X220 loud electrical buzzing? Is this normal?

[Mark_Lenovo Administrator]

All,

The reference to the whine on the T410/T510, unfortunately won't help in this case.  For those systems, we have a hardware fix in the form of a different system board.   The X220 has not been shown to have that kind of issue (in terms of significance) and so we don't have a hardware update.  Calling service for this probably won't help unless you have a severely out of spec system.

Wconghorn,

The dynamic noise reduction was removed because it was contributing to the fan cycling issue that was addressed by a combination of changes in the BIOS and removing this function.  You could revert to an earlier version of power manager if you didn't experience an issue with fan cycling.

Thanks

Mark

[feo]

Hi,

I am experiencing the same problem like justyn on x220, loud electrical noise which is directional and coming from the place between monitor and keyboard. 

When I press the monitors frame under the monitor the sound almost disappears. I noticed I have a small gap between this plastic frame and the display. The sound looks like to be a natural noise of LED monitor which is not suppressed enough due to this gap. Another observation I made is that when a monitor is turned off (e.g. keys Win+P and set Projector) the sound also stops! i.e. it is not the HDD or CPU or fan or speakers.

Is this also your case, justyn? Are there any other users with this problem of annoying buzzing? Thank you for your reply in advance! Otherwise I will try to change my laptop

feo

[orion9727]

some tips.
i grab a DVOM (digital volt ohm meter) set it to milli volts and walk it around the latop.
this is pretty much how a one of them thunder shower warning things work you see at kids games.
it will pick up any emi.
what you looking for is a leak,something not right.
bad caps do this commen on computers.
there was a rash a bad cap some years back when one company stole a formula from another only it was a bad formula.
then companys made the caps because they were cheaper.
dell got caught up in this mess by they way they knew it what they were buying as as the fact it was a stolen formula.
normally most companys use japanese caps and dont have issues.
however some do fail from time to time and cause all sort of problems.
DIRTY power will do that as well.
a expensive latop should be behind a decent battery ups that way it clean power for certin no spikes no under loads either.
i would look for a leak,move around the plug most of all if your in a country not known for the best power grid.
also check what on your power circut at home.
computers dont like any kind of device that makes rfi like a motor.fans and such make noise.
i would also look at the driver to vid card as well VGA ports been know to cause this.
a charger should work anywhere no issue i seen in my world travel.

[jsyang]

I have the same problem.

Usually, I didn't notice in my lab due to the loud background noise.

However, I can hear instant high pitch noise in my room, some thing like "zuk zuk" or "zick zick" coming from near the power button.

It is not from speaker and fan, or hdd. 

And it is not a constant noise but a temporary noise which is generated when I press forward or backword buttons during web surfing. (Possibly, it looks like due to a certain power change during the instant reading from cache.)

**X220 i7-2620m, 8gb, 350gb 7200rpm hdd

[jd2]

I especially notice the sounds you're describing when scrolling PDFs or websites in the browser. It sounds like my HDD before I changed to SSD..

[PeterTWJ]

Hi jd2

Yes, somehow I have it in my W520 on battery only. For my W510, this even occurs in AC mode. This is not Lenovo design flaws. It's either the Intel CPU flaws or it's voltage regulator work this way. Laptops from other manufacturer with Intel Core i-series processor also suffered from this issues.

Cheers 

Peter
(Current: W520 4284-A99) (Refunded: W510 4876-A11)

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[lenssd9]

I'm so sorry I didn't read this thread before buying an X220.

Is there a solution to this problem? The buzzing noise is too annoying.

I stopped using my old mobile phone because it had an electrical buzz after it's screen (probably LED) was replaced.

If closing the lid and connecting the machine to an external monitor stopped the noise, it would be ok, but closing the lid doesn't change a thing

Is there an official word from lenovo regarding this issue? Can support fix this? if not, can I be reimbursed? I chose this type of machine after reading reviews that stated the machine is quiet. What are my options now?

[Amphibulus]

I confirm that I also have that problem. There is nothing to do about it. There is so many issue with that laptop.

[feo]

Actually there is a solution, as I posted, keep your display at maximum brightness. My buzzing stops, does it work for you?

[Amphibulus]

Nope, same issue. Time to buy a new laptop!