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From: Greg on 8 Mar 2010 11:37
I have a Dell Vostro 1500 Notebook. I recently installed Windows 7 H. Prem.
on it. I also put a new 500 gig Segate 5400 rpm drive in it also.

I am hearing system noise when I have my earbuds plugged in. Like when the
drive is spinnnig or maybe when my mouse is moving. And every so often it
just stops. Even when I am moving the cursor around.

I thought it may have been my drive failing. So that is why I replaced it.
Plus the fact that I am getting a much better system raiting with this new
drive.

As far as drivers go, I am using the default Microsoft driver for the audio
card. The audio in this case is realtek. I've also tried the Dell Vista
driver for the sound card (they don't have a Windows 7 driver). There is no
difference.

I've tried disabling the on board mic too.

Could it be a grounding problem? I've removed the battery and ran it with
just the power supply. No change. I've ran it off the battery with the power
supply removed. No change.

It seems to be less noticable when I have the power set at balance instead
of high performance.

This wasn't happening when I had Vista on it.

I have a pair of USB headphones. I will try those this evening to see if I
hear anything.

Thanks,
Greg


From: William R. Walsh on 8 Mar 2010 12:33
Hi!

> I have a Dell Vostro 1500 Notebook. I recently installed Windows
> 7 H. Prem. on it.

> I am hearing system noise when I have my earbuds plugged in.

This is a very common problem with laptops. I have yet to see any
laptop with sound circuitry and an earphone plug that had noise free
audio. This includes both new machines and very old ones.

Most likely the noise is coming from the DC-DC converter inside the
laptop, specifically from the voltage regulators. It's difficult to
avoid this since everything is in such close proximity--and in some
cases, all on the same board.

You might also be hearing noises from the various clock sources in the
system--practically everything inside needs a clock signal to
function. I would not expect these to change much regardless of the
operating system, so it's more likely that you are hearing noise from
the internal power supply.

> This wasn't happening when I had Vista on it.

I dare say that it was, and that you may not have been hearing it. It
may have been outside of the range of your hearing.

Windows 7 may load the hardware differently or use it in such a way
that it draws a different amount of power than it did under Vista.
Whether the load has lessened or increased is hard to say, but a
change either way will cause the voltage regulation in the system to
behave differently--and quite possibly start producing noise that the
sound circuitry can pick up.

The audio drivers may have a setting that powers the sound circuit
down when not in use.

The possibility of an acoustic coupling should be considered, although
I would not expect it to be an issue unless the cord on the earbuds
was pulled fairly tight while you listen.

> I have a pair of USB headphones. I will try those this evening to
> see if I hear anything.

Because they are separated by more distance from the internals of the
computer, I'd expect that they will work better.

You might check to see if Realtek has a driver that would work for
you. I do not expect that a driver will fix it.

William
From: Ron Hardin on 8 Mar 2010 14:32
William R. Walsh wrote:
>
> Hi!
>
> > I have a Dell Vostro 1500 Notebook. I recently installed Windows
> > 7 H. Prem. on it.
>
> > I am hearing system noise when I have my earbuds plugged in.
>
> This is a very common problem with laptops. I have yet to see any
> laptop with sound circuitry and an earphone plug that had noise free
> audio. This includes both new machines and very old ones.
>
> Most likely the noise is coming from the DC-DC converter inside the
> laptop, specifically from the voltage regulators. It's difficult to
> avoid this since everything is in such close proximity--and in some
> cases, all on the same board.
>
> You might also be hearing noises from the various clock sources in the
> system--practically everything inside needs a clock signal to
> function. I would not expect these to change much regardless of the
> operating system, so it's more likely that you are hearing noise from
> the internal power supply.
>
> > This wasn't happening when I had Vista on it.
>
> I dare say that it was, and that you may not have been hearing it. It
> may have been outside of the range of your hearing.
>
> Windows 7 may load the hardware differently or use it in such a way
> that it draws a different amount of power than it did under Vista.
> Whether the load has lessened or increased is hard to say, but a
> change either way will cause the voltage regulation in the system to
> behave differently--and quite possibly start producing noise that the
> sound circuitry can pick up.
>
> The audio drivers may have a setting that powers the sound circuit
> down when not in use.
>
> The possibility of an acoustic coupling should be considered, although
> I would not expect it to be an issue unless the cord on the earbuds
> was pulled fairly tight while you listen.
>
> > I have a pair of USB headphones. I will try those this evening to
> > see if I hear anything.
>
> Because they are separated by more distance from the internals of the
> computer, I'd expect that they will work better.
>
> You might check to see if Realtek has a driver that would work for
> you. I do not expect that a driver will fix it.
>
> William

I've never heard anything but pure audio out of any of my Dell laptops,
but run it to an amplifier (so it doesn't draw any current to
speak of), and use an isolation transformer (which is necessary between
any two powered devices, ie. laptop and amplifier), as my standard setup.

You might try high impedance earphones, eg. crystal earphones, just to
see what happens.

--
rhhardin(a)mindspring.com

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.
From: Ron Hardin on 8 Mar 2010 14:35
Another possibility is raise the priority of the
sound source; maybe the noise you refer to is
a dropout from higher priority activity stealing
cycles.

Total Recorder 7 had that problem.
--
rhhardin(a)mindspring.com

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.
From: Greg on 8 Mar 2010 16:55
Thanks for the information William. You may be right.

It could have very well been happening with Vista and I didnt notice it that
much. But I would have remembered if it was this noticeable.

Is the DC-DC converter replacable? Might it be going out?

Thanks,

Greg


"William R. Walsh" <wm_walsh(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:888e4ee4-2736-4f59-a19f-dd4bb2004492(a)c16g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...
> Hi!
>
>> I have a Dell Vostro 1500 Notebook. I recently installed Windows
>> 7 H. Prem. on it.
>
>> I am hearing system noise when I have my earbuds plugged in.
>
> This is a very common problem with laptops. I have yet to see any
> laptop with sound circuitry and an earphone plug that had noise free
> audio. This includes both new machines and very old ones.
>
> Most likely the noise is coming from the DC-DC converter inside the
> laptop, specifically from the voltage regulators. It's difficult to
> avoid this since everything is in such close proximity--and in some
> cases, all on the same board.
>
> You might also be hearing noises from the various clock sources in the
> system--practically everything inside needs a clock signal to
> function. I would not expect these to change much regardless of the
> operating system, so it's more likely that you are hearing noise from
> the internal power supply.
>
>> This wasn't happening when I had Vista on it.
>
> I dare say that it was, and that you may not have been hearing it. It
> may have been outside of the range of your hearing.
>
> Windows 7 may load the hardware differently or use it in such a way
> that it draws a different amount of power than it did under Vista.
> Whether the load has lessened or increased is hard to say, but a
> change either way will cause the voltage regulation in the system to
> behave differently--and quite possibly start producing noise that the
> sound circuitry can pick up.
>
> The audio drivers may have a setting that powers the sound circuit
> down when not in use.
>
> The possibility of an acoustic coupling should be considered, although
> I would not expect it to be an issue unless the cord on the earbuds
> was pulled fairly tight while you listen.
>
>> I have a pair of USB headphones. I will try those this evening to
>> see if I hear anything.
>
> Because they are separated by more distance from the internals of the
> computer, I'd expect that they will work better.
>
> You might check to see if Realtek has a driver that would work for
> you. I do not expect that a driver will fix it.
>
> William


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