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I just bought the Acer V17 Nitro VN7-792G-705X.

The processor is the Intel i7-6700HQ.

I noticed that when I open a program, say google chrome, you can distinctly hear a sizzling noise coming from the somewhere on the motherboard. Think of the sound as when you put cold sausages on a barbecue (although the sizzling is not as extreme as this). It certainly sounds electrical in nature. No the charger does not make any funny noises.

After the program loads the sizzling noise more or less stops, although it is audible if you put you ear next to the case in a quiet room.

Please note it is NOT the hard drive nor is it the fan. They are clearly functioning normally.

I was convinced that the product is defective and I got it replaced immediately.

However the second one has the IDENTICAL problem!!

Weird clue #1

Another piece of information is that this only happens when the laptop is on battery power. When it is plugged in, it basically doesn't happen. Unfortunately the battery is sealed so I cannot take it out.

Weird clue #2

When the battery is in power saving mode it doesn't happen very loudly, when it is in balanced mode it happens more, and when it is in performance mode it happens even when the laptop is completely idle.

The question

What I'm asking here is what could the cause of this be? How should I troubleshoot it, and is it a problem at all? It sounds like an electrical/power issue to me.

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    sounds like your describing "coil whine". depending on the frequency that the power is converted and the quantity of power used (when working) it also can more rarely occur via mostfets if it really was sizzling sounding and not more hiss or whine like it would be capacitors, but they would be failing terribly, whereas the other, more likely things can carry on doing that for years with no problem. . Run some benchmark or prime tests , or anything that loads the cpu (uses power) and you would probably hear it again. It is not a fail type of defect, just a E-design issue.
    – Psycogeek
    May 11, 2016 at 3:07

1 Answer 1

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It sounds to me like a problem with the power switching/voltage regulation circuitry inside the device is not up to par. If 2 of those units are making those kinds of sounds I'd take it back and get a refund or a different model of laptop.

Specifically it sounds like the power regulation circuitry is struggling to keep up with the loads. (Not the same, but relevant - I had an aftermarket powerbrick for an HP laptop, which worked fine when the battery was full, but made a hissing when it was charging the battery - in fairness, it did not actually die, but I have no doubt it was running at the edge/out of spec, and you should not accept that from a reputable manufacturer)

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  • It seems like the problem is disappearing by itself the more I use the laptop. Any ideas?
    – noobcoder
    May 12, 2016 at 10:48
  • @noobcoder well do you use the Intel GPU or a dedicated? A check to do is to totally switch off the Intel GPU and see if that solves the issue.
    – Pithikos
    Dec 31, 2016 at 19:57

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