Acer C720 Chromebook Whine

gtx13

Honorable
Jul 24, 2013
1
0
10,510
Hi,

I recently bought an Acer C720, and I'm loving it, but there's this faint high pitched noise coming from the laptop. Sometimes it's constant, but other times it pulses (beeps). It's really annoying, and I'm wondering if that's just normal or if there's something wrong with it. I googled this issue, and there are some people experiencing this.
Any help would be appreciated.

Update: whenever I touch the keyboard or trackpad, the sound fluctutates
 
Solution
I have had this problem on two separate Acer C720 Chromebooks. After tearing down one of them today, I determined that a substantial amount of the high-pitched whine was coming from the USB Card Reader Board on the right side of the machine. After I disconnected the card much of the high-pitched whine disappeared. Newegg sells replacements for $15 (http://bit.ly/1evcswR), though who knows if a new one will be any better. I'm still getting a (quieter) high-pitched whine from the left side, where the other ports are, though they are part of the motherboard, so I don't know what the solution would be.

Ahmed_iAM

Honorable
Jan 24, 2014
2
0
10,510
I have it to. It is from under the keyboard in the right side. It seems isolated from the bottom, couldn't hear it while searching for source. Someone said it had something to do with circuit coils in the Google forum. I don't know much other than general motherboard terminology so I don't exactly know what it is. Have not contacted Acer yet but may of noise continues. I often work in a quite room so the noise is almost always present. I haven't really noticed it in Chrubuntu yet.
 

MrShamiller

Estimable
Apr 12, 2014
1
0
4,520
I have had this problem on two separate Acer C720 Chromebooks. After tearing down one of them today, I determined that a substantial amount of the high-pitched whine was coming from the USB Card Reader Board on the right side of the machine. After I disconnected the card much of the high-pitched whine disappeared. Newegg sells replacements for $15 (http://bit.ly/1evcswR), though who knows if a new one will be any better. I'm still getting a (quieter) high-pitched whine from the left side, where the other ports are, though they are part of the motherboard, so I don't know what the solution would be.
 
Solution