Y500 static noise from speaker and noisy fan

[GJ707]

Hi guys, this is my first post here.

I've had my y500 for almost a year now, and in the first months I started having a problem with my right speaker almost constantly producing a static sound. The volume of the static/hissing sound can varies all the time, sometimes becoming so loud I can hear it from across the room. I ofcourse tried reinstalling drivers, which did not help. In October the laptop was send in for reparation for both the speaker and a faulty touchpad. The touchpad is still working great, but the static from the right speaker returned within a week. Now recently I also started noticing a strange sound coming from the left side fan of my laptop. It sounds as if it´s not always fully free to rotate and make a scraping kind of sound. This usually goes away within a few minutes, but it´s starting to occur more and more often.

What should I do now? I really don't feel like sending it in again, as it took 6 weeks before it was back the last time, but I fear I might have to.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[neokenchi]

 hi GJ707,

Welcome to the Forums.

Regarding your concerns:

1. The hissing sound issue might be similar to this thread.

If the sound is ok when using headphones / external speakers then there's most likely a short on the speaker or on the wires that connects the speaker to the systemboard. In this case, you may need to contact Lenovo for service.

2. As for the loud fan noise , if the scrapping noise is similar to a crackling one then this indicates that the fan is struggling or it might be hitting something. It's also possible that the fan is dirty or is getting defective. If this case you may need to send the unit for service.

Things that you can try before sending it in:

a. Check the Y500 Video Disassembly Guide (see FRU Videos) to familiarize yourself on how to disassemble the unit

b. Clean the fan (you can use a laptop cleaning brush or a cotton swab dipped with isopropyl alcohol along with a can of compressed air) and reseat the speaker cables.

Regards

[GJ707]

Thank you for your quick response neokenchi.

Plugging in headphones does not make the sound go away. Do you have any idea what might me the problem in that case?

I will try to dissasemble the laptop and see if i can clean the fan and if I can make the cables to the speaker connect better. At the moment I'm quite busy though, so I wont be able to dissasemble it soon.

Thanks again for the help!

[neokenchi]

hi,

If the hissing sound persists when using an external speaker / earphones then the defect might be on the sound card itself (re-installing the latest drivers from the Lenovo website or using the generic inbox driver usually isolate any driver related issues).

To verify this, you will need to use a USB sound adapter (like this item). You can also try to do a factory restore (via OneKey Recovery) to isolate any issues on the OS level.

Regards

[GJ707]

Sorry for the late reply.

Before I send the y500 in for repair last year, I tried the OneKey recovery, but that did not solve the problem.

I've tried all driver versions from Lenovo, but the sound persists. I will try using a external sound car such as the one from Amazon you suggested. It might take a while before I do that though as I'm really busy with work right now.

Thanks again for the help and I'll let you know once I tried using an external soundcard.

Regards,

[JakeSully]

if you hear awful draging or scratching noise from fan then it means fan layer is worn out so it begins making scratching noise so best is to replace that fan or send it to a worthful repair center, where they will re-place your worn out fan with a similair fan from broken y500 or so

[TAudio]

Hey,

Im sorry but I think your problem is a hardware defect, so I suggest you to send your laptop for repair.

You can also  try disabling all audio devices in device manager and observe if the noise appears. If it does, external interface probbably wont work.

If you really ordered external audio interface, please post your results back..specially if you hear any audio pop or crackle that you didnt hear before.

Thanks

[GJ707]

This is the first time I've been able to use my laptop without the static noise! I disabled Realtek High Definition Audio under Sound,video and game controllers and the sound dissapeared. Unfortunately I'm ofcourse unable to listen to anything while I have this disabled What does this mean though? I'm really not good with hardware related problems.

Thank you everyone for the help so far. I never would have gotten this far by myself.