ASUS Coil Whine Caused By “Thousands of Bees”

In a bizarre statement from the ROG Global PR team today, ASUS has announced it has finally found the source of an issue plaguing their ROG laptops and graphics cards since at least 2018. User reports have flooded Reddit and many technical forums complaining about excessive electrical noise. This electrical noise has been characterized as a “hum,” “squeaking,” “chirping,” and most often: “buzzing.”

In the public statement, ASUS claims that its failure analysis teams have located “thousands of bees” inside many electrical components of their laptops. They reside inside the power components, such as VRMs (voltage regulation modules), capacitors, MOSFETs, and other essential power circuitry inside their devices. When power load increases, these bees can become agitated and begin making noises that disrupt some user’s experience with said product.

ASUS located the source of these bees inside of one of their factories. If your device has a manufacturing date after November 2023, it is unlikely to be affected. However, devices manufactured from March 2018 until October 2023 are most likely affected. You can check if your serial number is affected by entering it here.

ASUS advises customers to avoid modifying their devices outside what is necessary. The infestation of these bees, which ASUS has called “electro-bees,” is trapped within your device and cannot escape. However, removing components (such as storage drives or memory) can reveal holes that let these “electro-bees” escape.

While harmless to humans, these bees could infest your living space and create further discomfort. If you’ve already taken your device apart and experienced this, ASUS requests that you contact their Customer Support lines immediately. ASUS is offering compensation to customers affected by electro-bee infestations in their homes.

Additionally, ASUS provided an incomplete list of ROG devices confirmed to be not affected by this infestation. Devices outside of the ROG lineup are not affected, such as Zenbooks and Vivobooks.

• ROG Zephyrus G16 (2024)
• ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024)
• ROG Strix G18 (2024)
• ROG Strix SCAR 16 (2024)
• ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2024)
• ROG Strix G17 (2023)

For a fully up-to-date list, please see ASUS’s official post.

Source: ASUS