CPU whine....over the headphone port?

[j-dawg]

My tablet has over the last few months developed the C2D whine, for which I hear there is no cure besides adjusting throttling settings. But I hear my whine over the headphone port now: when I put on headphones, I can hear it buzzing, and it seems to be buzzing in sync with the motherboard whine: when one goes up, so does the other. I've never heard of this but it is extremely irritating when trying to listen to quiet music, or even just in the silence between two Machine Head songs (played full blast, of course).

I think I may just send it in, as I have other computers I can use over the few days it's gone and it's seriously getting to me now. But I hear the warranty service isn't very helpful when it comes to the whine problem - has anyone else heard it through the headphones? Has warranty service ever fixed the problem?

As an interesting side note, I can now listen to the whine with perfect clarity. If I had a two-headed headphone cable, I'd plug it from the headphone jack into the mic jack and record it.

[thewhippingboy]

Yes, i have the same problem.

For me, it only occurs with headphones that have metal touching the body of the thinkpad such as these headphones:



See how the plug has metal at the base that contacts the outside of the jack? that's where the interference is coming from, at least in my case. If you are really attached to those headphones, do what I do and pull the plug just enough out to keep the metal from contacting the body. Otherwise try another pair of headphones that doesn't have metal there. iPod earbuds seem to work just fine although they admittedly aren't the best headphones out there.

[j-dawg]

I have Koss Portapros and I love them so. Yes, they do have that little metal flange at the bottom of the plug, I had never noticed that. I've already sent it in though but let's see how it turns out, because the problem only developed over the last few months - I've been happily pushing the plug all the way in since I've owned the computer without this happening.

[j-dawg]

Update..they replaced my motherboard, which seems to have repaired the issue. I no longer hear the whine over the headphones or anywhere. This also confirms my suspicions that something else was wrong with the old motherboard - the computer is now running a good twenty degrees C cooler than before. The only other time I sent the computer in for warranty service, it was for heat, and they replaced the fan, which did some good but not a lot.

Kudos to Lenovo for making an expensive and time-intensive repair to repair a simple fault - I hear Dell does not repair the whining noise, writing it off as a "known issue." They also replaced my lower casing and keyboard bezel while the computer was there, though I did not mention it in my request, and my battery is in much tighter than it ever has been - I thought it just came loose like that. This is the second time (out of two) that Lenovo has fixed broken pieces during warranty service (last time they replaced my broken tablet pen, though I didn't mention that either). Reminds me why I bought a Thinkpad

[thewhippingboy]

that's great to hear

i have the same issue with my headphone jack and i'm also having interference issues with the vga port on my x60t. lenovo offered to have me send it in and i'm considering it but i can't really be without my laptop at the current moment.

can i ask how long it took for you to receive your machine back after you sent it in?

thanks!

[j-dawg]

Hi, sorry for the late response,
I sent it in on a Wednesday and had it back the next Tuesday.

Of note, they forgot to include the tablet pen when they returned the computer. Will contact them shortly.