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Harker Humming

Post Date: 2015-09-03
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lacroix96 View Drop Down
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Posts: 4 		  Quote lacroix96 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: Harker Humming
    Posted: 03 Sep 2015 at 8:08pm
Greetings all,

I'm the (mostly) happy new owner of a Harker 17inch laptop, but almost immediately out of the box I noticed an annoying habit.

When I have the laptop plugged in, its absolutely silent. When gaming, it never skips a beat on high powered games like Witcher 3, Crysis, etc. However, the second I unplug the system from the charger, I get an annoying hum, grind, chirping sound, even at completely idle and sitting at desktop.

Yet, if I plug in the charger, it magically goes away, under the same load.

For full disclosure, I ordered my system without hard drives, so I have my own Samsung 850 512SSDs in it and I installed my own operating system. My drivers are a mixture of Windows Update and from the included CDs, but this doesn't sound to me like an operating system/ driver issue.

Anyone else get this strange hum? Should I have it investigated? The systems less then 3 days old, and it began right out of the box..

Cheers,
-A
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bprat22 View Drop Down
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Posts: 20391 		  Quote bprat22 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 04 Sep 2015 at 2:20am
I've seen the batteries hum but not chirp and grind.   The brick, charger, can make noises but you've eliminated that.

Can you feel the battery vibrating, etc with the noise?    I would remove the battery for a few minutes and then reseat it.

Sounds like a fan noise but don't know why just on battery.
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lacroix96 View Drop Down
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Posts: 4 		  Quote lacroix96 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 6:46pm
Hmm, thanks for the suggestion :). However, after seating/unseating the battery, and holding down the power (hopefully to reset something? is a stretch, I've done it on other laptops).. No help :(. Still getting an annoying hum..

I was also dismayed to find the "Digital Storm" logo on my lid is just a sticker, which is already peeling off and half gone :(. Its not a huge deal, I planned to put a sticker over the top of it anyway.

But, getting back to the first question (the hum), should I have this returned and looked at? Its really loud when on battery, often to the point of distracting from the speakers.
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db188 View Drop Down
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Posts: 2115 		  Quote db188 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 11:26pm
have you noticed any problems with your screen (like loss of brightness)? can you isolate the noises? just to confirm are they coming from the speakers or somewhere on the chassis?


Edited by db188 - 05 Sep 2015 at 11:40pm
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lacroix96 View Drop Down
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Posts: 4 		  Quote lacroix96 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Sep 2015 at 4:04pm
Have not noticed anything wrong with the monitor.. no dead pixels, not going dim, etc. I'm really impressed with the clarity of the G-sync, actually.

The thought did occur to me perhaps this has something to do with the Sound Blaster X-Fi? I loaded audio drivers from the provided CDs, but in Device Manager its still detected as "RealTek High Definition Audio". Is that normal?

I'm wondering if this buzz I'm hearing is the speakers expecting some input from somewhere, but not getting it? I've checked with the X-Fi software and I don't have anything set strange there, just "Stereo", not any fancy 5.1 or anything..

I'm trying to narrow the sound down, but its pretty difficult. Seems loudest near the back of the machine, which I'm guessing could be that speaker bar?
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db188 View Drop Down
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Posts: 2115 		  Quote db188 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 08 Sep 2015 at 2:28am
first of all dl sound card drivers from the manufacturer.  the ones off the cd are going to be out of date.  is the card even being detected in the device manager? it should.  you probably have to disable the on board sound first and then load the most updated drivers for the sound card. 

when you said "grinding" sound i immediately thought failing hdd, but you have ssd's not hdd.  then i thought it could be the fans.  either loose fans or dust build up.  but if you've checked your fans and blown out all dust and confirmed the sound isn't coming from them then i was thinking it might be something wrong with your battery.  you might try replacing it.  are you missing any of the little screws that might be rattling around inside the chassis?  

another thought is your getting ground loop audio interference.  do you have other audio devices (iphone or anything) near the laptop when these sounds occur?  are you using desktop speakers by chance?  you could try using a "hum eliminator" or a double-insulated 2-pin power adapter to eliminate any electrical interference.  it could be the sound card as well.  problem is lots of things could be the problem and you just have to eliminate them one by one.  the thing is if it is a grounding problem it can ruin your sound card.  

when you turn off the machine does the buzzing slowly wind down or does it shut off immediately.  if it slowly winds down then i'd be almost 100% sure it's a fan issue.  also look for any wires that might be coming into contact with a fan.        

Edited by db188 - 08 Sep 2015 at 2:37am
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lacroix96 View Drop Down
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Posts: 4 		  Quote lacroix96 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 17 Sep 2015 at 9:07pm
So I was finally able to catch the sound in a recording.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0VxdN1Zit94

I've been able to determine it gets louder when:

1) Its not on charger (however, it has begun happening then too)
2) It gets more pronounced when the laptop gets warm; and is using the GPU for gaming.

So.. my guess is an issue with the GPU fan? If that's the case, whats the best way to get this machine looked at? Call the support number and arrange a shipping back?
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db188 View Drop Down
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Posts: 2115 		  Quote db188 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 17 Sep 2015 at 10:19pm
that or you could just have them ship you out a fan.  they're easy to install.  contact Alex and he'll sort you out.

Edited by db188 - 17 Sep 2015 at 10:19pm
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Alex View Drop Down
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Posts: 16314 		  Quote Alex Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 18 Sep 2015 at 6:28pm
Hi lacroix96,

That's odd, it sounds like perhaps it's an internal fan causing this. The fan might only kick in when the battery area is under load. I have never heard of this problem before so we might need to have it come back for service to be looked at. I'm sorry about this, shipping could have caused something to get a little loose or something.

Feel free to contact me "[email protected]" and/or our team "[email protected]" to setup a solution to this.

Make sure you also include your order details. Thanks!
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