Snap, Crackle, Pop sounds from your GT 70 / 60....

No you are not crazy. For some of you (and myself)... there IS a slight crackle sound coming from your laptop... at times... not all the time and for who knows how long (my laptop is new, problem may go away).

It is NOT your hard drive spinning up / down (that sounds different as many of us know).

Not 100% sure but it could be coming from the keyboard area.

My case:
I've just purchased an MSI GT70 (black Friday weekend).. I had to go through 3 laptops (total) before I got one that worked properly (frys). My model is the 444US model.

All the problems were keyboard related.

1st GT70 that was returned: the 3 key squeaked like a mouse and was quite loud and did not register unless pressed extra hard. It was the silicone rubber apparently making the noise. Not a horrible issue, but extremely annoying to say the least, I play wow and my 3 key is bound and is pressed very often (rapidly at times). The noise generated alone was unacceptable. Some silicone lube probably would have fixed, but oh well.

2nd GT70 that was returned: the right SHIFT key was a bit taco shaped and was not registering when pressed with %75 coverage of the key, defective key basically.

3rd GT70 I got is working well.. but the keyboard itself does not (led) light evenly (like many others here). On mine, the alt/gr left arrow / right arrow keys are different colors (and higher intensity) on any led color but dark red and dark blue. but oh well I can live with it. Is this a defect ? by definition yes it absolutely is, but I can live with it.


THE CRACKLE SOUNDS:
My guess is that the sounds happen when the laptop is subjected to high heat (gaming) and then low temps (stop gaming and let it idle). the changes in temperature are causing expansion / contraction somewhere in the chassis.. keyboard area ? An adhesive pad perhaps stretching ? who knows, but it's NOT any hard drive, you can hear that and many of us know exactly what a hard drive sounds like, spin up, down, thermal cal, whatever.

the good news so far is that the sounds do not seem to affect the actual use of the computer and for the most part the crackle sounds are just a mild annoyance and do not happen all that frequently (in my case). Perhaps it depends on your use, ambient room temps, laptop temps, etc.

Just wanted to report my findings and perhaps have this crackle issue taken note of in a separate thread because there is absolutely a crackle sound happening at times on my machine at least that is NOT a hard drive. My machine is brand new. I love the machine so far.

It appears that ton of issues are directly related to the keyboard of this fine machine. I went through 3 of them.. the one I have now is good. Great machine... the keyboard on the GT series however appears to be a medium fail. (not a huge fail, but a medium one) since it's like a mac keyboard but requires slightly more positive key presses, is nothing like a mechanical keyboard (that the steelseries name would imply either). It's a different feel for sure.. but a little getting used to and you should be good and not missing key presses during fast typing.

If you are a fast and "light" touch typist, this machine is not for you (in my op) because of the keyboard, you don't need this much horsepower in a rig for just typing stuff anyway so probably moot point, unless you are using it for double duty If you type slightly harder and precisely you won't have issues . It's a nice gaming rig lit keyboard, studio production / video editing machine, etc.. I also tested the USB for audio throughput to a bunch of different USB audio devices and it works flawlessly with all that i tested anyway (under windows 8 as well).

Again.. so far I do like the machine.

 

Yay! I am NOT crazy either!!!!

I hear it too! I hear it too!

It's 100% from the keyboard, and I do find it's on warm up. I was wondering if it was related to airflow getting pulled through the keys or something goofy like that.

Thanks for posting this - great machine with some odd quirks!!!

 

I remember reading something here on NBR a while ago explaining that the crackling is normal, and will go away after a few weeks of use. Forget why though.

 

Ahh well if it goes away.. then no problems.

My machine is brand new... so perhaps the machine still getting worked in (chassis / adhesives / materials, etc).

I can live with the crackle sounds as well.. but it does sound like something that will go away (if that makes sense) like plastic parts heating up and breaking in or something. Crackle and pops.. little tiny ones..


I'm also in a quiet room.. so perhaps I'm hearing everything too carefully, but it was kinda funny when i heard it the first time.. I did think i was crazy for a moment or it was a ghost in my machine or something.. haha

then I read a few people on here heard it as well.


again love the machine... it's doing everything I need to do very well at a decent price.

 

Have you contacted MSI to ensure that it WILL go away? I've never heard of a keyboard that needs to be "burned in", so to speak. You may want to speak to someone from MSI, just for peace of mind.

 

I heard a crackling sound too after my first repaste with this notebook. It came from the fan area. So I opened it up because I thought it might be the power supply wire to the fan that touched the blades. I found a way to put the wire safely where it would not touch anything.

Now I cant hear the crackling sound anymore. Not shure if its the same sound we are talking about though...

 

Well that's good that you found the cause. To the others that ran into this: Does it sound like the fan blades hitting something? Or is the popping/crackling sound a little more intermittent and alarming sounding?

 

All roads lead to Notebookreview

I have this problem too. I don't know exactly when it is started but it is there almost for a two-three weeks.

It starts to happen after I opened up back cover of the laptop and cleaned the components and replace their TIM. I'm sure the sound doesn't come from hard drives and not from the fan either. It comes from somewhere at right palm rest. It is either case or keyboard. Not all the time, sometimes. Just as OP has described.

What can I do? It became annoying to my ears. Again, I recently opened back cover of the laptop to access the fan. Fan itself and its cable seems okay but I tided up it little. The sound problem still persists. Does it have to do with CPU or GPU?

I'd thought I got rid of HDD's clicking sound to end for all weird sounds for good but now this.

 

***DELETE THIS***

 

***DELETE THIS IN PARTICULAR***

 

UP FOR THE THIRD TIME

 

Okay, I can confirm that the crackling sound comes from either GPU's heatsink or GPU's heatsink's screws. Or thermal pads on GPU cause this (dunno how it relates though). It is a hardware problem.

I'm absolutely posivite that the problem comes from around GPU (not itself). Because today again I wonder if the problem comes from around GPU. I disassembled my laptop and I had a very hard time to tighten that four screws on GPU's heatsink. The number 2 screw on heatsink (top-left) simply didn't tighten. I maybe tried more than ten times removing GPU's heatsink and replaced it but finally I was able to manage tighten that the number 2 screw.

Yet I wasn't sure that I did that properly. When I ran Furmark to stress GPU only, it didn't take long that I did something wrong during the process. Because the crackling sounds became far more frequently. It was the same sound but far more frequent. GPU's temp is allright though. Right away I closed my laptop, disassembled again and tighten screws more properly. The problem is still there but at least it makes sometimes again, not all the time.

At least I'm glad that I found the problem. So, why I can't tighten those screws on heatsink like I use to? I use PH1 X 4.0 X 100mm and 125mm screwdrivers. Should I use different screwdrivers? What does MSI recommend? I am very tired now but I am going to try to disassemble again. I will be very happy if you can help during this time. Thank you.

By the way, I will never disassemble any of my laptops again if I DON'T ABSOLUTELY NEED TO. It is so easy to break things up. I'm absolutely regreted that I did the whole repasting and cleaning process because it didn't help and it costed me money, time and still gives me lots of headaches.

 

It's likely coil whine, high frequency vibrations in the inductor coil due to resonant frequencies in the electrical circuit which are hit at certain loads. Amount can vary from unit to unit in a model as it is determined by the differences in exact component values.

It's not harmful unless it is truly extreme and should not even impact the ability of the machine to overclock.

It's very hard to "fix", people have used nail varnish over the inductors to try and seal in the device but obviously that has warranty implications.

 

I thought coil whine was a noise problem on extremely high fps. I've never experience such thing so I didn't pay attention to coil whine. It could be it but why can't I tighten screws of heatsink? It wasn't problem for a very long time. It makes much more cracking noise when screws not tighten properly. Do you think that is there a connection between this and coil whine? It maybe harmless but it is surely irritating. I didn't try tighten those screws again yet due to school business but I plan to do it tomorrow. I hope it doesn't coil whine issue. That can't be solve easily just like you said. I'll probably send my laptop to its brand's service and ask them if they can change the GPU.

 

UP. I tightened screws of heatsink properly, the crackle noise becomes lesser but it is still there. It happens when the GPU is under certain load or very little load. It happens even at not load at all. I just noticed that it makes more frequent noise while using the GPU with overclocked. Especially memory overclock. What does cause to this? Are we certain that it is coil whine? This wasn't happening at first, I'm sure. It happens for a some time. Also, I noticed there are some thermal pads on the GPU (not its heatsink) which damaged, much likely because of me. They are not covering the hole their area. Can this be also related?

 

UP



The sound isn't like that sound in the video which is common for coil whines. But I'm sure it happens when the GPU is stressed.

 

UP

 

Coil whine can happen at any load level, it's all based around harmonics.

 

It would be helpful if you can record that sound and share it here to help everyone to figure out the root cause of this issue.

 

I really wish I can. I actually have an audio record but the noise came from the case happened so instant and random (it usually like this way), even i can't hear properly so I'm not sure if I post it here.

I can't convince myself that it is coil whine because the sound I hear is not like what people post in their videos. Nothing like whiz. It's like exactly what OP described. Snap, crackle, pop; pick one. Are these also the sign of coil whine? I agree with you that it happens at any load level as mine does.

Thanks again to both of you for your responses, I almost forgot that I posted here. Could you please quote me next time, thanks again

 

You can just request MSI to issue you a RMA# since the root cause could be a weak PWM component. It may be the main board, or the GPU module.

 

It is a barebone of the GT70 from a local seller. I already RMAd it but they said they didn't hear any noise. It's just got worse after RMA. They pasted a sloppy TIM which was all over on and outside the CPU die. Also lots of scratches they made on the notebook's piano finishes and up side of the right speaker in order to change the screen. When I told them they said send it back. It was already third time. Never RMA again.

 

Are you in the US? You can run Furmark and see if the noise comes back or not, record it, and then post it on Youtube for MSI to see.
Please also take it up to a supervisor to look into your case because if RMA had caused damages to customers' properties then that's not the right way to do business.