Librem 14 - Annoying high-pitched electrical noise

manfred687 · July 3, 2021, 2:47pm

Yep here as well.
Anyway the frequency seems to change with power consumption e.g. keyboard backlight brightness.

craftkiller · July 3, 2021, 3:33pm

Its easy, purism barely tested the product before rushing it out the door. They admitted to it during soldergate in this post:

that’s what we tested for during development, we tested functionality and stability. Does everything work as expected? Even when we stress test it? And it did.

But there is more to it than just function, we also e.g. have to comply to regulations, like FCC and CE concerning EM interference and a lot of other things that are not related to functionality.

We also talked about another problem before and that is time. Due to the global shortage of parts we really got into trouble concerning time. If there is just a single component missing you can not make the main board, end of story. So you have to wait. This caused a lot of delays compared to the original production plan. And this also meant that the usual sequential development process had to be squeezed together and we had to do things in parallel in order to avoid even further delays. This of course incurred some risk, e.g. that findings from one “branch” might not make it into the other in time.

And that’s exactly what happened here. Please take into account that depending on load it takes four weeks or more to make a production run of such main boards. If you need to change things it takes even a lot longer. Since we were already super late we took the risk and pulled production of PCBs in front of the time line to get a step ahead. Since we tested the EVT and PVT boards thoroughly for function we were pretty sure that we should be pretty fine with them.

leaningtrees · July 12, 2021, 4:20pm

The latest firmware release (coreboot 4.14 / pureboot 18) do not alleviate this issue at all.

m4lvin · August 12, 2021, 1:34pm

I have the same high pitched noise, but setting the keyboard backlight to maximum brightness helps, i.e. removes the noise

thermochemical · August 14, 2021, 10:22pm

I too seem to have this.

thermochemical · August 16, 2021, 5:57pm

update tested the keyboard light thing
sadly for me it is immaterial

This means that basically my internal mic is useless which also basically means my camera is useless.

I will never purchase anything from this company ever again.

Hashcat · August 17, 2021, 5:35am

I have that high pitched noise issue as well in my headphones when plugged in. Turning the keyboard brightness up all the way does seem to alleviate the noise but is still noticeable if paying attention to it. Would like an update on purism if this is a common issue. Another note, if i use my fingers on the track pad, the noise seems to get louder as i move my fingers

leaningtrees · August 17, 2021, 3:58pm

Same experience here, headphones, trackpad, and all.

I’ve noticed (or at least my perception is…) that leaving the laptop plugged in all of the time and with the keyboard backlight all the way up seems to reduce the electrical noise the most, but it is still there.

Pingoo · August 18, 2021, 12:24am

Dell XPS 9550 and up and Precisions 5520 and up all have coil whine too. Not sure if its hazardous though. I’d be concerned if it was.

werner · August 18, 2021, 7:35am

Hate this. Can anyone pin point exactly which coils are noisy? Sometimes a bit of glue can solve the problem.

Pingoo · August 25, 2021, 2:23pm

Just got my Lib14 and I hear what everyones talking about. The coil whine is very loud compared to my two Dell XPS. The pitch of the frequency varies depending on what you or the cpu is doing at the time. The high pitch frequency become unbearable at times. Sharp and cutting to the ear. Some frequency pitches aren’t healthy to the body. I really hope thats not the case here. I can reduce the sound by using my palm to cover the tab, caps lock, tic, 1, Q, A and esc buttons of the keyboard. Doesn’t solve the problem here. Not nearly enough. Any purposed solutions here?

Pingoo · August 25, 2021, 2:49pm

I’ve been able to reduce “some” of the coil whine by plugging ALL the usb ports with usb thumb drives.

grimler · August 25, 2021, 8:53pm

On my L14 the noise does seem to be affected by the keyboard backlight, it seem to be more affected by the touchpad. If I put my fingers on it, the coil whining increases in volume/intensity.

Pingoo · August 28, 2021, 1:00am

I’ve also noticed when I have my charger connected the coil whine dramatically becomes silent. And thats without the ubs drives as I tested previously…

steils · October 20, 2021, 4:08pm

I have this high pitched noise, only in my headphones.
When the keyboard backlight is at highest level, the noise gets quieter, but still exists.

I hope there will be some fix or a workaround available…

v0odoo · October 21, 2021, 12:52am

Is this issue happening in recently received laptops?

steils · October 22, 2021, 12:15pm

Well, using bluetooth headphones is a viable workaround for me.

v0odoo · October 25, 2021, 8:35pm

How long ago did you get it?

steils · October 25, 2021, 8:53pm

The laptop? About a week ago or so.

v0odoo · October 25, 2021, 9:05pm

How long ago did you order it?