Seeking silent LCD...

EddNog

Senior member
Oct 25, 1999
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I'm beginning to notice my LCD's buzz more and more. Has anyone here noticed the sound produced by their display unit (CRT or LCD) other than myself? And has anyone taken action to deal with it? Because from my sitting position the LCD I'm using is more audible than the computer, and when I go behind my desk (doesn't happen too often but it does happen) I can very clearly hear the LCD; its buzz is probably about two to three times louder behind the LCD, but it is still quite audible in front of the thing, now that my computer is so quiet. I wish to do something to dampen the buzz being put out by my Samsung SyncMaster 151P, but can't figure out any good solutions.

My 151P has an inline power block, so part of the power circuitry is not in the unit itself, and yet the buzz is clearly audible from behind the unit, and clearly coming from the unit itself (the extremely high-pitched buzz), and not the power block, which only emits a mid-low frequency hum, and that hum is only audible when I hold the block up and press it to my ear. Changing the refresh from 72Hz to 70Hz and from 70Hz to 60Hz yields no change in pitch or volume, either. Running out of ideas here.

Little help please?

-Ed
 

clicknext

Banned
Mar 27, 2002
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My monitor makes far less noise than my computer. If my monitor was on by itself I just *might* be able to notice it, but as it is, it's too little to hear.
 

Godsend1

Senior member
Oct 30, 2000
475
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I have the same problem with my 192N. They just advanced shipped a refurb to me last week and it had the same problem. I called them up and they will be sending me another. Both my original and the first refurb had 0 dead pixels.

My buzzing goes away if you raise the brightness above 61. .

I think the problem is with the backlight,
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
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Originally posted by: Godsend1
I have the same problem with my 192N. They just advanced shipped a refurb to me last week and it had the same problem. I called them up and they will be sending me another. Both my original and the first refurb had 0 dead pixels.

My buzzing goes away if you raise the brightness above 61. .

I think the problem is with the backlight,

Or the inverter. I have an EL wire in my case window, and its inverter makes a slight whine, but it's so quiet you can't hear it over even a single fan.
 

EddNog

Senior member
Oct 25, 1999
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It appears you are right, Godsend. I raised my brightness to at least 60 and the buzz decreases dramatically in volume. Let's hope I can get used to using it at this setting; up until now, I've been using it at a brightness of 50.

-Ed
 

faye

Platinum Member
Sep 13, 2000
2,109
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want to try something, does ur lcd have speakers?

mine has speakers, once i turn down the volume(0), there will be no more buzz...
 

Pete

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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Yeah, it's probably the power circuitry. I'm fairly noise-sensitive, and I notice that fluorescent lights (which provide the backlighting for LCDs) produce an audible buzz. I'm not sure if it's the bulbs themselves or a low-quality power circuitry (inverter) that's the issue, though.

faye, that's a good idea, but it's probably safe to say line noise being reproduced by the speakers isn't the culprit because the noise is louder behind the display.
 

EddNog

Senior member
Oct 25, 1999
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No, the Samsung SyncMaster 151P doesn't have speakers on it. And as I said, raising brightness to 55 cut the buzz in almost half and raising it to 60 or above almost eliminates it; too bad it's rather bright now.

-Ed
 

hans007

Lifer
Feb 1, 2000
20,212
18
81
my LCD is at about 1/3 brightness.

granted this is a widescreen one, and its max bright ness is 450 nits. which makes this well... about twice as bright as a lot of other LCDs.


but yeah i dont think i've ever heard any of my LCDs make noise (we have an HP fx70 here, and hp f50, i had a nec 1525m before and this one is a philips 170w4)
 

stardust

Golden Member
May 17, 2003
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I was intrigued by this finding so I unplugged the monitor from my PC and put it in another soundless room and I can only hear a slight hum when I put my ear next to the back of the monitor. But I hear this hum with most electronics.
 

EddNog

Senior member
Oct 25, 1999
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Stardust, was the monitor just plugged into the wall and turned on (in power saving mode), or was it hooked up to a source and actually displaying something?

-Ed
 

stardust

Golden Member
May 17, 2003
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I have an old LCD that doesn't enter power saving mode until ~10 seconds after a "no signal" detection. For the first few seconds I hear the hum, but after it enters powersaving mode, it makes no noise whatsoever.

EDIT: your rite, i didn't plug the monitor into a source. the computer beside my monitor is well over 35db...
 

EddNog

Senior member
Oct 25, 1999
227
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Yeah from what I seem to be reading, most people who get noise are using either CRT displays, or Samsung LCD displays, and only certain models. The rest I figure either can't hear it (hearing degraded/not that good as mine to begin with) or aren't trying hard enough (in a noisy room w/a noisy computer or standing/sitting a great distance away from their display). My computer is hardly audible, period (still working on absolute dead silence), and the room is completely free of other noise at 2:00am in the morning and later (hardly any street traffic). After building Sigma One (please see my web site here), I had to get rid of my alarm clock because its ticking was driving me insane, and the monitor became the next big offender. With the brightness at 60 it's pretty much inaudible now, but when I turn on Alpha Two (again, see my web site), the CRT appears remarkably dark, because the LCD is so incredibly bright. I also worry for my vision staring at such a bright source of light for long durations, so I'm trying now to find one of the new generation 15" LCDs that have DVI input and make zero noise.

-Ed
 

high

Banned
Sep 14, 2003
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I recommend to all my customers that purchase LCD's to grab a Monster "Clean Power" bar or any other clean power surge protector. I have seen them cut the buzz from LCD's to almost or complete nothing.
 

EddNog

Senior member
Oct 25, 1999
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Already using the latest drivers.

Tried all refreshes already, too.

But thanx.

-Ed
 

hans007

Lifer
Feb 1, 2000
20,212
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Originally posted by: BoomAM
Originally posted by: hans007
my LCD makes no sound at all.
Same here.
And the power block is part of the TFT on mine.

hmmm... now that i think about it.


the 2 hp lcds we have , haev a seperate power block. they are not mine, though so maybe they do make noise, they are my mom and brothers.

my 2 personal LCDs had integrated power blocks. and ive never noticed noise.
 

EddNog

Senior member
Oct 25, 1999
227
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I went and downloaded good ol' PowerStrip by Entech and am using it to dumb the brightness back down; working like a charm! Strangely it's set for -100% brightness, but logically speaking shouldn't -100% be totally black? Oh well; works silent, looks great. I'm happy!

-Ed