What's new

Scratching noise in sleep mode

MisterV

New Member
When I put it in sleep mode there are scratching noises inside of the Surface, louder in the corner where the power button is. It sounds... like crackling, but not really 100% like electrical crackle on, say, a defective power supply (you know what I'm talking about).
It's perfectly silent when working though. Wasn't even really loud during initial updates or anything.

This bugs me a bit and I'm not using Sleep mode as a result. I don't really mind all that much not using Sleep mode, but you know, for the money I'd rather it be perfect...

Anyone else experienced this? Should I be concerned at all? Maybe run some tests/benchmarks to see how it behaves under load?..
 

ctitanic

Well-Known Member
Noises of any kind are not good because this device has only one mechanical part which is the fan. The fan should not make noises. Your should exchange you device.
 

GoodBytes

Well-Known Member
capacitors in action.

High pitch sounds or scratchy sound is the reality of capacitors. It is a big issue on desktop computers, especially that more and more desktop computers from manufactures uses quieter fans (as they are cheaper), but even more so in the custom build world, it has always been a big issue, as high end ultra quiet fans (ie: you don't know if the computer is on or off by the sound) are usually used in builds. Not to mention quieter HDD's, or SSD's which has no mechanical part.

Graphics cards, motherboards, and Power supplies are usually the culprit. Many (most) manufacture don't consider the audible sound to be a valid reason for warranty replacement, and won't cover you, because the capacitors despite doing a sound, they don't reduce their life span.

Basically, capacitors always vibrate. It just vibrates at a frequency that we, humans, can hear. A computer might be not making any noise to us, but it might be this annoying high pitch sounding box to a dog, we don't know. Usually, in custom computer builds, people would just return the culprit part, and get another one from a different batch with different (hopefully) batch capacitors that might not vibrate at a audible level, or from a different manufacture, during the return period, OR sometimes, that doesn't fix it at all, and some other component needs to be changed, as it is the combination of hardware that makes it the capacitor on a hardware output this sound.

And to make matter more complicated, some people have no problem in one place, but when they move, to somewhere else, then they have a high pitch or buzzing or cracking sound, as it is from a different electric grid.

But, so far, all the computers I have had with issues, either be custom build, or manufacture built, nothing broke. My 2005 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ on Socket 939 with 3 GB of DDR1 memory, still work to this day, proudly ran Vista 64-bit above and beyond ('cause the system was actually above specs of Vista, unlike more than half the crap sold at the time to consumers by manufactures), Windows 7, and now Windows 8. My father uses it daily, and a lot. My previous laptop, the Dell Latitude E6400 purchased in 2008, the system does a high pitch sound when the system is idle, on battery, and Windows power plan is set to Power Saver, the sound is reduced when sing Balance, but still audible (of course, it was audible if you were up close to the system, with your ear close to the keyboard), the power supply of the laptop does a sound that looks like there is water drops inside and it interfering with the circuitry and boiling when the system is plugged in, not charging (battery fully charged), and the system is sleeping (replaced it 3 times, all did this sound), and it survived to this day. No issue.

My current desktop, I am using a now old GPU, GeForce GTX 260, it does an audible sound that you can hear from the edge of my room, when rendering 2D accelerated content (not 3D, just 2D). If I enable Intel's C1E power saving feature in the BIOS, a feature normally on, the system does a crackling sound when not doing something that genuinely pushes the CPU.

So,
Replace the system if you can, and see if it helps, but if not, this is nothing to worry about, it is part of electronic life, since the longest time.
 
Last edited:

ctitanic

Well-Known Member
What you are explaining makes sense but it's not normal in a Surface. At least the crackling noises.
 

GoodBytes

Well-Known Member
My Surface Pro 2 does it as well. Just place your ear on the device close to the charging port on the back of the device, while off and plugged in, if you have the Pro 2.
 
OP
M

MisterV

New Member
Thanks for the detailed explanation up there.

For some reason it didn't apply the firmware update after the first startup.
I let it update there, and it doesn't have the noise at all, perfectly quiet *knocks on wood*
Thanks anyhow.
 

daniielrp

Active Member
My Surface Pro 2 does it as well. Just place your ear on the device close to the charging port on the back of the device, while off and plugged in, if you have the Pro 2.
My SP2 does it occasionally. I usually find that pressing thru power button to wake it, then pressing it once more will put it to sleep properly. I also see that in my event viewer my device woke from sleep, normally for Windows updates, so I can only assume the sound is the device being on, but screen off while it is checking/installing updates.
 
Top