I can't say I've ever noticed coil whine, at least from the laptop itself. Not on any ThinkPad or Latitude/Precision I've used (and I've used many), not on my

I can't say I've ever noticed coil whine, at least from the laptop itself. Not on any ThinkPad or Latitude/Precision I've used (and I've used many), not on my Framework, not even on the various cheapo HPs and Acers and such I've occasionally used as "servers" (in production! A story for another time, perhaps). Either I'm more deaf than I thought from the metal scene here in Reno or I've just been exceptionally lucky. I have, however, heard it plenty from laptop chargers, especially of the Dell variety, and while I guess that's somewhat expected given the transformers converting from AC to DC, it still skeeves me out a bit to hear noises from the one thing in between my laptop and 120VAC. I wonder if it'd be possible to use destructive interference / noise cancelling to "cancel out" coil whine? In any case, it seems excessive to call a laptop with coil whine a 100% wasted investment. Even if you can't return it, you could always stick it in a cabinet or something and use it as a desktop or server or media PC. Or hell, surely you could find a buyer who's too deaf to notice ;)