was there ever a fix for the annoying sound you hear in headphones on the hel80

yeah... its really annoying, just wondering if anyone ever found a fix to make the sound go away.

 

I don't think anything was ever "official" since many people were describing different sources of the sound, and many people had different fixes.

I think one solution that seems to work fairly well across the board was to under volt your CPU.

Other then that there are a few products that might work... A lot of this distortion comes from improperly grounded electrical lines in your residence.
The guys at PowerNotebooks.com offer a good product http://www.powernotebooks.com/product.php?itemId=1844 the HUM X, or any sort of line filter (you can get them from places like Newegg, they look like surge suppressors but cost a little bit more)

 

FYI to reduce some of the hum, if you go into master volume (the window with all the volume slider bars) and mute "PC beep" you'll get noticeably less buzz in your headphones. Muting 'CD audio', and 'mic volume' may also help considerably.

I went to great lengths trying to reduce that noise, but as Pyro has mentioned, dirty power is the main culprit. With his help, I also looked into buzz caused by EMI (electromagnetic interference) from the hard drive, and various other components. I even tried to reduce the amount of noise in the built in microphone. All of these attempts didn't work however. The Compal engineers have reduced it almost as much as is physically possible, so I don't recommend you crack open your laptop and void your warranty like I did.

If you wanted to go to the extreme, it is possible to get a very functional microphone by replacing it, and shielding the cords leading to it with tin foil, or whatever else blocked EMI. Regardless, Pyro's suggestions are best, since his brain is 2 times as large as a normal human being (or so it's rumored )

 

I believe it

 

Now that's some funny stuff!

 

any idea how to turn off pc beep and the other stuff in windows vista, i can't seem to find it.

 

For the system beep, I found this is the common fix..
http://weyland.be/wrdprss/index.php/2007/02/08/disable-system-beep-in-windows-vista/

I don't own vista, but this is what I found for the rest of the audio:
http://www.zolved.com/synapse/view_content/25846/Volume_features_in_Windows_Vista_

Hope that at least points you in the right direction.