x61 speaker whine when I wave my hand

[brucehe]

Hello all,

I have seen quite a few posts about noises from various machines but could not find comments on this problem.

I get a high frequency whine from the front speaker when my hand is over the keyboard specifically on the red mouse stick. I can make the sound go away by muting the speaker or taking my hand away from the keyboard. What is going on???

thanks,

Bruce

[ajkula66]

What is going on???

It's the aliens... ...RUN...

All jokes aside, I've got to give it to you: never have I heard of such a thing, and no, I don't have a reasonable explanation.

Good luck.

[axur-delmeria]

It seems like some form of electromagnetic interference (like some AM/FM radios getting wonky when you get close to it).

It might be two things inside the laptop making contact (or almost making contact) when you put your finger on the
Trackpoint.

It's all speculation though.

[RealBlackStuff]

You have one of these new watches that take your temperature, measure your heart beat, count your steps, and attract new girlfriends all the time?
They are bound to send some weird/wrong signals...

[RRHODY]

Just a wild guess - perhaps it is some kind of "feedback" you get between a microphone and a speaker with your hand acting a defector; can you turn off the mike?

[rkawakami]

^ +1

[brucehe]

First thing I did was to set the mike to zero. I can't replicate the whine today but I am guessing I will be able to soon. As soon as I think this sound has gone away it comes back.

It probably is aliens...

Bruce

[rkawakami]

Are you moving the microphone slider down to the lowest setting or are you using the mute option? My guess is that you are sliding the microphone volume level down to the lowest setting and then later on, you are accessing a program / utility that has a pre-programmed level for the microphone. If / when the noise comes back, immediately check the Volume Control panel. If the slider has moved, then I would use the mute checkbox to turn it off.

[brucehe]

I thought I had muted the microphone but maybe as Ray mentioned an application turned it back on. I muted it again and it got rid of the feedback. So, I am almost positive microphone feedback is the issue. It is very interesting how you can change the sound level with your hand position. It is also very interesting that I never had this happen before with this machine. Maybe the microphone mute was always on. I will post any further symptoms. BTW this is running W7 64 bit.

Thanks,

Bruce