Headjack Noise Solution Center (Fix/Guide in Progress)

Introduction:
Many people have complained, looked for solutions, requested replacements, even given up entirely. But after seeing that the way I lost my noise issue wasn't a freak accident and hearing very similar stories to how I got rid of it as others have, I've come to the conclusion, we can solve it, since Dell obviously has no clue - or thinks we're just nuts. I'm going to share my knowledge, and you can share yours. As of the current moment, this is known to completely resolve the problem or reduse the issue exenstively.


My Background To Issue:
My 1520 was pretty much one of the first batch Dell produced for consumers. It arrived with a pretty and flawless LCD, zero headphone jack noise, bit a CPU whine (All my notebooks have this issue, actually, every notebook I've used does).

"Wait, you don't have the noise issue, but you fixed it? Stupid D-bag..."

I didn't have the issue, until doing my regular monthly cleaning. Which involves ripping everything apart. Crappie part of that deal was after putting it back together, it made more noise then a 10 year unhappily married couple. I put up with it for a few days but said enough of this and ripped it apart again. Then noticed the cables were not in the guide lines, so I repositioned them. To my luck, the issue was gone after putting the machine back together.


Theories Of Cause:
- Since my issue resolved after rearranging the cables, I'm under the assumption the wires are picking up interference.

- It's possible the WiFi catcher is picking up garbage and it's rubbing off on the cable that feeds the jacks on the side. Both cables use the same connector on the mobo, and are shielded together in the same black rubber housing. From my understanding, WiFi runs at 2.4Ghz, a unregulated frequncey. Which means anyone can do anything at that frequency and do not need license to do so.

- As of this moment, it also appears that the system grounds every componet to the black base. The CPU, WiFi and Motherboard are the only componets that I can see that can cause the interference. With that in mind, the Audio Jacks little card physically touches the black base. And that is where it's possibly getting the interference from.

Have an idea? Post it, it'll be added.


Guide - How To Disasemble Laptop (1520/1500):



Okay tools, it's easy,
- Duct tape for taping some cables together temporarily so you don't scratch the hell out of that pretty paint job.
- Electrical tape for well, taping electrical stuff - duh.
- Tiny screw drivers, preferably, 2 varied sized Star and 2 varied sized Flat heads.
NOTE: Apply some tape around the tip of one of the flat heads so we can pull stuff apart without damaging.
- Brushes to clean the dust off crap - Like the cracks of the keyboard.
- A razor to cut the tape nicely with. Sorry Emo's no wrists here.
- A cloth to clean the sweat off you're forehead, and oh to clean up the chassis later.
- Pliers to get those screws that fall in the small cracks.

Don't have all those, tough break you'll be improvising won't you?



Oh..And I forgot one thing.. You need a 1520/1500 notebook to.. I think this guide works better if it's a blue machine - - but that's just me I guess...



First, rip that battery out, unplug everything. Once everything is unplugged and the battery is removed, press the power button. That will kill any remaining power in the machine.



Flip the machine over on it's hood. Unscrew the target screws on the service panels. Then clean the panels, then stick them somewhere, I'm not gonna recommend any places though..

Dirty imaginations...



Yay, if it looks like that, you're doing things right..(so far)



Remove the ram now, don't ask, just do it. To make a long story short, you don't want it catching on anything or some other freak accident happening. If you plan to upgrade, feel free to leave it because you'll likely have a better reason to upgrade then.



Now, for the um, what ever it's called - Networking/Wireless card. At the top where the cables plug in, theres to clips on each side, push them, then the card should flip up (it's happy to see you), much like the ram does. Unplug to two cables, and pull out the card and stick it where you usually cram things. In this case, hopefully off to the side.



Now for a safety percuastion. Pull out all those attena cables, bundle them up nicely and tape them together. Why do this? Because one time I didn't, and one of the little buggers took a bite out of my keyboards paint job. But that keyboard got replaced so it's all good. But not happening again - your paint job will thank me later.



Now flip the machine up on it's 'face' or 'crack'.. What ever you prefer... Unscrew the targeted screws. Now, when you get those screws out, be careful, because you're screen is now divorced like a newly wed couple from the base of you're machine.



CAREFULLY - flip it back onto it's normal upright position that you would like you we're gonna use it. Push the monitor as far back as it can go, but don't push it any farther. I don't think I need to explain why.



Get that flat-head screw driver with tape on the tip. And stick it in that hole, then pry up the hinge cover and lift it towards the left. If you didn't put tape on you're screw driver. This is where you start panicking because your machine has huge scratches now.



Oh my, I can see my laptops internals. Shame on you laptop, put a cover on. - - If your progress isn't like what you see here, you did something wrong. Congratulations though on all your failure... Now unscrew the highlighted screws, these hold you're keyboard down. No, the keyboard ain't gonna pop out either - it's not spring loaded. You may have to play with it a bit to get it out, varies keyboard from keyboard. For me, I just push the tabs where the screws are to the right and it pops out of the clips. Once you get it free, lift it towards you - to remove it. BUT DON'T PULL IT OUT TO FAST - Because theres a cable.



The cable is located on the bottom. Lift the tiny blue flap up, towards the keyboard. Now the cable should easily come out. Close the tab back down once the keyboard is removed.

Note: This is a good time to clean all the hair and potato chip crums out of that thing with those brushes.



Now, pull those attena cables up out the hole, make sure the tape doesn't fly off either or else those hooks will start ripping into your paint job like a pack of wolves. Now grasp the blue tab to the ribbon cable, and pull up. Make sure you removed the ground screw before doing so.



Now for the 'auxiliary' cable. This is for the microphone and web cam. Pull it out as well, but be careful and don't use the pliers like I did. Because you will snip some of the cables if it slips (thankfully, that cable got replaced).



Okay, now get that ribbon like cable out of the guides and free it up entirely. Then position the screen perfectly at 90 degrees, and then lift it up straight, slowly, make sure no cables catch or are missed from being disconnected.



Your progress should look like what you see above.



Now that your screen was cramed where ever you been sticking stuff the last while. Unscrew all the highlighted screws. Then carefully, unplug the highlighted cable, again carefully.



Flip the machine over on it's hood, locate the hard drive screws, and unscrew them.



Slide it out, CAREFULLY, we don't want any lost data here.

Tip: hard drives make terrible drink coasters.



Now, unscrew ALL the screws highlighted. Make sure to get them all.



Now, slide the CD-Rom out of the machine. Dell says use some tool and pry at the drives door, but I don't like that, seems wrong... If you look in the screw hole that holds the CD-Rom in the machine, you'll see the clip, stick the screw driver in there and push it out. Once it pops out enough pull it out.



Let's rip this sucker open. See the express slot? Usually where the hard drive is and where the remote goes? Pull there and lift towards the right. Watch the clips along the media buttons on the front. Be gentle and go slow. But don't take it off just lift it up.



What the motion should look like so you can't tell me you don't understand.



Now that you lifted it up. Disconnect, and unhook the Bluetooth cable. Then pull the palm rest off and cram it in that special place.



And we're in. Pretty cool, an entire computer right there. Now why can't they make desktop mobo's that small? Now, I'd suggest removing the other ram module. Just because it adds work and scares the hell out of novices.



Unhook the Bluetooth cable, from it's 'clips' and disconnect it from the motherboard and cram that cable as well.



Now, that Graphics card.. Yes, that's a graphics card.. Still fools me, I figured it'd be a big brick like the desktop versions, doesn't add up does it? Unscrew highlighted screws then get ready to pull it out, like you did on the first date.



Grasp it where the silver comes out to support the copper, then grasp it from the other end of the card, and pull straight up. STRAIGHT-UP.. ( ^ That's up )



Now, for the processor. Unscrew the selected screws. Personally, I think if you undo each screw entirely separately it put uneven pressure on the chip. So unscrew each screw a little bit and move onto the next one unscrew a little bit and so on in that pattern. Don't be lazy, until someone can prove my weird thoughts wrong, then just do it my way.



Lift away the heat sink, and this should be the end result. Nows a good time to make sure all the thermal compound is not flaking and in the middle not spread out every where else.



Now, remove the screw that holds the Headphones jack card down. Disconnect the cable while you're at it. Now if you look at the chassis, you'll notice the card touches the metal. When the screws are inplace, they also add to the connection which results to the problem we're trying to repair.



Now this little card is what we have to cover in electrical tape. The whole thing, bottom, top and sides. Honestly the better it's sealed, the better I believe it will work. When you get the tape on it, punch the holes with a pin or screw driver - this allows the screws to go in .





Those should be the results.



Put it back in, and tighten the screw, but not to much because you don't want to tear the tape away. If you do, you just ruined the point of doing this.



Okay, just to be on the safe side we'll unground the WiFi catcher. Unscrew it, and follow the same procedure as the headphone jack card.





Those should be the results.



Put the WiFi Catcher card back in and that's what it should all look like .



Last step. The CPU heatsink goes right over the Audio jacks. So to be safe we'll put a bit of tape on the bottom. DO NOT wrap the tape around the heatsink. You'll just bottleneck the heatsink. Simply apply a peice to the bottom. This won't effect heat distribution because heat rises.


Now put the computer back together!

Hopefully this solves you're problems as it did mine.


DISCLAIMER:
If you break anything I'm not the one to blame. It's your own fault...

 

Thread bookmarked. Great pictures and step-by-step guides.

 

Amazing guide thus far! I'll be keeping an eye on this one!

 

thanks guys, took 5 or so hours to do. Yup 5AM.. Oorah..

I've done a few experiments, I'm considering shielding the headphone jack card. Not 100% sure about doing that, throwing around ideas, and expecting something good to come from it.

Considering I've done nothing but screw with the cables, and got such varied results, obviously this can't be an entire motherboard problem like Dells claiming.

 

Thanks for being our lab rat.

 

No problem.. That's why there are warranties!

lmfao

 

Can someone explain to me why if this is the problem, that getting the express X-Fi soundcard fixes the problem?

 

You talking about a physical audio card you place into the express slot, or the software?

I came across another possibility - The motherboard, video, Wifi catcher, everything pretty much grounds to the chassis right? What would you think if I said I think it might be where the interference is coming from.

Could in short 'un-ground' the audio jacks card from the case, not that it has a ground anyway, just assure none of the components on the card have physical contact with the chassis. Should lower the interference possibility some.

EDIT:
Just glanced at the pictures, it touches pretty much everything, I think this might be a contributer. I'm gonna test it out.

 

Holy jeebus. Thats a whole lot of work. Good job on the write up. Subscribed.

 

Very simple.

The X-FI is an external card. It bypasses all of the interference. The problem of the noise is in the headjack board..... please see this thread

B2.. you pics not working for me

 

Me neither...I see no pics....

 

yeah the pictures are dead, i need pictures to do this! plus i don't use any headphones so i don't think this is going to be a problem for me.

 

Hey all, sorry, server went down.

Just took pictures of the fix, so far perfect.

If it doesn't resolve the problem entirely it should reduce it entirely.

The guide is gonna be updated shortly.

Yup post them pictures bro, my server went down LOL

 

Great work on the guide. Any chance you can reup the pics on a free image host like imageshack or photobucket?

 

Guide updated - and pictures hosted on my 'pro' server - if that goes down, then holy hell the worlds gonna come to an end.

 

wOOT gonna tell my friend who has the same problem same notebook. THANKS A BUNCH. Maaaan, that is a lot of work, phew have a beer or something

 

*Has a keg on each shoulder* Waaaay Ahead of you... LoL

Nah it's all good, I enjoy doing this stuff.. Small hacking type things.

Hopefully everyones has as much success has I have.

 

I'm going to wait for 2 or 3 more results but still a good write up.

 

Just chiming in to say that I just spent the last couple hours following the guide and it worked! Thanks for your effort.

 

I've been wondering... Based on your pictures, tt looks like you can remove the headphone jack and wifi catcher without having to remove the entire motherboard.

Is that possible? This guide might get a whole lot easier. I wonder if someone would be willing to try to simplify the guide. Maybe by only removing the casing and not all of the memory and drives and whatnot.

 

Wow thats VERY good feedaback for the guys who found the fix I guess. Now we just have to wait and see if the number of positive cases start to gradually increase as people are trying by themselves to go on and isolate the headphone cards.

I'm still amused by this stuff... imagine how much money dell has probably spent in R&D in order to try and find a fix for this solution and just take a look at what the problem is... a stupid insulation thing that they have been unable to find for months and months.

I say you guys should patent the fix and earn a couple of dollars from dell for being so incompetent in finding a fix lolmao.

 

You don't need to remove the motherboard. I believe I removed that from the first revision of the guide.

But you are right you don't have to remove everything. But in my experience, it's best off to get it out of the way so no freak accidents happen.

You can skip removing the CD-Rom, hard drive and memory. But remove the screws for the CD-Rom.

GreatWAH, AWESOME


LOL, I'm surprised no one has noticed my computer is a "DCLL" - LMFAO

 

i did it and it worked. the silence is so nice compared to the squeaks that i used to have... its amazing that the dell techs cant figure out somthing as simple as that.
+1
thanks man

 

LOL.

Question, does this void my warranty? I don't have complete care or anything.

Also, what should I touch to ground myself? The black bottom casing? I'd hate to fry my headphone port...

 

jamesmoon2, Awesome..awesome to the max .. Yeah I'm trying to figure out why they haven't got it handled yet.. lol..

Wellsley, Nothing particularly voids Dells warranty unless you break something. For example, you decided to throw your laptop and the screen cracked. Dell wouldn't cover that - unless you has the fancy complete care warranty. In that case everything is covered besides acts of god and in some countries apparently, animal damage isn't either. LOL Pretty amusing.

To ground yourself, touch ANY metal/steel object. Table legs, laptop metal chassis, door knobs; to name a few.

 

Well unfortunatly one of the reasons it is so quiet is that one of the channels is not working correctly. i can barely hear music in it now, but the other other channel is working fine. Im chatting with a rep right now, lol.

 

Hey james, sorry to get a little OT here, but, I noticed your OC numbers. I had mine OCd to 619 but everything I used that read what MHz the card was actually reading kept saying 625 and 625 produces artifiacts. Just thought you should double-check your numbers.

 

So you can't hear music in the right side, but you can in the left for example?

You might have pinched the cable or shocked you're card during the procedure.

So far everyone else that's done it hasn't had any issues.

 

Thanks for the guide. But damn, that's a lot of work to get to the onboard headphone jack. My Vostro 1500 is very whiny too when using headphones. Through speakers its fine. I use an X-Fi card for gaming, so that takes care of the issue, but would be nice to know I can use the onboard sound without the hissing driving me nuts.

Time permitting will give it a shot. Just am nervous about disassembling everything including the heatsink (eek!)

 

Just be gentle and go slow and pay attention nothing can go wrong.

If you do it fast and careless, then problems happen - obviously.

As far as the heat sink goes, it doesn't matter but I think everything breaks from just breathing on it, that's just me though. So I loosen each screw evenly just to be safe.

Let us know how you do.

 

I just wanted to post in this thread for any doubters to say that it works. However, be sure to not lose any screws or rip our any of the sockets on accident which could happen if you aren't careful.

Also I only taped up the soundcard and now there is no more beeping, but a low background static sound. If anyone knows if this static is from the wireless detector, I would like to know out of curiosty, though the noise is already really low and tolerable now.

 

Thanks bro.

Hearing a small tape hiss is normal

Every machine I've ever used (trust me, I'm worse then a prostitute when it comes to computers) does the tape hiss - unless the card has a special shut off feature when nothing is well.. making sound... it disables the jacks until you trigger sounds/music or w.e.

As far as the wireless question, I was skeptical but I'm pretty sure it can if not IS contributing. Because the frequency's that wireless runs at is unregulated so anyone can do anything (running there own radio station for very sketchy example).. So plenty of garbage going through the air waves.

That's why I said to tape it off in the guide to. I also expected the CPU heat sink transmitting some stuff to so I made that sealed off as well on the 1500/1520.

Regardless, it works.

Me=1
Dell=0

Still waiting for my free laptop every year Dell for solving your designers faults... LOL

 

Just over 1 hour start to finish, without printing out the how-to and skipping some steps, I am a Dell warranty repair dude, which doesn't mean much.... When I have an issue, they aren't allowed to route my call to me.... so I can't get paid to fix my machine, anyways...


Never would have thought of doing that, thanks... BTW I have the tape hiss as well, which does not come through on my x-fi card or my old Inspiron 6000, I think it is a side effect of having no ground, IMO, but much better than before, thanks!

 

No ground would contribute to the small hiss, so you think? I have a few ideas where I can rig up a ground.

Do you think the material matters that it grounds too? As long as it a steel/metal?

No problem by the way lolz.

 

The hiss is not a side effect. Hiss is the floor noise that had been present before, but you just couldn't make it out over all the clicking and bleeping. Now that those have been reduced, you're able to make out the floor noise.

I rather have a bit of floor noise than the clicking and bleeping.

 

Floor noise eh, well I learned the terminology for that 'tape hiss' description.

And agreed. Actually I think anyone would.

 

B2 what kind of spots were you thinking of using for a ground? Something other than the case I imagine.

 

Yup, I was thinking, the express card housing, the metal body thats attached to the palm-rest - etc.

I just finished getting my system together, and well I tried grounding to the express card housing, I found I didn't have to much luck. Probably from the lack of sleep I probably missed something small so I'll have to try later. (falling a sleep as I type this..lmao)

But I made a interesting discovery... I don't think it's ENTIRELY just the mag-alloy bottom, or the fact everything grounds together pratically. Because I removed the tape and played around with some other ideas. And I found, I could control the noise, by moving my finger around my touch pad..

I took all the tape off the audio jacks, so it was in it's 'original' state. Then raised the palm-rest so it didn't have any contact what so ever with the mag-alloy or components alike. Amazingly, the noise was gone, even with the fix removed.

So I think I found what's spawning the interference... And man, that palm-rest metal framing/structure.. it touches EVERYTHING.. Mobo, mag-alloy base, DVD-Rom, Express card housing, battery, LCD ground, piratically everything so that's how the interference is traveling to the audio card.

I tried to unground the touch pad from the palm-rest metal structure/framing and was unable to.

n19htmare, if you get the chance, try it on your system. Put it so you get the noise, then play around with the palm rest/touch pad to see if u get similar results.

 

Maybe you could cut a rubber glove, like a dishwashing glove and use that as an insulator?

 

@640k

what programs other than rivatuner can tell me clock speed... i have it a 619 according to riva and it is stable with no artifacts. cards to vary minute amounts from machine to machine. im gonna try to get dell to just send me a new jack. hopefully i didnt pinch the wire.

 

So can anyone who's done the fix tell me if it also removes that annoying morse code beeping and static from the digital mic? It'd be great if I could use that in class now and actually hear the prof instead of just static.

 

Mine, my girlfriends, a few people at my workplace, about 5 - 10 people here that I know of, have done the guide and had perfect success getting rid of the static/morse code sounds which is interference (exact reason or contributor unknown). Only 1 person didn't have any success but theres a large margin for user error or other possibilities.

 

I wonder what the consequences of removing the ground from the headphone jack might be. Granted the case is never actually connected to a real GROUND, it is still a place for excess current to escape in small quantities. If the current can't escape via ground, would it cause just a small pop in the headphones, or could it potentially ruin a nice set of phones?

 

*faints*

I'll just have music constantly pumping through my headphones to drown the noise, thank you very much.

Nice guide though.

 

It's grounded via the motherboard through the wires. I did a check on the cables. So everything is safe.

 

I performed the experiment, and here are my results.

1) Operation: 1hr disassembly, 5min tape job, 15min assembly. (I've never taken apart a laptop before) I was able to skip removing the heat sink from the video card. I only removed the heat sink from the processor just enough that the heat pipe could be lifted out of the way of the audio jack card.

2) Outcome: Beeping and high pitch noises are completely removed. There is still a low static sound (like you might hear coming from big speaker connected to a large amp, background noise). Surprisingly, the static sound is independent of volume adjustments. Overall, the jack quality is significantly improved and I will be keeping the fix in place. Headphones are quite bearable.

A few pictures from my experience:

 

SCORE!

Awesome stuff

BTW> After playing a little bit with my friends equipment in the shop, it appears the interference typically comes from the touch pad/palm rest.

 

just for anyone who has not tried it yet, covering the entire card with tape is unnecessary. i just covered the hole where the screw goes through on both sides.

 

I really appreciate this thread. But for those of us who do not have the time/dexterity to take apart a laptop, has anyone actually suggested this thread's solution to dell techs? I plan on doing so soon.

I emailed dell and have gotten a major run around regarding installing this and that driver. Dell customer service really sucks now, I'm very disappointed. I would totally return my laptop, but unfortunately I have a huge project where I can't be without my computer/HD until february.

Let this be a warning to potential purchasers of the dell 1520, if you want to be able to use speakers/headset without having to totally dissect your laptop, you're better off not purchasing this model.

After 20 years, I may have to change my religion to MAC.

 

God I wish I hadnt sent my laptop to Dell to have them fix it. They sent it back to the wrong damn address. I could have done this myself >.<