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XPS in sleep mode: frequent clicking noise from power supply cycling on and off
XPS 8960
I have a relatively new Dell XPS 8960. Recently I've noticed that when the computer is in sleep mode, it frequently and randomly clicks and a hear a slight fan noise with each click. On closer inspection I can see the green power supply light on the back of the tower turning on and off with each click sound and it's also the power supply fans that I'm also hearing spin up for a moment too. My Dell update software recently updated my firmware, so perhaps this is related? Though I can't say with certainty if they started at the same time or not. What should I do, how do I begin to try and figure this out? My basic support runs until April 4th 2025.
Usagisama
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July 19th, 2024 21:04
I reached out to Dell support via chat, they went through a lot of what looked like their standard troubleshooting items with remote access. Various update checks, hardware checks etc., nothing obvious seemed to pop up during that process to point to a reason why the PSU would keep cycling on and off in sleep mode.
Finally, they implemented kind of work around. From the system control panel, under power options, and finally under choose what the power buttons do, they switched my system controls over to show hibernate instead of sleep as my low power mode option. When my XPS is in hibernate it doesn't seem to have the power / PSU clicking and cycling issue it does in sleep mode. So I'm not sure if this counts as a "fix", but it lets me put my computer into a low energy mode at night without a bunch concerning clicking noises from the PSU. So until Dell figures out some other fix, this is working for me for now at least!
Hokie_Shankar
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July 19th, 2024 16:22
Does this help?
https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/xps-desktops/xps-8960-making-continuous-clicking-noises-when-in-sleep-mode/666771e40773466948807eab?keyword=sleep%20clicking
https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/xps-desktops/xps-8960-mechanical-click-1-2-times-an-hour-while-in-sleep-mode-only-now-clicks-1-2-times-a-minute/66809373bea61218e7554d5b?keyword=sleep%20click
(edited)
Usagisama
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July 19th, 2024 16:37
@Hokie_Shankar Thanks for sharing the link to this post, it seems like a very similar/same issue! The clicking on and off is more random for me though, and I'm also running windows 11 and not Linux... so unfortunately the work arounds Fozzy posted don't seem applicable to windows users? Still, it sounds like a lot of folks are having the same problem, but I'm not seeing any solutions yet... bummer