When my laptop is docked, I get bizzare scratching-like noises from the laptop whenever anything moves/changes on any of my screens. Even when I have nothing demanding running, scrolling on any page, maximizing a window, switching windows, playing a video, etc. causes the sound for the duration of the animation. From seeing similar forum posts my guess is that it’s coil whine, but unlike the other threads I’ve foundI do not have a dGPU. My setup is:
FW16 AI 300 WITHOUT dGPU (I know the tag says 7040, I don’t see any 300 tag option for some reason!)
NixOS with KDE Plasma
Dell TB dock attached to external monitor and external mic/headphones (my laptop speakers are muted!)
I cannot reproduce the issue when the laptop is not docked; just AC power is not enough. If and when I have access to a different dock and/or different OS to test this on, I will update this thread with the results.
I think I have a similar issue, with the same scratch-like noises. In my case, it happens only when the battery finished charging (up to 75%, the limit I set in BIOS). During the actual charging process, there’s no noise at all.
I have the same FW16 AI300 with no dGPU, and tried two different docks, both powered using the official 240W charger (which works fine when connected direct to the FW16, without any noises during charging or after it’s complete):
DAHUA DH-TC39 (officially supports 100W charging) - no noises during charging, scratch-like noise once it reached the charging limit
WavLink WL-UMD28 (officially supports 125W charging) - no noises during charging, scratch-like noise once it reached the charging limit
In Linux Mint, framework_tool shows the charging done at 17.8V and 5.488A, so ~97W (this is the same I get when connecting the Framework 240W official charger directly to the laptop). When the charging is finished, framework_tool shows 16.5V and 0A.
Since both docks trigger the same behavior, it seems like the FW16’s charging circuit doesn’t like something about the power that comes from the dock. But why does it manifest only after charging is finished?
So that’s what it is! I’ve been wondering where that sound came from and what caused it. I thought it was pretty random but it always stays once it started.
As soon as I unplugged the charging it stopped. When charging back to the 80% limit it made no noise, but it also stayed silent afterwards. I have to check if it comes back after rebooting.
I have experienced the same issue on my FW16 both with and without the dGPU. I am so glad someone figured out what causes this noise. I use my computer docked most of the time so I thought it was always an issue that I was just able to ignore sometimes. I will do more testing with my different chargers and docks to see if there is a solution. I saw other people claiming the problem was High wattage charging, but I only use my 100w charger most of the time