Tried your 1520's headphone jack?

I would use USB headphones, but something is just wrong with making the customer who just paid hundreds of dollars to cope with a broken laptop.

Besides I have a printer, 2 usb external hd, and a optical mouse occupying all my usb slots.

Anyway, just updating my latest interaction with Dell support. Today I received a replacement motherboard even though I specifically told them I did not want it. They better not charge me for it.

 

i just got mine yesterday. i do hear a slight computer sound coming through the headphone jack with the included earphones. however, i can't hear the interference when any audio is playing at all at any volume. it sounds excellent when i plug in external speakers.

 

tyty... I love it! However, when I first turned it on it wouldn't recognize my cd/dvd drive. That was fixed by a hard smack to the outside of the drive. It must have been knocked loose during shipping.

I second that subliminal message

 

August 8th or 9th. I ordered July 30th.

That sure is unfortunate though. As I said before, mine if so faint I have to close my doors and window to hear it. Goes away completely with anything that has background noise running.

This is with a 20 dollar headset from wal-mart though, not the ear buds. Although they make the sound even less noticeable.

 

Oops, delete this one please!

 

I can't tell anything. Using Altec Lansing full-size headphones.

Could be something to do with the hard drive. Cactapus and I both have the 160 GB, 7200 RPM. I know mine's a Hitachi. We also both have C2D 7500, nVIDIA 8600 GT. I'm not reading through 300 posts to establish a pattern, though.

 

My 1520 is perfect.. BUT - All my desktops and all the systems I've used, do this exact thing, odd, bloop, beep, and whining sounds. Heres a nice taste of dog $#%& in you're mouth, I've even seen fully loaded 16 thousand dollar Mac Pro's do it to, but some don't.

My theory is, with all the polluted frequencies in the air today, our headphones act like rabbit ears on a TV or radio, picking up everything. Think about it, Microwaves, Cell Phones, Satellite TV and Internet, WiFi, Cordless phones, security systems... the list goes on.. that's a lot of trash floating in the air, especially on the 2.4ghz frequency, which is unregulated.

Plus the lack of shielding put into computers now doesn't help. Let's not forget cosmic rays.. and no that isn't a cute joke, it's a known fact, cosmic rays flip millions of bytes on hard drives daily. Ever thought why you suddenly will have software errors and simply have to do nothing to get them?

Heres my advice, if you're such a hardcore music fan, turn you're bloody music on, and you won't hear the noise. If that isn't good enough, deal with it.

My input.

Edit:
Interesting, I found if I move into the kitten with my notebook, I will get some suddle "noise" in my headphones, nothing else, it's hardly noticeable.. and I am around a Satellite TV signal, cordless phone and microwave.. Give it a try see if you find the problem? My desktop stops making noise since I moved the Satellite TV out of the room a week ago. :S Jesus crap is my crack pot theory right? give this a try people..

 

so... as of now, no real fix?

I thought 1520 was fine until i recently bought a new pair of earphones to replace my broken ipod ones. It's a really nice one from JVC, sounds crystal clear on ipod but i guess because the sensitivity on this baby is so delicate, the morsecode-like noise is filtering through my music which is really really annoying

 

yea the noise is pretty bad, they told me 5-8 days for me to send it in to have the motherboard changed cause it is defective any there should not be any notable interference noise. (or they would send me one and I could do it myself) I said I would be happy with a expresscard but they want to go this route. I bought stock in DHL.

 

This unfixed headphone jack is really annoying. I had a replacement Vostro sent with still the same problem. I really don't understand why they just don't give us the express card costing only $60 and less shipping costs, while to replace a whole laptop or motherboard would cost way more.

Whole story here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=159463

 

My 1520, which arrived last week, has terrible blooping, bleeping noise on the audio jack - and it is obviously related to whatever the laptop itself is doing. Scrolling things around changes the pitch and frequency somewhat (although it is still random)

 

my 1520 arrived on 8/22 and i get morse code-esque sounds through the headphone jack. interestingly, they seem to decrease/disappear when a program starts, but then they almost immediately resume. haven't really played around with it yet and i haven't talked to dell yet cuz i've been busy. i'm having some other problems with the laptop (it won't let me install other drivers for the 8600m gt, saying that i don't have windows vista; grainy screen), so if i was a prospective buyer, i'd probably look elsewhere for now

 

I just had a chat with a Dell tech. They're sending someone to replace the mobo this wednesday but I'm not sure I have time to have it "repaired". Moreover I'm not sure that replacing the mobo will help solving the problem....They'll call me on Tuesday to make an appointment, I'll have to say whether I've some spare time left...

 

a fresh reinstall, and disabling the modem completely fixed my sound problem...

 

Really? How do you disable the modem?

 

Anyone else prove this to work?

 

it doesn't work because it has nothing to do with the issue. it's all about the intel core 2 duo and the sound card. when the core 2 duo is at 100% the interference (high pitched noise) disappears (you use rmclock to do this).

 

I believe there is one piece of hardware that causes this noise.... the processor

 

We Need A Patch!!!!
Dell Get Off Your A55!!!!!

 

Ya I thought my laptop pretty much came perfect, but I do have the beeping and annoying sound coming out of my headphone jack. Not really sure if I want I might just wait and see what happens.

 

Mine also has the noise :|

 

I haven't read the entire thread, so I apologize if somebody else has already said this.

I had a similar problem with my work computer. We have on-board sound (no dedicated card), and can hear all sorts of electronic noise when using headphones. I bought a Creative Xmod (external USB soundcard), and the problem has completely gone away. My 1520 has not arrived yet, so I do not know if I will need to buy another Xmod for it. They are currently about $45 on Newegg (after rebate), and take up VERY little room in a bag.

Just something to consider if that noise is driving you nuts.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102009

 

My replacement 1420 didn't have the headphone jack problem. Exactly same spec as my 1st one. So it's a hardware fix!.

 

mine gets shipped out mon. for a new MB, I'm sending a pair of headphones with so I hope is comes back with out the nosie.

 

AArgh ive got this problem and i only received the laptop two days ago.

 

I'm using the 3-prong adapter atm, about 5-20% of CPU. Tried restarted many times - no noise at all. Even when I unplug the adapter.

 

I have the audigy upgrade (or at least supposed to). I changed the OS to Ultimate X64 and now it just shows hi0def audio. How can I tell if it is the audigy?

 

Well I tried to read all of this and most of it I did. First thing that comes to mind is their grounding is messed up.

As an example, if you know about car audio, a poor ground results in you hearing a "buzz" in relation to the engine. The higher the RPM the higher the whine.

So you would also hear artifacts in the notebook, in relation to the system having a poor ground.

Can anyone tell me if the noise has direct characteristics in relation to CPU/Hard-Drive usage?

I saw people say using a grounded adapter helped them. Although I wonder how the system utilizes an external ground, when it clearly was manufactured to utilize its own?

So is that 3rd prong even really connecting to anything (I know the person said it did help, but I still wonder)?

If this is the case, then you would have to find a new ground (or make it better). Usually it’s a contact issue.

However I must stress if you don't know much about electronics don't try to fix this, you could kill yourself! If you have it plugged into the wall with no ground.... You will become the ground!

It could also be a problem with the processor as farelli09 has stated.

MD

 

Just as I feared my 1520 has this problem

Any idea what the general success rate is by changing out the motherboard?

I think it's wrong that I would have to buy anything, be it another sound card or headphones or whatever.

 

Mine is currently in the shop in Tennessee getting its MB replaced, it only took one day to get there (DHL overnighted), so hopefully they will get a new MB popped in Monday or Tuesday and have DHL get it here by Thursday.
Will report if the newest MB fixes this problem.
If not I may wait until late fall/early winter when Dell has had time to really fix this problem and get a MB replacement then.

 

I had terrible headphone jack noise when I first received my 1520. Today I did a fresh reinstall of vista, and it has been SIGNIFICANTLY reduced. There are still quite a few scratching noises when it's silent, but the hideous morse code beeping seems to have disappeared. The scratching is no worse than listening to the hard drive of an old computer so it's totally tolerable.

Anyone else notice that a fresh install reduced the problem? Maybe it was something with a driver I installed, who knows. I hope it stays gone.

 

Got my laptop last month. It does indeed have the headphone noise, but it's very quiet (to my ear) and not a problem when playing something, although it is an annoyance nonetheless. Yet it's the only problem I've had with my laptop, and a very small one at that, so I'm incredibly satisfied.

 

My Inspiron 1520 replacement came today (9/12/2007) and it still has the problem. Although interestingly it was a different version of the problem. There is less noise coming from the laptop itself but now there is a lot more static from the headphones and a high (but not as high as before) frequency that's clearly audible from the headphones.

 

My 1520 with a new motherboard came today and it still has the headphone noise problem.
Dell needs to figure this out, it is very irritating.

 

hi. i got my dell 1520 a couple days ago... works fine... but i too have this problem when I plug headphones in I hear a "hitch-pitched" noise. And sometimes if my is ear right up against the left part of my laptop. I have read around the forums and see the many people have suggested that it is a problem with the motherboard and such. I was wondering if this means the performance and life of my 1520 is hindered in anyway. I am hesistant to return, but will if this "cpu-whine" is a sign of a major design/hardware issue. In addition my harddrive clicks,not loudly but noticable in a quiet room, it seems to be in sync with the hd light. Is this aight?

 

i have gold plated bose headphones.....STILL BUZZING!

 

the TEEE sound is an internal cpu problem and can be fixed..or semi fixed using the rmclock program. i had an hp pavilion dv6000t, the TEE noise was way worse on that then the 1520....rm clocked fixed the problem, although the sound did come back every now and then

 

Hmm, I've had this problem since i got the computer almost 2 months ago.
I was playing around in the BIOS just now, and disabled the "Flash Cache module" (I _think_ it has got to do with the Turbo Memory support). Now, when I tried my headphones, the whine seems to have almost completely disappeared. So it would be nice if some of you (who don't use Turbo Memory) and knew how to handle the BIOS could try to disable the mentioned feature and report back here.

 

Dell customer services just cancelled my on-site motherboard replacement (to fix the headphone noise issue) saying that there are lots of people with this issue and their engineers are working on a software fix which will be available shortly.

Not sure I believe them...

 

Assuming that everyone is hearing the same exact noise, it's not that hard to believe that a software patch could fix this. All they'd have to do is adjust the output to constantly output a sound that destructively interfered with the buzzing, kind of like calibrating/recentering an old joystick that constantly moves the cursor to a certain direction.

 

Well I have had my 1520 for a few days. Absolutely no noises coming from the headphone jack at all.

Guess I'm lucky, or they have addressed the problem prior to me getting my system.

I will note I didn't check vista, i installed xp asap.

MD

 

The weird thing is, when I first received my 1520, there was a lot of noise coming from the headphone jack. Now, a few weeks and a clean install later, there's no noise coming from my headphone jack (except music, of course ). I'm not sure what caused it to get better, but it's definitely much better than when I first received it. There is occasionally some noise, but very little and not very often.

 

lol. I'm glad I didn't return mine. Anyway, good luck.

 

believe it or not.

my system got sent in to the depot for a motherboard replacement
in a letter, i described exactly how to reproduce the problem and what was causing it (although it seems this letter was not read).

the system came back noise free (just the regular background static, like on the radio)

 

I just recive my new Inspiron 1720 and i have the same problem ;-(

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5450 @ 1.66GHz
SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC

If any person have some new it will be great.

Luc

 

Hi Everyone,

I bought my first 1520 about 3 months ago, I use my computers for music and gaming and have a pair of top quality sony monitor headphones for when silence is required around me. So I was very unhappy when I first heard "the noise".

I too cannot stand the dell customer service experience, at first they took it away and replaced the motherboard and hard drive (they told me they would only replace the motherboard, hence I did not backup my hard drive). When I got it back not even the new Vista was installed, I had to do it all myself. When I tested the jack, the noise was still there!!

Next they sent out a guy to replace both the motherboard and harddrive again. At first the noise was gone but it was back the next day so I sent it back and got my money back. After such a bad experience in the UK, when I was back in Australia I was sucked into buying another 1520. It arrived quickly and has been going great until today when the noise appeared!!

I am so frustrated but can't afford to be without the computer! Is there any answer or shall I just get something else? Any suggestions?

 

I am using gold plated headphones (top quality) and the noise is still there, so this is not the answer sorry.

 

Had my 1520 for about 3 weeks and I do have headphone noise. Its not too loud and the music drowns it out.

Not too big of a deal.

 

The noise on mine is gone.

 

I got a replacement machine because of the noise issue. When I called Dell and complained to customer service, eventually I was transfered to tech support do verify that yes, indeed, an expresscard sound card would resolve the issue. They said they could probably get customer service to send me one instead of doing a motherboard replacement, and customer service was supposed to call me back. When I used the chat to check in a few days later customer service sent one for free. They claimed it was an exception to policy but they wanted to make me happy. It's on its way right now.