Hi all,

I don't know if anyone might recognise this problem.
The speakers on this PC emit a disturbing background sound all the time. The same doesn't happen with Windows. The sound is related to computer activity (CPU?). Whenever a slide show screensaver shifts, for example, the level of sound increases.

This computer has run 2 or 3 different Linux distros. At the moment its doing Mdk 10.1 official.

I'm wondering what kind of problem this is. Is it a badly configured soundcard, or a bad connection somewhere, or what kind of thing is it?

I'm not looking for a simple solution (though that would of course be nice) as much as a lead. What kinds of things might be causing this noise?

Thanks,

Declan

open ur ur sound mixer/volume control

there u can trying muting different channels

regards

I have a similar problem on my SuSe 9.1 system except mine is a steady high pitch whine.
I think it started when I was trying out different modules in FVWM2 just to see what they do.
The sound is there all the time now in linux no matter what window manager I use but goes away when I run windows ME.
I cant see any process running that would seem to cause this. Will have to try looking at the sound mixer to see if it can be changed.

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I don't know if anyone might recognise this problem.
The speakers on this PC emit a disturbing background sound all the time. The same doesn't happen with Windows. The sound is related to computer activity (CPU?). Whenever a slide show screensaver shifts, for example, the level of sound increases.

Could it be the LCD screen making the noise? Sometimes they can make quite a bit. There are reports of certain drivers or settings in the xorg file that are not optimal, creating quite a whine from screens. My gut feeling is that this does no good to the screen apparatus, either.

But it's more likely a fan. With a desktop machine, that's easy to check by either momentary unplugging the fan or (making sure there are no sharp edges on the fan blades) slowing it down with your finger or a soft object for a moment. If the sound dramatically lessens or disappears, you've found your problem.

With laptops of course it's more difficult because of the way laptop cases are held together with those abominable plastic tabs that technicians have special tools for releasing, but that we, as users, are liable to break. One or two broken ones doesn't hurt the computer though....

Sometimes basic physical troubleshooting pays off and saves time.

I know very well how excess noise, especially high-pitched noise, can drive a user up the wall and interrupt concentration, etc. I had to shut my desktop machine in a closet for several months, till I got a Vantec fan/heatsink combination for the CPU that allowed me to have a very quiet computer at last, sitting right where I work.

Good luck and may you solve your problem soon.

Thanks for the answers thus far. I don't think it can be fan, since the sound varies according to what the computer does, and the fan varies according temperature (I presume). It's a normal monitor with a desktop system.
One way, of course, of sorting out the problem is to turn the speakers down completely.
It did however, turn down all the volumes down on the volume control software, and the sound persists. The only way is to physically turn the volume down on the speakers themselves.

But now that you mention laptops, I've noticed that when using headphones with a linux-using laptop, there is a sound there that isn't present with windows.

You're right, it is annoying. But it doesn't sound as bad as some of what you are reporting. It's not high pitched, nor is it particularly loud. More than anything, it just sounds unhealthy. A bit disturbing.

Thanks for your answers,

Declan

Under mandrake configure your desktop go to sound - sound system and click the hardware tab. Under select audio device choose alsa (advanced linux sound architecture) then hit apply. Now go to mandrake control panel go to hardwar click on hardware icon and find your sound card click and then run config tool you should select snd-yourcard as the driver all new sound cards are running using alsa now by default mandrake uses the OSS driver. Let us know if you fix it and how.

I forgot to add restart your computer after all that so alsa can restart its probably stopped it should restart after the reboot.
If your still having problems after that go to control center again click system-services and see if alsa is even there and if its checked to start at boot. Sorry about the double post dudes.

You probably don't have to restart your computer unless you want to, if you initiate use of alsa.
As root you can go: "service alsa stop" and if it fails it will say why and it's in use, so good. If it succeeds in stopping you know it works, too (at least in theory!). Then go, "service alsa start" to restart it.

But rebooting will accomplish the same thing. Just takes longer.

Sorry about that he sounds like he's still making the transition from Windows. Windows users know restart. Not console. Besides he said "I'm not looking for a simple solution (though that would of course be nice). Thats a Windows user.

It's a trick to remember (maybe!) for later when the user's more familiar with Linux. Rebooting is mighty fine in my book, Windows or Linux either one.

Of course, I don't run a server!

Incidentally, I'm not so much a Windows user as a non-technical Linux user. It's true that I've only been using Linux for about 8 months, but I'm now more familiar with how it works than with how Windows works.

But I am untechnical enough. No background in computing. I'm almost the target audience of the future much-hyped switch to Linux.

I'm not allergic to CLI, and do use commands for certain actions. The reason why I stated that I wasn't looking for a simple solution was that in fact (however untechnical one is) it's always better to have some growing knowledge of what is going on behind the scenes. That's the beauty of this system.
I suppose what I had imagined was that one or two more notions about ALSA would give me the key to the problem.

Apologies, I haven't been able to try out your various suggestions. This message comes from another machine (running ProMepis) and not from Mandrake 10.1. But I look forward to trying. Thanks again.

Declan