whining noise from laptop speakers

[someone_else]

Hi all,
My HP Pavilion laptop has started making a whining noise through the
speakers. It is most annoying when the CPU fan starts spinning, but I can
also hear it when the CPU fan is off, the difference is the noise is
intermittent, maybe when the hard drive arm moves to read something or when
the RAM is written to. I know it's coming from the speakers because I can
mute them, thereby suppressing any whining noise.

What is this? Is it electrical interference? How can I get rid of it?

 

[Sjouke Burry]

Hi all,
My HP Pavilion laptop has started making a whining noise through the
speakers. It is most annoying when the CPU fan starts spinning, but I can
also hear it when the CPU fan is off, the difference is the noise is
intermittent, maybe when the hard drive arm moves to read something or when
the RAM is written to. I know it's coming from the speakers because I can
mute them, thereby suppressing any whining noise.

What is this? Is it electrical interference? How can I get rid of it?

Low internal supply voltages. The sound electronics starts
misbehaving because of that.

Or a decoupling electrolyte near the soundpart has degraded,
with the same bad behaviour.

 

[Paul]

Hi all,
My HP Pavilion laptop has started making a whining noise through the
speakers. It is most annoying when the CPU fan starts spinning, but I can
also hear it when the CPU fan is off, the difference is the noise is
intermittent, maybe when the hard drive arm moves to read something or when
the RAM is written to. I know it's coming from the speakers because I can
mute them, thereby suppressing any whining noise.

What is this? Is it electrical interference? How can I get rid of it?

Have you checked the mixer control panel for the sound device ?
Are all the input channels, except the one you're interested in, muted ?
The Mixer panel may have a "record" and "playback" section, and
sometimes the panel attempts to deceive you by hiding some of
the important bits. Some computer audio devices have a "what you hear"
option, which loops an input, back to the speakers, and that might
result in additional unexpected noises. It is even possible some
piece of audio software (Skype? or an "in-game audio option" ?)
may have reconfigured the audio for you, in an unacceptable way.
Check what you've installed lately, for something audio
related.

Paul

 

[someone_else]

Have you checked the mixer control panel for the sound device ?
Are all the input channels, except the one you're interested in, muted ?
The Mixer panel may have a "record" and "playback" section, and
sometimes the panel attempts to deceive you by hiding some of
the important bits. Some computer audio devices have a "what you hear"
option, which loops an input, back to the speakers, and that might
result in additional unexpected noises. It is even possible some
piece of audio software (Skype? or an "in-game audio option" ?)
may have reconfigured the audio for you, in an unacceptable way.
Check what you've installed lately, for something audio
related.

Paul

Thanks to all for your suggestions they helped me find and fix the problem
in:

XP control panel

sound and audio devices properties
Sound recording
Volume
Advanced
I Unchecked [Other controls > 1 Microphone boost]
Close

This setting may have been changed by recently installed language software,
or by me trying to route sound files through Second Life, or maybe it was
set already and I just recently become intolerant to this noise.

thanks all!

 

[Boris Epstein]

Low internal supply voltages. The sound electronics starts
misbehaving because of that.

Or a decoupling electrolyte near the soundpart has degraded,
with the same bad behaviour.

Another possibility may be interference. Try to see if there is a
mobile phone or any other radio device that could be responsible.