorer. In Microsoft Word I hear no buzzing no matter how much I scroll up and down a document.

Gee... really thinkiing whether I should ask Dell for a replacement.... my laptop is otherwise excellent, but this noise is kinda getting annoying especially when I have my fan off most of the time.

Yet another update. After switching to using firefox instead of avantbrowser (whichi is based on IE6) I've found that there's no longer the buzzing sound during scrolling. With IE6 and avantbrowser disabling smooth scrolling also works. With firefox even with smooth scrolling enabled I still don't hear the buzzing while scrolling.

Anyone else found this to be the case?

Firefox here I come....

Does anyone think that this can be fixed with a driver or firmware update? I'm beginning to think I am making too many compromises on this laptop; buzzing video card, clicking harddrive, substandard display.

Very possible!

Buzzing: No, don't expect an update to fix it.
I'm fairly sure it's a hardware issue, but what you have to understand is, that Dell is not the only notebook maker who’s having problems with this... yes; they could have used higher-quality components, which could have reduced the noise, but nothing comes for free, and it isn't really a defect... just annoying.
I don't know how noticeable the noise is on the XPS2 / i9300, but I have had the exact same problem on my i8200... it was annoying at first, but now I never notice it.

Hard drive: As far as I know, all current 7200 RPM notebook drives have that issue to some degree... actually, all drives have the issue, it's just more noticeable on 7200 RPM drives.
Hitachi is the worst, but they are also very fast and fairly cheap, compared to most other drives. You can't get everything (at least not yet)...
Personally, I would go for the 80Gb 5400 RPM drive... it's a bit slower, which might be an issue in games like Half-Life 2 where content is loaded "on the fly", but when I take a step back, and look at my needs, the it really doesn’t matter if it's 5400 or 7200 RPM...
Also, if you look at other notebooks with 7200 RPM drives, it wouldn't surprise me if they too used the Hitachi drive.

I think we should try to consider the alternatives to the i9300 / XPS2, before we start to talk about compromises…
I haven't found a single notebook, which provides the same bang for the buck… and no, Pentium 4 and Athlon based notebooks are not something I even consider an option; they simply run too hot.

True. Currently I do not believe there aren't any alternatives to the i9300/XPS2 on the market. Granted it is nitpicky to complain about the clicking hard drive and the faint buzzing once and a while. However, these two things are the only things in the way of the i9300/XPS2 being a perfect laptop.

Yeah... In my opinion, Dell should have taken the opertunity to really make what could be considered the perfect laptop... but that said, I don't want to pay much more for a laptop... you know, here in Denmark, we pay at least 40% more than you do in the US

I do feel that Dell should do something about the "video card noise", as it really isn't all that expensive to at least reduce the noise...
The problem is, that we probably have the exact same situation as with the LCD's; they use components from different manufactures... some better than others.
At least, I know they used coils with at least two different part numbers in the previous generation of laptops, and one of them was a clear winner.
Actually, I did a search in the Dell Community Forums earlier today, and found quite a few threads on the subject.

as i've said... i think it is due to the usehr key in the registry that is causing everything in internet explorer to look bigger and as a result, cause the buzzing sound. if you want to make the buzzing sound go away, try going to regedit. and find the usehr key. change the value from 1 to 0. and then try your internet explorer again. there should be no more buzzing sounds and everything on the web should look smaller.

oops this message was intended for canulaman. in reply to his question.

Does everybody have the clicking noises and/or noise from the video card? About the Hitachi hard drive: I've got an older Precision M60 with the same drive as this XPS2, and I can vouch that they are both silent when they are not used. About the graphics card noise: I might be lucky but I promise you, I tried all the web pages people were posting about and there is no noise whatsoever, I put my ear everywhere, no sound at all. However, I know this effect, it used to happen with my very old Inspiron 8200. I am not so lucky with sparkles, the third problem with our new laptops.

The Hitachi drive do have the clicking sound, but as far as I know, it is related to the power management (more specifically, the parking of the heads), which might work different in the M60. If the M60 handled the power management the same way as the i9300/XPS2, then the sound would probably be there too.
I think there is a possibility that this noise issue will be solved trough a BIOS and/or firmware update, as the bad sector warnings people are getting when testing the drive indicates that there might be some compatibility issues...

That's a great tip--should be a sticky (it helped alot with 120dpi issues in webpages.)

On another note: I've noticed that the buzzing doesn't happen when I first turn on the laptop. It apparently needs to heat up a bit before the buzzing starts. Oddly, the "notebookforums.com" flash at the top of the webpage causes it as well. I've found the best cure for the buzzing is to crank up the stereo.

I found this on the Dell forums. People said it worked for the 8600 and 600m. I realize it might be a long shot but worth a try.

USB root hub - High pitched noise fix