[PJT510]

Hello,

I'm a Dell Inspiron 8600 user. I mainly do audio recording and production on my laptop, and for as long as I can remember now I've had this annoying problem of my CPU beeping continuously. It's not a loud beep, just a very high pitched, randomly scattered beep that doesn't seem to have a pattern. It's soft enough that if I ignore it, it goes away after awhile, but when I'm recording or concentrating on something it really gets on my nerves. I think it has something to do with overheating, but everything on my laptop is running fine. My cooling fan, however, kicks on very often for long periods of time, even when I'm just web browsing or checking email. I've used other Inspiron 8600s and they don't seem to have this problem. What could that beeping be, and how can I resolve the issue? Thank you.

Patrick

 

[please]

@ PJT510
Welcome :smile: A difficult thing to troubleshoot without hearing it... 20 questions time...Is this 'beep' a warning beep, or a mechanical noise in the form of a beep? Could it be fan bearings that create the high-pitched beep/whine? How do you know it is the CPU that is beeping...could it be the HDD? You might want to have your laptop cleaned if it runs hot or overheats easily. You said it might have something to do with the heat issue. Does this mean the beeping only happens when things get warm? Do you have a cooling pad? Does a cooling pad eliminate the noise?

 

[PJT510]

Thanks for your reply. The beep is a mechanical noise in the form of a beep, not a warning. I don't think it could be fan bearings that are causing the noise ... it sounds a little more "digital" than that. It happens both when the fan is working hard, and also when it is not. On my inspiron the harddrive is on the right side, and the CPU is in the top left corner, and when I put my ear to it, the sound is clearly coming from the CPU. I don't have a cooling pad... never used one before. Are they noisy? Are there any types you might recommend? Hope these answers helped narrow things down a bit. Thanks again.

Patrick

 

[please]

@ PJT510
Sounds like something a hands-on tech(or an adventurous/curious owner :wink: ) might have better luck troubleshooting. Having a good cleaning done might help. You could try to take off the back plate covering the CPU and see if you see anything out of the ordinary, but do so at your own risk. I'm sure DELL doesn't want any techwannabes poking around and it would surely void your warranty if you left any signs of entry.

As for cooling pads, I am shopping myself but it depends on what your needs and uses are. Some are passive/silent and some have loud/fast fans and some have fan speed controllers. I found NotebookReview.com Forums to be a pretty informative place when it comes to questions about my lappy.

 

[smithcferg]

more info?

Hi, I have this same laptop - I have never had this problem on my computer. However, the pesky fan does come on often, and it makes a fair amount of noise. I think this is normal for the Inspiron 8600 series.

If you plug in a headset to the audio port, does the digital beeping sound go through the headset instead of coming from the computer? Do you hear this beeping sound when the fan isn't running? Can you record the sound, and post a file of the sound to a website, and put the link in a reply so we can hear the sound?