"Ants" in my keyboard...

[keleko]

Hi,

I have googled, I have searched, I have thought before writing, and yet I must:

I own a Thinkpad T41p (2373-GEG), whose "normal" running speed is 1.7 GHz. Since the day I received it (brand new, not eBay), I have noticed a slight, irritating noise ressemling the soind of insects crawling under the left side of my keyboard. When the fan shuts off entirely, the noise becomes only more persistent and enervating. I do admit, my ears are rather sensitive; others have had to lower their head to the keyboard to notice it, but once they've heard it, they recognize it even when the fan is on and "loud". The sound is not a constant buzzing, but rather like an amplified sound of soda fizzing.
Thus far, the only semi-solution I have found to stop the noise temporarily is by lowering the clock speed to 600 MHz. Only then does the noise disappear. However, when I switch the clock speed back to 1.7 GHz, the noise immediately returns. To my question(s):

Does anyone else experience this phenomenon? Does anyone know the cause of this noise?

I would be very grateful for any responses.

[christopher_wolf]

Welcome to the Thinkpad Forums

The buzzing issue has been noted before; however, it goes away most of the time the Power Management settings are toggled. I haven't heard of it much on a T41p, but I imagine the toggling works for it as well. HTH

[keleko]

Thank you very much, Christopher, for your speedy response! I probably missed this information due to my interpretation of the type of sound that the laptop emitted. Henceforth, should this problem recur, I will be sure to read up under the keyword "buzzing". By the way, I tried your suggested technique, using Notebook Hardware Control (set to Dynamic Switching), and it seems to solve the problem on my T41p. THANK YOU! [EDIT: I was probably to quick to celebrate here since the problem persists]

If you don't mind, I have one more question for you:
Is it possible to eliminate the buzzing without the aid of such applications (e.g. IBM Power Management, NHC, etc.), but rather by configuring the BIOS alone?

[christopher_wolf]

Glad to have helped

I haven't played around with the BIOS power settings, but it seems to occur at a few point frequencies sporadically; I remember reading a post where somebody recompiled their Linux kernel with a single different interrupt time (100MHz I think) and that managed to eliminate the buzzing. It only happens to me rarely; but the toggling in either the Power Manager or NHC gets rid of it.

Who knows, maybe a better solution could be found in the BIOS

[JHaislet]

Ants huh? Sounds like this could do the trick!
http://www.bugsmart.ca/images/products/17.jpg[/img]

Is there any chance it would be electrical feed back from the internal speakers?

[christopher_wolf]

Electrical Feedback from the speakers? Not too likely; more like an oscillator hits resonance at a certain frequency and power setting.

[keleko]

Well, "resonating" is really the optimal description for this weird sound. I don't really perceive it as a buzzing, but rather like the sparkling sound of a soda drink, only more electrical.

Anyway, I don't feel good about this...

Would I be out of order to ask to check out these sound recordings I uploaded?

http://home.arcor.de/keleko/ants_at_1.7 ... _ports.mp3

http://home.arcor.de/keleko/ants_at_1.7 ... i_7K60.mp3

http://home.arcor.de/keleko/ants_with_H ... RETURN.mp3

Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated!!

[keleko]

>>>> QUOTE: "Ants huh? Sounds like this could do the trick!"
[img]http://www.bugsmart.ca/images/products/17.jpg

... actually the noise reminds me of the amplified static from the alien message in the movie "Contact" (Jodie Foster).

[keleko]

I've just found out that this noise is basically always there. I have to concede, however, that - when running the CPU at 600MHz - it is practically inaudible for the human ear.

Now, the instant the CPU switches to 1.7GHz the noise gets really loud. My main concern is that is doesn't sound all that healthy to me.

What do you think?

[christopher_wolf]

Just about all the laptops that have the Centrino platform in them have this little trait; a Dell M60 Precision, across the room from me ight now, has a similar issue. It makes regularly, periodic burts of intense buzzing; much like a cricket. I have also noticed the AC Adapter buzz and actually change the buzzing characteristic when different processes run. Interesting, but I don't think it is a sign of ill health of your Thinkpad.

[Initial D]

I wonder if you could try this b/c it seems to work on my laptop if I hear anything similar to that.

If you have Winamp (if not, just download it, it's FREE), just PLAY any music file (doesn't matter if it's a mp3, wav, midi, etc) and press PAUSE. Basically, you're just pressing PLAY then PAUSE.

Then minimize Winamp to get it out of your face. For some reason this seems to stop any electrical feedback / static or annoying buzz sound that every now and then comes out to haunt me. I also noticed this worked on my cousin's R32.

[keleko]

@Initial D
Thank you for trying to help! I have just tried your suggestion, but it doesn't seem to work for me. As a matter of fact, I don't think we have the same kind of problem.
When my T41p is open I can clearly locate the "cricket noise" coming directly from the Intel Pentium M CPU.

While I appreciate Christopher's input very much, I still wish that two or three other people could confirm that this sound is perfectly normal, and, more importantly, confirm that they too have it constantly on their machines when running the CPU at full clock speed. On my system this noise occurs at 1.7GHz even when the CPU is idle. And the WHOLE time...

[keleko]

I'm still desperately trying to figure out whether or not this noise is normal. Thus far, I thought it wasn't, given that no other user was able to confirm the exact same peculiar sounds on their machine.

Guess I was wrong...

http://home.arcor.de/keleko/builtfortheway_284x335.jpg

Anyway, one last try...then I'll give up trying to figure this out on my own:
I would be so very grateful if ANYONE owning a T4x series Thinkpad could just take five seconds and check their machines for this constant, slight crackling noise while running the CPU in "MaxPerformance" mode and volunteer information about what they can hear.

[christopher_wolf]

Well; it comes and goes rarely; I just listened now and I can't hear anything. I took a listen to a T40 as well, didn't hear it. I do know, however, that it can occasionally come and go.

[erasmus]

Sounds like it could be the USB power phenomena. I had two T40 and one of them had his problem, but when I switched the power plugs, it drastically changed it (but not gone). Thus, if you know any other with a TP try too see if another power plug solves the problem. Also, if it is the USB power phenomena the noise should go away if you run on the battery.

I don't remember if there is way to fix the problem or if it goes away over time. A lite search for "USB noise" came up with this:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=12476

[turbolium]

as far as i know all electrical things make electric buzzzzing noize
i personally dont hear anything strange on my lappy
but what you hear i think is normal since my older dell used to make
some noises as well but i didnt care

[keleko]

as far as i know all electrical things make electric buzzzzing noize

Good point! Although... basically everything else inside my ThinkPad (be it electrical or not) makes zero noise... except for that CPU.

[davidspalding]

... When the fan shuts off entirely, the noise becomes only more persistent and enervating....

Enervating? You need a bigger battery.... Or some ginseng.

as far as i know all electrical things make electric buzzzzing noize

Not necessarily. If my memory serves, what you might hear is a transformer-type device humming ... or mechanical pieces buzzing because they're loose, and a simple mechanical vibration (say, from a fan) is causing some sympathetic vibrations. But electricity itself is silent.

[keleko]

... When the fan shuts off entirely, the noise becomes only more persistent and enervating....

Enervating? You need a bigger battery....

Although I'm pretty sure you didn't follow this thread correctly I'll ask anyway just in case I missed something: How would a bigger battery help me?

[davidspalding]

enervate // v. cause to feel drained of energy.

A bigger battery, or some good ginseng cola, might help with that.

[keleko]

got it
May your dictionary continue to serve you well in both subservience and mastery of the language.

[davidspalding]

I was just making a joke. My apologies to anyone who didn't chuckle.

[keleko]

I was just making a joke. My apologies to anyone who didn't chuckle.

No need whatsoever, David. Didn't get it right away but laughed once I looked it up and meant to validate your joke.