CPU whine, Y460, and wireless mice...

Ok, posting this here as it's becoming irritating and there may be others suffering from it.

My two-week old Y460 came out of the box with no CPU whine, regardless of whether bluetooth is on, or wireless is on, or microphones are unmuted, etc. Basically, no complaints.

Then I started noticing CPU whine, but only under certain circumstances that I wasn't immediately able to pin down... Some days it would go on all day, others I wouldn't hear it. Turns out that it wasn't random, it was directly linked to my use of my Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 6000. But the noise wasn't coming from the mouse, nor the USB transceiver -- it was coming from squarely underneath the device, basically where the CPU is.

After some googling, most others mentioned this noise coming directly from the mouse -- and I was able to empirically prove that wasn't the case in my situation. I finally gave up, and bought a Logitech M505 wireless mouse to see if it would solve the problem. It does not

I went through a few mice from our test lab, and it turns out that pretty much any wireless mouse that operates on the 2.4GHz band suffers from the same issue -- CPU whine. If I use an older, crappier mouse that isn't 2.4GHz, it's fine (but then I'm stuck with a pretty terrible mouse...)

I tried numerous combinations of power savings (or not), changes to the port settings, etc and all were to no avail. The only thing I found that worked was to plug the transceiver unit into a USB 1.1 hub, and then into the laptop. I'm assuming the slower interface nullifies whatever interface issues was causing the ringing, but a USB hub is not the correct answer. Also, other USB devices (memory sticks, hubs, wired mice, keyboards, etc) do not cause similar noises, so it seems specific to the 2.4GHz 'nano' transceivers that seemingly all my tested mice have.

I'm going to give my Logitech mouse back to Best Buy tonight, and see if I can get a Bluetooth mouse to test instead. I'm confident the battery life will suck worse, but hopefully it won't have CPU whine.

My hope is that posting this here may help others diagnosing the same problem...

 

Have you tried ThrottleStop app? It helped in my case... which was a T510.

Just start it when you hear the whine and see if there is a difference...

 

Can that program also help with heat?

OP, I don't know if this helps but, my had a whine that seems to have disappeared...... Mine would do it when idle, but would do it regardless of the wireless mouse.(To my knowledge anyways)

 

I don't know. I just noticed that it helped me. Apparently by default it disables CPU C states...

 

throttlestop will actually increase your heat and power consumption. It doesn't always work and it's not really a permanent solution.

I've been through 3 HPs with serious whine. I don't think I could handle it if my y460 arrived with whine.
If only intel gave two sh**s about this problem with the icores.

 

Again, the machine didn't ship with whine. It whines only when a 2.4Ghz wireless transceiver is plugged into the USB port, but obviously other 2.4Ghz radio interference seems to be OK (ie 802.11B/G and bluetooth devices.)

Nevertheless, USB-attached radio devices of three different brands should not instigate the high frequency noise from somewhere within the voltage regulation circuitry. There's either a bad ground, or an RF choke somewhere that isn't working right.

I called Lenovo a bit earlier, and since the laptop is 14 days old (ie, within the 21 'review' period) then I'll be calling sales tomorrow about a swap.

 

One point of contention -- this isn't Intel's doing. Intel specifies exactly how the motherboard power regulation hardware should be designed; it's up to the individual engineering teams to get it right. And CPU whine of any sort (people with constant whine, people with whine that's occasional, and people like me who have it related to RF logic either in their wireless, bluetooth or USB devices) is entirely the fault of the hardware manufacturer of the system board and/or DC/DC regulator board. (back when those were separate units, for you old-school types)

So again, no amount of CPU whine is Intel's fault. If you want to point the finger, point it at the people who decided which parts to use for your motherboard's power regulation.

Looks like I'll be returning my Y460 today for another one.