Surface Book 2 15" dGPU buzzing sound - coil whine?

kirbasin

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Aug 15, 2015
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I noticed buzzing noise coming from the SB2 base near the fans area last week. It would appear any time I ran any game. It was very noticeable in a quiet environment with sound turned off, but once I've heard it once, I could hear it even with sound on and fans working. From what I understand, this is most likely GPU coil whine. Unlike CPU coil whine (which is there, but I don't mind it as much, this one is much more noticeable), switching power mode or unplugging power cord doesn't help. As soon as I run any game it's there, as soon as I quit the game it's gone.

I went to local Microsoft Store and exchanged it. Today I finally had time to set up replacement, and... the new unit has exactly the same issue. I noticed it also has the same lot number (1812).

What's even more frustrating is that this is my 4th (!) Surface Book 2 now: my first two units had different hardware issues (broken speaker and rattling fan in the tablet part), but I don't think they had this issue, and they had different lot numbers (1805 and 1806). Could it be lot 1812 is a bad batch or does anyone else have this issue?

I am running Windows 10 1803 and latest Nvidia drivers 397.64 (tried rolling back to default drivers and had the same issue). Interestingly enough, turning on "Whisper Mode" in GeForce Experience eliminates the noise, but it noticeably hurts performance, so it's not exactly solving the issue.
 

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