annoying background static - i600m (please help!)

I have a 600m and don't have the problem.  if you have another pair of headphones (or minijack to rca connector) you may want to try hooking up that one, because the connector on the 600m may be more sensitive than your other computer.  You might also try using headphones or connectors with a shielded cable to see if the laptop is putting something out in the air that produces the static (as opposed to stray signals through the cable itself). good luck.

Cant help you but I have exactly the same problem with a brand new Inspiron 8500.

Loud hiss from headphones even when volume is at minmum and system is not doing anything like playing a CD

My previous Inspiron 5000e had no problem like this

 

 

I have the same problem with my 600m

try popping out the optical drive (I had a cdrw/dvd drive)

I just discovered that when you take the optical drive out, the static noise pretty much disappears (it's still there, but drops to probably 1/8th of what it was).  I found this out literally 5 minutes ago

.....but the static comes back when the optical drive is reinserted

edit: my cdrw/dvd drive is a samsung sn-324B, which, apparently, is supposed to be faulty when it comes to cue/bin cd burning

Message Edited by dyne on 08-28-2003 12:24 AM

thanks for the ideas so far...here's what i tried:

studentper:  i have pretty good headphones so i didn't think it was that.  just to be sure i tried some other ones and still got the static noise.  i moved the laptop to various places around my house to eliminate the possibility of localized EM interference.  no effect.

seanjf:  i'm sorry to hear you have the same problem.  i guess it just shows some poor quality control on dell's part because this is just unacceptable in a $2k plus laptop.  does the i8500 also have the sigmatel sound card?  what else have you tried?

dyne:  i tried removing the cdrw/dvd combo drive as you suggested and the noise was unchanged.  perhaps it is related to the CD audio control i mentioned in my original post.  recall that in my case reducing/muting this particular volume control reduced the noise a bit, but not completely, indicating that something else is contributing to the problem as well.  i unmuted the cd audio control and raised the volume and the static noise increased, so that's probably similar to what happened in your case.  but even with the cd audio control muted, the noise is still there and quite apparent, even to my not-so-great ears.

are there others out there, like studentper, who didn't notice the static after running the test?  what is the probability that this is a hardware problem?  i'm curious to hear more input on this before i have someone taking apart my system.  i can just see it now:  this guy comes and rips apart my computer and replaces everything and the sound is still there and he's like "oh it's normal".  arggghhhh!!!

anyone else have a similar or different experience to report or more ideas to try?  thanks...

Yes - I have standard Sigmatel STAC 9750 AC97 WDM soundcard

Problem reduces a bit when CDRW/DVD is removed but is still pretty noticeable.

Also quite hard to listen to CD's with the drive removed :)

 

 

Is the sigmatel 97 the same as sigmatel C-Major?  cos that's what they gave me w/ my 600m

it sounds like you are having the same problem as all of us and the only solution so far is to remove the earth from the three pin plug.  Does the sound go away when you only use the battery?

This is not a "safe" solution but as dell do not appear to read this forum it is the only one that works and dell has not given us any other ways of fixing this yet.....

Dradeth:  i have the SigmaTel C-Major audio system with the latest drivers and bios.  specially, it is the SIGMATEL STAC 9750 AC97.

john_keys:  as i mentioned in my first post, the static is unchanged by switching to battery power.

can anyone else say that they do NOT have this problem?  that would suggest that i have a hardware problem specific to my machine, which is fixable, rather than an epidemic problem across all the 600m computers, which dell will probably ignore...

ck,

When i first plugged in my stereo system to the headphone outlet, it was fuzzy.  However, I adjusted the plug and at a certain angle, if nobody touches it, the sound is perfect.  w/ or w/o AC.

But, when I started to play a DVD where there are multiple layers of sound, it cracks regardless.

So I thought that this sound card just couldn't support multiple sound properly.  So I downloaded the newest driver.  However, I had to return the DVD, so I didn't get to try it.  The DVD was Chicago if you needed to know.

Hope this helps,

Dradeth

i tried adjusting my headphone plug and it didn't affect the noise.  maybe i'm just being picky here?  it's easy to ignore the noise since it is nothing drastic, but you can really hear the contrast when you go in the audio controls and toggle the mute all button after adjusting the volume a bit (to turn off the power management).

on a side note, i asked a friend of mine to try the test and she said she noticed the slight hissing also.  i'm guessing that these laptops have some hardware design problem or quality control problem...maybe some internal electrical interference or something.

studentper, you were the only one who mentioned not having a problem.  did you try to test i mentioned above and didn't notice any difference in the sound?  what is your setup like (hardware, bios, drivers)?

anyone else have results to report or comments about this issue?

A colleague has exactly the same Inspiron8500 as me but has no problem.
On my machine the problem is also noticeable through the laptops speakers .
Without the headphones plugged in use the mute toggle and you can here a hissing noise from the speakers disappear.

I just found this post on another thread (8500 background hiss or something)

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I also have a 8500 and had the hissing sound. I say had because now it's gone(not sure why, but it is). This is what I did. Please remember I don't know why this worked and I did not do any additional testing to get the hissing back and try and get rid of it again. I loaded the A06 driver on my 8500 thinking that it might get rid of the hissing. At the end of the driver installation I got an error message (sorry I did not write it down). I rebooted and the speaker hissing was still there. Since I was uncomfortable with the error message at the end of the driver load, I decided to roll back the driver. In the Device Manager I went to the SigmaTel C-Major Audio Properties and under the Driver Tab I selected Roll Back Driver. I then rebooted my 8500. The hissing was gone. Again, I wish I could tell you that I know what happened. I could take a guess and say that maybe the drivers were never loaded correctly. That there is an order that Dell is loading the its drivers that XP does not like. Anyways, try it and see what you get.

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It worked for me.

Try rolling back the driver.

 

ok, so i actually tried the driver rollback technique today and it worked, well sort of.  driver details in device manager seemed to indicate that some kind of windows xp built-in driver was being used.  it stopped the static completely but i noticed right away that the quality of sound was not as good.

it sounds as if some kind of amplifier or equalizer was deactivated.  no annoying noise, but also less tone and less bass/treble response.  my MP3s sounded very bland, so i decided to switch back.  but at least this shows that a software change can affect the problem.

i wish dell would work on better drivers or at least give us more control over the output.  i'd like something in-between the two:  less annoying static but without losing the quality of the sound.  i don't understand why this is so hard, especially coming from a 3-year old inspiron 5000 that had great, clean sound.  this is a $2000 downgrade, at least in the audio department.  apparently, this issue is more widespread than i thought, since it effects the 8500 as well, and perhaps other systems with the Sigmatel sound card and the current drivers.

ARE THE MODERATORS LISTENING?  tell your folks in the technical department to work on something before potential buyers see this and look elsewhere.  i'd even go so far as to say a recall is in order to replace the audio hardware with something better, in the event that better drivers cannot fix the problem.

It looks like this problem is affecting anyone who has a Sigmatel sound chip. My new 5150 emits an intolerable hissing that only goes away when I mute all sound and the 2 600Ms we have at work show the same problem.

I was thinking about upgrading to the 8600, but if it has a Sigmatel chip in it, I'm sure the hiss will be there too.

it's definitely a common problem, but judging by dell's response, i'm not sure it can be considered "well-known".  apparently the only answer tech support can come up with so far is make sure you have the latest bios/drivers/etc.  well that is not fixing the problem.

thanks for chiming in on this, i've asked a couple of others who have the 600m and they have the same problem.  i just want someone to take action and do something about it.