Front Headphone jack hum/buzz?

I used to have it on my Inspiron 4100. There was a lot of motherboard noise on that computer.

XPS 420? I remember those... I remember playing Solitaire on it while installing XP :)

I remember an issue with one XPS model a couple of years ago.  That problem was noise in the headset caused by the routing near the hard drive for the cable to the front panel headset.  Rerouting the cable, as reported on this forum by users, fixed the problem.

I remember this in several models and it was not always the machine but rather interference getting in.

Aka if I run my laptop on an inverter the buzz gets in when I'm attached to the charger thats attached to the inverter.

I also remember an issue where a buzz or bipping noize came whenever I moved the mouse on the screen with some GPU's  You couldn't hear it in the speakers but you could pick it out in headphones on front or back.

Hi Chris,

We use the headphone jack on the top of our XPS 8100 all the time and have never had a problem.

Chris,

Work computer, Optiplex GX260 Windows XP Pro, No problems

Optiplex t80, Windows 7 Pro, No problems

Rick

I also note on Newer machines without dedicated sound hardware that USB bandwidth and PCI Bandwidth, DMA, CPU loading issues cause hiss, pops, static and other artifacts in the AC97 codec.   Basically it shows up in Skype and other video recordings as well horrible noise, either making a constant buzzing robotic sound or distorting my voice to make me sound like a tronesque warrior.  In the old days there was a dedicated MP3, MP4 decompression hardware for DVDs etc but now this is done in software via the cpu and Redbook Audio is no longer analog directly into the sound card bypassing the cpu altogether.

In Skype, Ventrillio,  Teamspeak this issue manifests itself as Microphone Headset buzz sound and echoing /feedback.   I'm sure it comes from my machine because others on the vent channel say It has a buzz when I'm talking but I don't hear it.

i had the same problem as you, doing a lot of research i found out that it was do to interference. when you use the head phone jack (3.5mm) below #5, it interferes with the newer generations of processors. (they run on the same frequency) to solve the problem all you got to do is Buy a headset with a USB on the end instead of the 3.5mm jacks. or if you have logitech one they usually come with an adapter (#4 in the picture below) it will solve all of your problems. this problem has helped me and all my friends

XPS 8300  and Optiplex Gx270 ,No top/front headphone socket buzzy hissy issues

Standard Audio is 20 to 25,000 Hz.    Current Processors run at Several GHz.  Being older I highly doubt that I can hear anything above 16 Khz.

it was not always the machine but rather interference getting in.