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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1461 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 19, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Ludicrous little laptop malfunction question. It’s my daughter’s, for schoolwork, Minecraft and Discord, not much else.

  • Dell Inspiron 16 5635
  • Windows 11 Home (x64)
  • 2.00 gigahertz AMD Ryzen 5 Processor
  • 850GB storage, 4GB integrated RAM
  • Less than two year old, malware clean, no other issues.

Few months ago started making swarm-of-bees buzzing sound, making it effectively unusable. Brought to repair shop for some expertise. They said fan was dusty, cleaned it, nothing else required. Got it home - buzzing started within few minutes again. Back to repair shop, they’re mystified. THE BUZZING NEVER HAPPENS IN THE SHOP. I recorded a video of the sound, so they believe me, but they can’t find anything wrong. Took the back off in the shop, powered it up, left for 20 minutes - fan running no issues, no abnormal sounds.

Took it home, and a few minutes after booting, swarm-of-bees buzzing starts again.

Software is fine, hardware seems fine, everything seems fine, and technicians have no clue.

Any motherboard nerds have any ideas?

Does the sound come from the speakers or laptop itself? Does it happen when plugged or on battery or on both? Usually those kinds of sounds could be just coil whine, or your outlets in the house are not properly grounded.

Happens when plugged in and on battery.

Weird possibility is EMI on the speakers turning the cables into wire antenna. Can eliminate it as an option by playing something normal at a very low volume; if the problem persists even when other things are driving the speakers, it's either not EMI or you're in the path of an active radar system.

Software-wise, I'd also spin up a Linux Mint LiveUSB, make sure the same issue happens from a completely different environment. There are non-malware Weird Driver Problems that can happen, including sporadically.

But the most likely problem's just the mainboard fan bearing. They're supposed to be good for five years MTBF, but especially in dirty environments they can get pretty bad pretty quick, and you'll hear a very characteristic buzzing sound. You can replace the bearing itself for about five bucks, but it's really annoying to do, so I'd just grab a spare fan module off amazon. Should have options under 20 USD. It's a pretty straightforward replacement once you pop the bottom shell off, though would recommend picking up a couple guitar picks to more cleanly pry the shell. Do be careful when unplugging or plugging anything in -- these tiny cable connectors will break off hilariously easy.

If you want to completely be sure that it's the fan module that's the problem, pry the bottom shell off, power up the laptop (on a clean, non-conductive surface), and then gently press down on the top of the fan's middle. A small amount of pressure will usually cause the noise to go away temporarily, and pressing down hard enough to make the fan stop entirely should definitely cause the noise to stop. Obviously not a fix, but great way to be sure before putting in an amazon order.

But the most likely problem's just the mainboard fan bearing.

Yeah -- did the, um, repair shop try replacing the fan at all? I could see just blowing it out on the first visit, but they cost like ten bucks -- just throw one in and see is what I'd do, but @striker gattsuru's test plan sounds good if you can make it buzz with the case off.

Yes that’s the next step with them - their expert opinion is that the fan is fine, but they’re also out of ideas and they want to replace fan next. I just wanted to try to make my own diagnosis, as I’m not sure I’m fully faithful in their advice right now.

Are you placing it on a different surface/angle when it's at home vs at the shop?

Buzzing a few mins after boot sounds like the fans (or a fan) kicking up as the laptop heats up, and then starts smacking into something in the case.

If your daughter has an angled laptop stand or something that may be causing the case to deform slightly in such a way that nudges something into the fan area and then pings off the fan as it spins.

Does the buzzing sound only happen with Minecraft? I had a laptop back in the day with a CPU fan and a GPU fan. So maybe the shop running the laptop at idle to see if the noise showed up never triggered the GPU fan.

I’m fairly clueless, but I think it only has one fan, and it seems to be spinning fine (including at different angles).

We’ve had it at multiple different angles, stand and flat. In the shop the guy had it on its side for five minutes.

It seems to happen in the house with almost nothing running (we disabled all boot apps) and with RAM and CPU under no pressure.

Shop guy said extremely unlikely but possible is some sort of speaker interference in the house, but I just can’t believe that’s a possibility. Will keep investigating and observing here.

For what it's worth, I threw this into some LLMs

Both ChatGPT and Gemini also think it's environmental. Both seem to think you should be running it at home on battery only, because if that fixes it your problem is the laptop AC adaptor or your electrical circuits.

Are you using your laptop cord at the shop, or theirs?

You could also disable the speakers in device manager, which will eliminate the speaker cause.

Try booting into BIOS and see if it happens there. If it's just happening in windows it might be from power settings.

"4. Fan resonance check.

Does the pitch change when you: lightly press near the left palm rest/vents, lift a corner, or place it on a folded towel? If yes, that's resonance at a specific RPM. Ask the shop to replace the fan module; cleaning won't fix a bearing or blade imbalance."

Try different wall outlets, and if possible, different chargers.

I'm so curious!

Cheers for the curiosity. Will aim to report back on progress. It also happens when not plugged in, so I don’t think it’s the circuits. Environmental issues - will be interested to try to triage those. Radar path, that would be a wow!

Best way to rule out speaker interference would be to take it to a cafe or something and do something on it (taxes? Minecraft? Watch a movie?)

If it happens in a different environment you'll rule out a weird EM field in your house (lol)

Sounds like you've ruled out fan noise. I guess you could try messing with the fan curves (you can in bios, but it's better to do it with an app that allows you to do it real time) when it makes the sound and see if the sound changes (when it's happening) with different fan speeds.

I am not an electrical engineer, but I cannot think of anything that could generate sound in a computer that isn't a fan or its speaker. I don't think solid state electronics can make noise?

I am not an electrical engineer, but I cannot think of anything that could generate sound in a computer that isn't a fan or its speaker. I don't think solid state electronics can make noise?

I think power supply components can generate coil whine. Lots of laptops do this but it tends to be fairly quiet and not a swarm of bees.

Will do the cafe test tomorrow. Worth a shot to see if the issue can be raised outside these four walls.

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