T500 - Sound card "buzzing"

I recently got a T500, and among a couple of issues is the sound card. There is a faint but distinct "buzz" that occurs during several (not all) pitches. Listening to loud and aggressive music can drown it out, but with quieter playback it can be very annoying. I just installed the most recent audio driver from Lenovo with no improvement.

The buzz is also only audible through headphones, but I know it's not the headphones themselves because they sound fine on other computers and portable music devices.

I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this problem, or has an idea for a solution. It's actually easily reproducible: the windows volume sample tone always ends with a buzz. You can hear it best when the volume slider is about two clicks above mute. Just click the little slider button.

 

I just got mine a month or so ago. I haven't really started listening to music on it until about a week or two ago. This buzzing is driving me up the wall.

I've tried two sets of Bose headphones, (noise cancelling and ear buds), Windows Vista and Kubuntu linux (different drivers), and within Linux, all of the different sound systems, (OSS, ALSA, Jack, OpenAL, etc...)

I've had it on the lamest sounding MP3s, Last.FM, and my FLAC collection.

Its exactly as you say, only on certain pitches. It almost sounds like the sound is "clipping".

I'm guessing this is something that we need to bug Lenovo about... as far as I can tell, this isn't a software issue.

 

I have no such issue, and I've tried with several pairs of headphones and speakers. You could try bugging Lenovo tech support and see what happens.

 

Well, I let this one kind of go without messing with it. I haven't spent a lot of time using my computer to listen to music.

Lately, I've been working more with it and the buzzing is really starting to bug me. I finally broke down and called tech support.

We went through the obvious steps (make sure the volume controls aren't turned up super loud to cause clipping, make sure the mic is off, etc). Apparently, if the audio works, but buzzes, its not covered under the warranty and I'm screwed. Anybody know of a good, low profile sound card for either PCMCIA or USB that is Linux compatible?

Does anybody know of a laptop out there that's a good deal, has an nVidia video card, and the sound doesn't buzz?

 

http://www.ibasso.com/en/products/show.asp?ID=43

OS-universal, virtually silent, sounds better than any laptop audiocard, works well with high-end headphones...

 

Bad capacitor, loose soldering, loose connection or an insulation issue. The card is defective or thier is some unplanned interference with another component. Does this happen with B-tooth and WIFI turned off? Happen away from your current location? If yes, the card has a defect. Getting them to acknowledge it will be hard though. Best way to prove it is to find out who made the component and check online. Dell users are really much better at spotting these things and calling it out for a fix. Check their boards maybe card is also used in their machines.

 

The buzzing happens wherever I go. I tried shutting off the Wifi and Blue Tooth as well with no luck.

This song buzzes most prominently at the beginning with the guitar. You can hear it throughout the song as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rmil_raUtU

If I play the same song on my TMobile G1 (the same video on YouTube) it doesn't buzz.

Interesting idea re: checking the chipset manufacturer and other laptops. I'll give that a shot.

 

How about unplugged from the wall?

Brett

 

Hi all. I have a similar but not quite the same issue. Should I open a new thread?

The issue is, when I turn the computer on, it starts buzzing really loudly. Then as time goes on the buzzing dies down. The only way to stop the buzzing is to mute the sound completely. Adjusting system or application volume does nothing. It may be a hardware issue.

System: T500 SYS.2081CT Windows 7.

 

For PCMCIA, an Echo Audio Indigo. It needs some non-free firmware from the alsa-tools package, I think it was, but it has excellent sound quality with a hardware volume control. The DJ version has two headphone outputs, the I/O has one headphone output and an input.

For USB, a HeadRoom Total Bithead.

Or a Behringer UCA202 or UCA222 looks like a really good value, and more compact, but I just don't know how well it will behave in Linux. Technically, being a USB audio device, it should just work. But considering it's purpose, it might not be so clear cut.

 

This is a HUGE factor. If you don't have a buzz if you are completely unplugged and using a pair of headphones that don't have issues with another portable audio player, then something's up. If it goes away in this scenario, it's factors external to your laptop.

If it's coming from external speakers, it's a whole other story.

 

Hi,

I can confirm this hardware flaw for the T500 TYPE 2055-3AG. I tried different sample rates, played with the mixer... and finally found this thread.

Mine also produces other strange sounds, for instance speaker's clicking when turning on the display back from standby. Seems like the current supply for the sound hardware is not stable. Not to mention that constant white noise where just silence ought to be. The whole sound hardware in this ThinkPad is a crap!

A friend got Behringer's UCA202, it worked out of the box with Ubuntu lucid x86. I've not heard it yet, he said it's just ok.

Cheers,

Florian