Vostro Headphone Jack Noise Solution

Hey Everyone,

I got my vostro 1500 not to long ago and wasn't happy with the noise coming out of the headphone jack. So, it basically seems like dell wired the headphone amp at full volume instead of putting in some hardware volume control. When you add in a sensitive pair of headphones, you can hear every little thing the system board is doing. So, I built up one of these little things and it seems to bring that noise floor low enough that I can't hear it anymore, while the software volume control still gets the max plenty loud.

You may want to adjust the resistor values up or down 10k depending on your headphones.

 

What's that in laymen terms? For those of us not in the know about headphones .

 

It's a small bit of cable you would need to build from parts you would get at a store like radio shack.

Or order something like this:
3.5MM Stereo M-F EXTENSION CORD
and get some resistors to put inline:
1/4 W Resistors

 

So if i read correctly, you have to build something? theres no software tho fix the noise?

 

For a brand new $1500 laptop we should not be needing to rig up cables to enjoy headphones. It should work flawlessly with any headphone set out there.

 

No, that's a circuit diagram. The problem with the noise is that it's hardware interference... therefore you need a hardware fix.

From what I understand about circuitry.. that's basically splicing a resistor in the middle of an audio cable. Not the worse of fixes, and you're not actually messing with the computer itself.

 

Basically. Take the extension cable rcbuse link to, cut it ( I would reduce the length so it's only a few inches. Put a resistor in between the Left and right channel line.
. It should be Red and green wires inside, the bronze or gold looking one is usually ground. If you use something like an exactoknife, you can just cut the Left and Right channel wire and leave the ground alone.

I REALLY wish we had gain controls (Volume knob) on it.

 

do you think this could also work for the dell inspiron 1520? if so I might consider keeping what I've got, the headphone jack noise is the icing on the cake with this machine.

 

Works with anything that's got a 3.5mm audio out. basically, you're plugging in this "mod" into the audio out of your laptop and then plugging your headphones into the modded cable.

 

Would a less sensitive pair of earphones work as well?

 

I tried the ear buds after reading about the noise, and I didn't hear any, but anyway, for those of you that are soldering challenged, you should be able to just go into Radio Shack and buy a short ear phone extenion cable with an in-line volume control. That should work as good as rcbuse's solution without getting your hands dirty.

 

Dell has admit it's motherboard problem and offered me either replace the motherboard or replacem the system, a 1420. Since it was new system, I asked for replacement system. No noise at all on replacement!!!

We shouldn't have to fix Dell's problem. Dell should fix its own problem! After all, we all spent over $1000 to buy from Dell, Dell is not paying us as its engineer to repair its problem, right?!

 

i put in an order for replacement this morning. what are the chances i get one of the new boards?

 

What do you mean "replacement"? You mean system replacement or motherboard replacement.

I think Dell knows the problem, so the chance you getting a bad MB is very unlikely.

 

my 1500 has it, and I've been hunting the net and it seems practically every other one does too - other than the second one I bought at the same time..

That tells me SOMETHING is wrong, obviously some bad QC at dell..

They are shipping me a new MB to install, it should get here Monday. I'll post if it is any better. BTW my headphones have in-line volume and I get interference..

It's pretty much gone at half volume but..

I like it loud

 

I have the headphone interference, but not the Core2Duo high pitch noise. My fear is that I could get a new mobo without the headphone interference but with the high pitch noise.

Maybe I'll have Dell send me a headphone extension cable :-]

 

It's a setting issue, and here's how to fix it:

1. Open KMix. (Other mixer applications should also work.)
2. Go to the "Switches" tab and make sure "Analog Loopback" is NOT on. Note that the noise disappears as soon as that option is disabled.
3. Play music and enjoy the HD audio.

Why that works is because the audio chipset has an option to pass through audio from the optical drive. However, the optical drive does not have analog output (or it is disabled in firmware) so the analog audio lines are just left "floating", which means that nearby logic can couple noise very effectively. By using KMix to disable this feature, no more noise!

You'll also notice "Line In as Output". That does exactly what it says - you can use the line in connector as a second headphone output! Besides that option, you will also have to go to the "Output" tab and turn up and unmute the "Surround" slider. Unfortunately, it was never designed for a headphone output so quality is bad, but it's better than nothing!

 

Hi Star, I opened kmix in Kanotix, but there is no such a thing as an Analog loopback switch under my "Switches" tab.
What version of kmix do you have?

 

Why are you posting a solution thats only applicable in Linux? You did that many times on multiple threads and its not helping. Are you a troll?

 

What's the difference with respect to posting a solution only applicable to Windows?

 

The difference is 90% of users use Windows and the fact that person posts the same thing over and over again doesn't help. Good luck in getting an answer from star882.

 

What about the remaining 10%?
No tolerance for minorities? :-]

Well I've read this answer from star882 only once before and forgot in which thread. Reading it again here allows me to ask for more info.
Besides, how many times the same suggestion on how to partition, how to format, how turn UAC off have we read on this forum? How many times we've read that no, the .2 GHz difference between a T7300 and a T7500 is not worth the extra money the latter costs? Posting the same answer to the same question does help in those cases?

Well, that's another matter.
Who knows? Maybe she made up the "analog loopback" option.

 

Ditto, which is why I am doing the install myself.

I've built many pc's but never opened a laptop, hmmmmm

My smokin buds earphones don't really have the sound if I keep the inline volume below 75% but that's not really a fix to me.

 

Better than nothing, sure helps me as I'm installing Linux today. I'll post back if this magic option exists and works

And "Other mixer applications should also work" so it's not just a Linux solution.

 

Can you post a picture of each mixer tab?
I use the separate ALSA drivers instead of the ones built into the kernel.

 

Because AFAIK, 100% of Dell laptops ship with Windows installed.

 

But we're still living in a free world, right?
So can we install the OS we want, even if we have to pax the Microsoft Tax to get a Dell laptop?

Besides, didn't Dell start a program for selling Linux laptops?
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/alliances/en/linux?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz

 

Sure, find them attached here.
I use version 1.0.14 or 15 of alsa.
But I have yet to find the correct option for the sound card.
Can you please grep your alsa-base configuration file to see what are the values associated to hda-intel?

A tail would do as well:

Code:

tail /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

Code:

install snd-vxpocket /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-vxpocket $CMDLINE_OPTS && /lib/alsa/modprobe-post-install snd-vxpocket
install snd-wavefront /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-wavefront $CMDLINE_OPTS && /lib/alsa/modprobe-post-install snd-wavefront
install snd-ymfpci /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-ymfpci $CMDLINE_OPTS && /lib/alsa/modprobe-post-install snd-ymfpci
# Prevent abnormal drivers from grabbing index 0
options snd-bt87x index=-2
options snd-cx88_alsa index=-2
options snd-atiixp-modem index=-2
options snd-intel8x0m index=-2
options snd-via82xx-modem index=-2
options snd-hda-intel model=dell

I've tried model=ref, then =dell-laptop, then =3stack
but I still can get the headphone jack to work properly. I hear music from the headphone AND from the speakers.

 

Beat me to it. By the way, stock Ubuntu has none of this headphone noise/interference. Don't know about other Linux distros.

 

I have exactly the same noise from my headphone jack in Vista or Ubuntu. It's not a software issue, it's hardware. If I can kmix to install, I'll be able to tell if that "solution" is B.S. as well.

 

I just installed kmix (that was easy!). There is no option for disabling analog loopback.

 

Haha, definitely not living in a free world.
I emailed back and forth with Dell about my headphone jack noise, and they told me since I am running Windows XP Pro (which they sell brand new 1520's with and have pages of updated drives for XP, keep this in mind...) and not Vista Home Basic that was shipped with the machine, that they will not provide support for any software problems, and they are trying to claim that this is a software problem. I then reminded them that I used Vista shortly and the sound was present then, and is still present, and that I am one of thousands of 1520 users hearing this sound so it is clearly some sort of design flaw.
So according to Dell support I'm not free to install whatever OS I wish and then when their crappy design flaws show through they decide they don't want to fix it.

 

I can't argue with what I am experiencing. I never said it was not a hardware issue and probably more to do with how Ubuntu controls the hardware if anything.

 

Use the latest ALSA drivers. I use 1.0.15. I use model=5stack.




EDIT: also try some better headphones (preferably high impedance, on the order of 100 ohms or more). Even without the "Analog Loopback" fix, they greatly reduced noise. In any case, they would improve the quality.

 

I agree. I think he's posting in the wrong forum. There's a Linux forum for laptops here.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1029


_

 

And here's the forum for Vista laptops:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=15

So what?

 

Well, if I were you I'd double boot Vista just to have them solve the problem or refund you the cost of the laptop. Here's a guide: http://apcmag.com/5023/dual_booting_xp_with_vista
I'll cal them these days to see what is the fix for this "software problem" under Vista. In the meantime I'll see if I can have it working under Linux, but I doubt it.

Shush!
Some people in these fora call this "free market".

 

Mmmm...
Looks to me that you have the analog loopback option because you have a different audio card with 5 jacks. Am I wrong?
I'll try nonetheless to use 5stack as a model. I have 1.0.15 on ubuntu and still have the same problem.

I am beginning to think that what you experienced was a different kind of audio interference, that could be solved via software. I will try nonetheless the fix you suggest, and as for the headphone I'm using Sony fontopia and also tried some Sennheiser. The morse code is still there, but ceases when the hard disk gets accessed. It's a major piss off since I plan to use the laptop for transcribing mp3 audio.

Thanks for your kind help.

 

Uh, excuse-me. l believe this thread was about a hardware problem.

Something to do with headphones and wires and motherboards. Not Linux settings.

Again, I think this is the wrong forum. That's what.



_

 

I believe this thread is about the jack noise in Dell's laptops.
The proposed solution is just a workaround and it's not said that the cause of the problem is in the hardware. In fact, Dell's tech support claim to be a software issue (according to sprtnbsblplya). And we have a poster who claim to have solved it by means of a software setting under Linux.

Solving this problem in Linux can be informative to Windows users, since it would rule out the hardware cause.
Not solving the problem in Linux can be informative to Windows users, since it will add a further confirmation to the hardware cause.

Dell Dell Inspiron, Latitude, Vostro, Precision and XPS notebook questions and discussion here.

If this is an hardware problem, this is the right forum.
If Linux can solve this problem, and that's what we are trying to find out, this is still the right forum, because it will show that the noise issue in the Vostro is fixable by software - and we could all call Dell or Microsoft to issue a patch.

In any case, this is a Dell (Vostro/Inspiron) specific problem: not a Linux specific problem.
I don't seem to recall that many Asus or Apple or Lenovo users complaining about their headphone noise in linux.

 

I only have 2 jacks (I think , referring to the external headphone/mic jacks?) and have the option in KMix (1.0.14-1ubuntu2) but it was off already. Toggling the value didn't make a difference. Oh, and today, the noise has started in Ubuntu for the first time but only for a few minutes. Nothing special happening at the time. I'm lost.

 

Try playing with all the controls. In my case, disabling Analog Loopback stopped the noise.
Also try enabling the "Line In as Output", unmute and turn up the "Surround" slider, and plug your headphones into the mic/line-in jack.

You're not using an external amplifier, are you? If you want quality with an external amplifier, use digital.

 

Wow. I did try experimenting with all the settings and combinations through the software but it never occurred to me that I could do what you said, using the other jack. My laptop goes long periods in Linux without the noise so not certain if that fixed the problem although the noise was there just before the change so I think it worked. Rep+ thanks for the help

 

Oh really? Then what about those dozens of threads announcing it was due to a flawed design of the audio jack being placed near the motherboard? This is the first time I've heard it was due to it being a software issue other than Dell still still not coming up with a BIOS fix for it.

Good point, only there was a hardware workaround first mentioned by rcbuse since he was the one who started the thread to begin with.

xScorpion also said:

Or the simple solution Jeff Leites mentioned in post #11. Everybody seemed to blow that one off because I guess it was too simple a fix. Then star888 injecting Linux software issues comes from out of nowhere. He seems to post that same general KMix fix over and over, which is an issue that could apply to machines other than Dell.

My point is this is another example of a thread going off topic and further confusing the issue, so I have to agree with lordnikon here. There is a Linux forum to post this stuff in. That's why it was created.

Fine, then why don't you start another thread in the Linux forum relating to adjusting the KMix fix and post the link to it over here. It's not rocket science to do that, ya know...

If I have a software issue running Linux using a Dell, I would post it over in the Linux forum. In fact, I myself will be doing just that shortly.

Again, everything I've heard so far says it's a hardware issue that Dell can't or refuses to fix. There are external hardware workarounds out there, but if people are too cheap and don't want to pay the money for 'em, well then that's their problem.

 

Now there are two of them.

The audio jack near the motherboard on a laptop?
Don't you say.
I've read about several possible causes: the cable that runs under half mobo, the resonance effect of the ceramic capacitors stressed by Speedstep in core2Duo, interference from the hard disk, the analog loopback problem, the volume maxed out...

There is not a clear cause. So it can't be said to be a Linux problem. In fact it is not. It's a transversal problem: only thing in common is that it affects Dell systems.

A workaround is not a solution.

How many times did she post that?

What machines? What are the machines with the headphone jack noise you are talking about?

So, you have it perfectly clear: the cause is... what exactly?
The C3/C4 speed step issue?
The cable running under the board?
The absence of a shielding?
The volume set to the max?

Because this is not a Linux issue.
This is an issue with the heaphones of the Dell Vostro series and is present in Linux, in Vista, in XP and probably would also be present on CP/M if it were possible to install it on a Vostro. And - this is the third time I write this, so please print it out - if it were possible to fix it by software one of this OS, then the other OSes users could still benefit from this information.

What if you had an issue running Linux, Vista, and XP?

And that's your opinion. Fine.
Show me the flaw on the mobo's schematic and that will become a fact.
Until then let the other posters try to see if that could be fixable in software - as other claim to have done.

Ok, now you have assessed your position. Rest assured nobody will think you are cheap. Feel more confident, now?

 

What are you talking about?

I never said it was a Windows or Linux problem, but I do question why these OS settings are being talked about in a hardware forum.

If I can't hear the problem anymore, it's a solution.

At least three times that I can find. Same exact posts.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/search.php?searchid=2257897

I was talking about adjusting the settings in KMix. I don't know what you're talking about.

Nobody still knows, but giving out lessons on Linux in a hardware forum seems like the wrong place. If it's that related, then insert a link.

Once again, post a link to the other forum. Do you not know how to do that? This is a hardware forum. Do you not go to the front page and see how the subjects are divided? They are separated for a reason, you know.

Does that mean I don't believe Linux should even be mentioned in this thread? Of course not, but then when it starts to wander off somewhere else...

Same principle. No difference.

Whatever. I felt strongly about it and had to say something. It looked like a thread hijack to me, going off the subject at hand, and now with me arguing with you, it's gone further off somewhere else. We're just gonna have to disagree about it, that's all.

Well, you know the old saying. You get what you pay for.

 

Two people claim to have solved the noise problem via software.

Because they're instrumental in solving the noise problem. That's why,
But then you say this is a "hardware forum".
This is not a "hardware forum": this is a forum about Dell computers. Here you can also talk about the crapware installed on Dell systems, about media direct (it's a software, you know?), about changing the default partitions, about reinstalling the OS with Dell suppied DVDs. These are not hardware issues.

Having an extra piece of cord to attach to my headphones is hardly what I call a solution. I am glad to know there is that workaround and I am thankful to the OP for pointing that out and sharing it with us.
But I did not spend 1500$ to remedy to a design flaw with an extra dongle.

Wow, three times including this one. that is "posting over and over again".
Try to see how many times every senior user is giving the same answers about the difference between a T7300 and a T7500, or how to reinstall media direct, or how to reinstall vista, how to streamline the sata drivers in XP. Is that trolling?

Or is it the fact that she efficiently copy and paste the same answer that is a 'no-no'?

I am talking about solving the headphone noise problem. In whichever manner is necessary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software

" Dell Dell Inspiron, Latitude, Vostro, Precision and XPS notebook questions and discussion here."

Yeah, show me where exactly is the Dell forum located: under "hardware and software" (Doh, they are grouped together!) or under "manufacturers"?
Then reread the description of this forum's topic:

" Dell Dell Inspiron, Latitude, Vostro, Precision and XPS notebook questions and discussion here."

and tell me where you see the word "hardware" in it.

If finding the correct setting for kmix in a Vostro architecture means solving the noise problem, that is not wandering somewhere else.

 

Not only is the KMix solution useless to the 95% of laptop owners here who use Windows, but it doesn't even work for all Linux users (no Analog Loopback option for many of us, including me).

So yeah, it has only very limited success and doesn't really address the underlying problem as it's pretty stupid to expect everyone to either:

• Format Windows and put Linux on instead to solve the audio problem
• Or actually have Linux on in the first place (less than 5% of users)

In summary I'm sick of seeing the Linux solution being spammed by star882 in every single audio-problem thread in the general Dell forum, considering the very small number of people it helps. That's what specific (Linux) forums are for. Though I'm suspecting star882 does this to show off that (s)he uses Linux, as it's so obvious how few people it helps.

 

I just oiled the ports and I no longer hear any noise!!!

 

Well I'm glad to somebody else objects to it as well, for similar reasons. Sredni can argue semantics all he wants to, but I too am sick of Linux fanboys using any excuse they can to propagate their OS on other forums. I use Linux myself, but I also try to respect forum decorum in doing so. I feel that strongly about it.

They created a Linux forum specifically for a reason. 95% of the people posting in the Dell forum are using Windows, so even though star882 might appear helpful, it's pretty much useless to most everyone here.

~

And yes, a $10 dongle is a solution, as far as I'm concerned. If it makes the problem go away, then it's solved. Period.

You can either;

1) buy a dongle

2) return the machine

3) or just live with it and beat your head over and over again looking to try & fix the motherboard.

Oh, and don't forget to whine for the 100th time because Dell isn't too responsive to the issue.

_