topic Re: Noisy when running on battery in PCs & Accessories

Noisy when running on battery

pringe83 — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 23:18:46 GMT

So many questions recently, I wondered if you could help with one more...

When running the vaio from battery power there is a lot of interference (noise?) through the speakers. However this disapears when connected to the power supply. Can this be cured? I tried the advice in another thread about making the vaio run silent and installed the suggested program but it had no effect.

Thanks in advance...

Re: Noisy when running on battery

Thalamus. — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:57:17 GMT

Hi pringe83,

Is the screen brightness set to full when running on batteries?

If not does the interference (noise?) through the speakers disappear if you increase (FN+ F6) the brightness level to full..

Re: Noisy when running on battery

pringe83 — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:23:07 GMT

Hi Thalamus, thanks for the reply. I've done a bit more experimenting and have a revised set of symptoms:

Interference seems to be present all the time, although is louder, more noticeable whilst running on battery power.
When running on batteries the noise doesn't come through the speakers; instead it comes from the screwed down panel directly underneath the trackpad. What is this?! (EDIT: This is apparently the memory compartment cover. How can noise be coming from this area?! I can assure you it is from here!)
When running on AC power the noise is pretty much silent if using the on board speakers (though you can hear a tiny bit of noise through the RH speaker), although if you connect to external speakers the noise returns and seems to be amplified (in comparison to its relative volume on built in speakers).

The fact that it is only present in the right built in speaker when on AC leads me to think this is some kind of interference problem - the audio ports are nearby, as is the wireless switch (is the antenna there also). Is this problem curable or just shoddy designing? Some kind of earthing / grounding issue (don't know much about that!)?

Thanks.

Re: Noisy when running on battery

pringe83 — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:11:22 GMT

bump...any ideas?

Re: Noisy when running on battery

MattWilson — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:36:33 GMT

When running on batteries the noise doesn't come through the speakers; instead it comes from the screwed down panel directly underneath the trackpad. What is this?! (EDIT: This is apparently the memory compartment cover. How can noise be coming from this area?! I can assure you it is from here!)

Is it just a buzzing or like a screw loose?

!confused.gif|___jive_emoticon_name=confused|jivemacro=emoticon|class=jive_macro jive_emote|src=confused.gif!

Re: Noisy when running on battery

pringe83 — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 22:45:27 GMT

Hi Matt - it is most definitely some kind of electrical noise. Very high pitched. I'll try to get a recording of it posted up here. It seems that the noise is consistent with the hard drive activity (ie seems to get louder when drive is being written to or reading), yet also present when hard drive is inactive. Very strange.