Support NeoGAF

[miDnIghtEr20C]

Man. I just bought an Xbox One a few days ago, haven't opened it yet, now thinking of returning :/

Guess I'll wait another week to see if this drums up any attention from MS before deciding what to do.

What? You just let what could be something that's not a huge thing make you return it and you haven't opened it yet to play? Ha.. you should return it. Who waits days to open up their brand new consoles? This is wild to see all the people in here all "concerned" now and now NOT going to buy an X1 because of this. lmao, classic.

This is huge -_-

Ha ha.. great joke.

 

[goombatommy]

Okay, this video does a very good job of showcasing the issue. I'm guessing if it really is the coil thing some are referring to, then no firmware update can fix that I suppose.

Would be curious to know how widespread this issue is, as don't want to jump to conclusions and assume it's more a tremendous number. Could be a limited number of units or more than that, but time will tell.

You know what's funny and this is slightly OT, is that I get a similar noise like this with my PC's graphics card. You'll hear these weird "squeals" and "high-pitched noises" depending on what game, what kinda of load the gfx card is under. Some games, it doesn't even happen at all and that's the kicker there..

 

[BruiserBear]

This is huge -_-

sarcasm?

Alright.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooZzPbxvT_o

on dashboard 0:53
launching game 1:47

Lot 1432X
Manufacture Date: 5-12-2014

Yup. This sounds exactly like mine does with the Kinect unplugged. Is that what people are describing as a "whine"? Because it sounds like a hard drive making access noises to me. There is nothing high pitch about it.

 

[atomsk]

Okay, this video does a very good job of showcasing the issue. I'm guessing if it really is the coil thing some are referring to, then no firmware update can fix that I suppose.

I've seen speculation that v-sync is turned off on the dash and it's running at an unlocked framerate. If it's truly a power draw issue, then maybe locking dash to 60fps would help?

 

[SenjutsuSage]

You know what's funny and this is slightly OT, is that I get a similar noise like this with my PC's graphics card. You'll hear these weird "squeals" and "high-pitched noises" depending on what game, what kinda of load the gfx card is under. Some games, it doesn't even happen at all and that's the kicker there..

Yea, I use to have a similar funny issue with my previous GPU on my PC. Lived with it till I later replaced.

I've seen speculation that v-sync is turned off on the dash and it's running at an unlocked framerate. If it's truly a power draw issue, then maybe locking dash to 60fps would help?

This reminds me, forgot to post video over on preview forums for them to see. I don't have the issue, but I guess if it helps them stave off a potential problem for other users then it's good for everyone.

 

[REMEMBER CITADEL]

Smartphone microphones are not as sensitive as the human ear. I was getting 60-70db on a decibel app, that is certainly out of range from what it's supposed to be.

I believe you, it might be really loud on your end, although smartphone microphones can certainly amplify the noise. Just yesterday I recorded a video of a document reader with my smartphone, and I ended up having to remove the sound track because it turned out too noisy, much noisier than what I was actually hearing.

 

[cleveridea]

wow, I am surprised to hear this.

When I picked up my xbox one, I was surprised how quiet it was when I turned it on versus my PS4.

 

[jelly]

We will be back to the good old days of the falcon, jasper, valhalla(360 Slim)soon.

Bring on the revisions, 20nm, Xbox One slim.

 

[Yka]

You know what's funny and this is slightly OT, is that I get a similar noise like this with my PC's graphics card. You'll hear these weird "squeals" and "high-pitched noises" depending on what game, what kinda of load the gfx card is under. Some games, it doesn't even happen at all and that's the kicker there..

How to get rid of coil whine (YouTube)

 

[atomsk]

I believe you, it might be really loud on your end, although smartphone microphones can certainly amplify the noise. Just yesterday I recorded a video of a document reader with my smartphone, and I ended up having to remove the sound track because it turned out too noisy, much noisier than what I was actually hearing.

Going to see if I can dig out my MXL 990 and record another video, that may prove more accurate.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

wow, I am surprised to hear this.

When I picked up my xbox one, I was surprised how quiet it was when I turned it on versus my PS4.

Well, it's posted on preview forums with youtube link to a user that has the issue. Mine has been as quiet as a mouse since I got it. I really only ever hear it if I do a hard reset (a very brief noise, but easily the loudest noise my xbox one produces, and it only happens on a hard reset), and when I first turn it on you hear the hard drive kicking on. I may even hear the hard drive winding down to some degree when I power the xbox one down, too, but don't feel like checking at the moment.

 

[jacobeid]

A customer service agent just told me the problem might be because I purchased my Xbox at Target and "Target is a reseller retail store and its not an accredited Microsoft Product Distributor. That's why the product might not have a good quality because its from a reseller's shop."

I shit you not.

 

[BruiserBear]

I just remembered something, and I thought I'd suggest some people with noisy XB1's try this out.

On a few occasions I've charged my PS4 controller via the USB outlet on the side of my XB1 while watching TV. I've noticed though that if I turn off the console and the charging continues, the console does make a high pitch whine sound. It's minor, but I can hear it.

So, I'm curious to know whether or not plugging in something that requires power via USB might have an effect on other people's consoles. For example, if your console makes noise on the dashboard, try plugging in something via USB and see if it goes away.

 

[klier]

My Xbone is as quite as it can be, Kinectless.

My PS4 on the other hand can be quite noisy sometimes.

Oh well.

 

[goombatommy]

How to get rid of coil whine (YouTube)

Ah cool, I will check this out when I get home. Thanks!

 

[apieceofstrange]

I just remembered something, and I thought I'd suggest some people with noisy XB1's try this out.

On a few occasions I've charged my PS4 controller via the USB outlet on the side of my XB1 while watching TV. I've noticed though that if I turn off the console and the charging continues, the console does make a high pitch whine sound. It's minor, but I can hear it.

So, I'm curious to know whether or not plugging in something that requires power via USB might have an effect on other people's consoles. For example, if your console makes noise on the dashboard, try plugging in something via USB and see if it goes away.

I always charge my DS4 and Gold wireless headset using the X1 USB port and I've never noticed this. I have a launch unit and its always been relatively silent. Definitely nothing like the youtube videos posted.

 

[Bastardo]

You know what's funny and this is slightly OT, is that I get a similar noise like this with my PC's graphics card. You'll hear these weird "squeals" and "high-pitched noises" depending on what game, what kinda of load the gfx card is under. Some games, it doesn't even happen at all and that's the kicker there..

Yes, those high-pitched noises are definitely coil-whine and are usually fixed under full load. The firmware"fix" would be to always run the xbox at full load. Would take huge amounts of energy but the whine would most certainly be gone.

 

[Indiedevs]

Still nothing official?

 

[goombatommy]

Yes, those high-pitched noises are definitely coil-whine and are usually fixed under full load. The firmware"fix" would be to always run the xbox at full load. Would take huge amounts of energy but the whine would most certainly be gone.

That sounds about right. However - stop me if I'm wrong here, if you were to have the Xbox always run at full load, wouldn't that effect performance on basically everything?

 

[HawksWinStanley]

So the noise doesn't mean anything is malfunctioning, right? If nothing's breaking then I don't think it's that big of a deal. It'd probably fall in the same category as the bright ass DS4 light and wobbly PS4 base for me. Annoying but I'll get over it.

 

[goombatommy]

So the noise doesn't mean anything is malfunctioning, right? If nothing's breaking then I don't think it's that big of a deal. It'd probably fall in the same category as the bright ass DS4 light and wobbly PS4 base for me. Annoying but I'll get over it.

Hard question to answer. It's a relatively "newer" issue arising only on the Kinectless Xbox One's. I assume it hasn't had much exposure time to formulate if this causes any long-term issues or hardware failures. Let us hope not.

 

[milkybar1983]

mine has done this since day one, sounds awful

 

[BruiserBear]

Hard question to answer. It's a relatively "newer" issue arising only on the Kinectless Xbox One's. I assume it hasn't had much exposure time to formulate if this causes any long-term issues or hardware failures. Let us hope not.

There are dozens of posts in this very thread suggesting that is not true at all.

 

[ethomaz]

Yup. This sounds exactly like mine does with the Kinect unplugged. Is that what people are describing as a "whine"? Because it sounds like a hard drive making access noises to me. There is nothing high pitch about it.

I never saw a electronic that have a HDD making this constant and loud noise and I work on TI.

So it is not common.

And why some units have the issue and others not? All of them have to be equal without that noise.

 

[CrimzonSamurai]

I'm pretty sure my Xbox One has made this noise before. It went away after a while. I assumed it was some background update installing. Just louder than normal hard drive activity.

My system is a launch one with Kinect as well.

 

[keezy]

I got an Xbone the day it went on sale as a kinectless console. My Xbone is quieter than my PS4. I think this is an isolated issue... People on the "PS4 side" are making a big deal about these cases. I can speak from experience because I was all about the PS4 at launch and laughed when there were disc tray issues with a few Xbone consoles... No problems with my Xbone... I prefer it to my PS4 at this point. Bring on MCC!

 

[DaxMedFlax]

Mine is doing this exact thing. Just bought it 2 days ago. My friend and I bought our Xbox One's from the same retailer, at the same time, and his is totally quiet. Disconnecting kinect makes it even more noisy. I am not really sensitive to some noise, but this is too severe.

I'll wait a few days before returning it, maybe MS makes a statement or something. I dunno.

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

They cant all be perfect OP

I dont want perfect. I want quiet.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Still nothing official?

Considering no consoles seem to actually be breaking as a result of this, I have doubts, but I guess the sound may be pretty annoying for some regardless. And apparently some folks are reporting that they've been hearing the sound since launch or well before Kinectless versions released?

Based on when it's occurring and when it isn't happening, it certainly seems like something that a firmware update to those particular models may very well fix.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if there really are different Xbox One models, because there's a vast difference in the size of preview updates that people get from console to console. Mine are constantly in the 245MB-350MB range. Only one since I've had this, I think, has been in excess of 1GB in size, and I believe it was the very first September Preview update.

Mine is doing this exact thing. Just bought it 2 days ago. My friend and I bought our Xbox One's from the same retailer, at the same time, and his is totally quiet. Disconnecting kinect makes it even more noisy. I am not really sensitive to some noise, but this is too severe.

I'll wait a few days before returning it, maybe MS makes a statement or something. I dunno.

Folks reporting these issues should start revealing some potentially helpful info.

1. Country you're in.
2. Date your system was manufactured if it shows it
3. And possibly where it was manufactured (again if it shows it)

 

[Larogue]

Has Microsoft revealed what cause this sound yet?

 

[ethomaz]

I got an Xbone the day it went on sale as a kinectless console. My Xbone is quieter than my PS4. I think this is an isolated issue... People on the "PS4 side" are making a big deal about these cases. I can speak from experience because I was all about the PS4 at launch and laughed when there were disc tray issues with a few Xbone consoles... No problems with my Xbone... I prefer it to my PS4 at this point. Bring on MCC!

I don't think anybody in PS4 side is reporting Xbone issues on Xbox.Support lol

You know... you need to have a Xbone and a warranty to replace it via MS.

 

[BruiserBear]

I never saw a electronic that have a HDD making this constant and loud noise and I work on TI.

So it is not common.

And why some units have the issue and others not? All of them have to be equal without that noise.

Loud noise? That part is certainly subjective. A phone capturing video is not the same as you standing next to it in a room.

So you're saying you've never been around a hard drive that makes noises like the ones in that video?

Lastly, as others have pointed out, this problem seems to be reliant on the Kinect not being plugged in. When my Kinect is plugged in my XB1 is so quiet you wouldn't even know it was on.

 

[Vestal]

Mine is doing this exact thing. Just bought it 2 days ago. My friend and I bought our Xbox One's from the same retailer, at the same time, and his is totally quiet. Disconnecting kinect makes it even more noisy. I am not really sensitive to some noise, but this is too severe.

I'll wait a few days before returning it, maybe MS makes a statement or something. I dunno.

Are you connected directly to the wall or to a powrrstrip?

To me this sounds like it could be a power issue of sorts.

Xbox one day one here and don't have the issue.

 

[Bastardo]

That sounds about right. However - stop me if I'm wrong here, if you were to have the Xbox always run at full load, wouldn't that effect performance on basically everything?

Well, it was just hypothetical. It's a very bad idea all around, because it includes fans spinning like crazy and definitely a shorter system life.

Best way to get rid of it, is to fix the coil, but that voids warranty if you do it by yourself.

 

[Gestault]

My system (first batch of non-Kinect) doesn't seem to be affected. Roughly 90% percent of my play time is with digital games . As I go on, I'll keep an ear out for this. If a system is putting out noise like that, chances are some component has extra friction against it, and that can't be great for it, long term.

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

I got an Xbone the day it went on sale as a kinectless console. My Xbone is quieter than my PS4. I think this is an isolated issue... People on the "PS4 side" are making a big deal about these cases. I can speak from experience because I was all about the PS4 at launch and laughed when there were disc tray issues with a few Xbone consoles... No problems with my Xbone... I prefer it to my PS4 at this point. Bring on MCC!

What on earth is that supposed to mean? This thread is full of Xbox only owners.

And if you are talking about me, I assure you im quite happy to give each and every Hardware manufacturer shit for defective goods.

If im honest, now I own all 3 next gen consoles I can honestly say im disappointed in all three for different reasons. This generation can be basically summed up with this "Hay. At least it works".

 

[Stimpack]

IDE hard drive from the early 90's? Man, I didn't get SATA until 200X!

*SATA didn't exist until 2003!*

 

[ethomaz]

Loud noise? That part is certainly subjective. A phone capturing video is not the same as you standing next to it in a room.

So you're saying you've never been around a hard drive that makes noises like the ones in that video?

Lastly, as others have pointed out, this problem seems to be reliant on the Kinect not being plugged in. When my Kinect is plugged in my XB1 is so quite you wouldn't even know it was on.

That constant and loud noise? No... never.

Maybe your noise is more silent because from what I read the noise didn't have the same intensity for all... and even with Kinect plugged there are reports of the issue... so I won't count the Kinect as root cause.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

What on earth is that supposed to mean? This thread is full of Xbox only owners.

And if you are talking about me, I assure you im quite happy to give each and every Hardware manufacturer shit for defective goods.

If im honest, now I own all 3 next gen consoles I can honestly say im disappointed in all three for different reasons. This generation can be basically summed up with this "Hay. At least it works".

It's not impossible that some will take advantage of this for their own petty purposes. It happens all the time, but I've seen at least enough proof that it is, in fact, an issue for some people. Thankfully I don't have the issue, my system is amazingly quiet and has been that way since getting it in April, and I honestly don't plan on disconnecting Kinect to ever find out lol.

 

[Bastardo]

Hey, I got an idea to explain the Kinect connection.

If Kinect is connected, the box is basically always listening - hence the CPU can't go into its lowest power state -> medium voltage on COIL

If it's disconnected, the CPU can actually go to sleep, because the xbox is doing less -> low voltage on COIL.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Hey, I got an idea to explain the Kinect connection.

If Kinect is connected, the box is basically always listening - hence the CPU can't go into its lowest power state -> medium voltage on COIL

If it's disconnected, the CPU can actually go to sleep, because the xbox is doing less -> low voltage on COIL.

Interesting theory, and considering the system was meant to launch with Kinect (and I suppose stay that way) they perhaps didn't take into consideration possible changes in power levels for when Kinect isn't plugged in and doing what it's designed to do, which surely has to take up some of the reserved system resources on the system side of the OS.

 

[Larogue]

Hey, I got an idea to explain the Kinect connection.

If Kinect is connected, the box is basically always listening - hence the CPU can't go into its lowest power state -> medium voltage on COIL

If it's disconnected, the CPU can actually go to sleep, because the xbox is doing less -> low voltage on COIL.

makes sense

 

[DaxMedFlax]

Are you connected directly to the wall or to a powrrstrip?

To me this sounds like it could be a power issue of sorts.

Xbox one day one here and don't have the issue.

I've tried 2 different power supplies and a total of 4 different wall outlets without powerstrips at 3 different locations. The problem is in the Xbox One itself, no question about it (in my case atleast).

Folks reporting these issues should start revealing some potentially helpful info.

1. Country you're in. NORWAY
2. Date your system was manufactured: 06/27/2014

 

[rjcc]

This is barely on topic *but* does leaving kinect attached now rob you of 10% performance, or do you get the boost anyway. I mean surely games like Destiny aren't going to lower their res when you have kinect attached are they.

ah, I see already answered

 

[SenjutsuSage]

I've tried 2 different power supplies and a total of 4 different wall outlets without powerstrips at 3 different locations. The problem is in the Xbox One itself, no question about it (in my case atleast).

So that's

#1) Norway for DaxMedFlax, and his system was manufactured 6/27/2014


We should start compiling these in a big post for different users with the issue. Also, I think I've read enough where I feel pretty good that this could very well be fixed via a firmware update. It sounds too situational, and most of it seems to be in cases where you least expect to get a lot of noise because the system isn't doing very much, but when the system is running a game, people seem to be reporting that it's quiet then.

 

[Indiedevs]

Media in Norway are writing about this. Might use Google translate.

http://www.pressfire.no/mobile/page/8870

 

[Timmay]

So the noise doesn't mean anything is malfunctioning, right? If nothing's breaking then I don't think it's that big of a deal. It'd probably fall in the same category as the bright ass DS4 light and wobbly PS4 base for me. Annoying but I'll get over it.

So that's

#1) Norway for DaxMedFlax, and his system was manufactured 6/27/2014


We should start compiling these in a big post for different users with the issue. Also, I think I've read enough where I feel pretty good that this could very well be fixed via a firmware update. It sounds too situational, and most of it seems to be in cases where you least expect to get a lot of noise because the system isn't doing very much, but when the system is running a game, people seem to be reporting that it's quiet then.

If you read the 500+ thread at the Xbox Forums, you'll note that it's happening in Norway, Sweden, Germany, South America, US, Canada, and Japan. I may have missed a few. This doesn't seem like a "bad batch" issue. Feels widespread to me.

 

[TheBanditKing]

While I think this is getting a bit blown out of proportion, I mean its not like MS handled the RROD problem very well last gen and spent most of the time lying and spinning the truth about it. I can completely understand people getting upset and over reacting.

 

[atomsk]

Alright, here's a video I recorded with an actual microphone (MXL 990)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrP-nwdZL9U

 

[Prevolition]

How to get rid of coil whine (YouTube)

Omg thank you, I've been trying to identify this type of noise for a few days. Glad it's not a sign that my motherboard is about to fry.