How to permanently solve a speaker hum?

Question

So this is a little odd. I'm getting a sort of electrical interference buzzing from the speakers and, when it's plugged in, headset. Normally I'd suspect some sort of external hardware thing like the mains cable being improperly shielded, except for two things:

 - This started relatively recently and I haven't altered my configuration for ages, and

 - When I'm in the sound options window in Windows 7, it stops. But only if I'm looking at the Recording tab. The moment I close the window or go to the Playback tab, for example, the noise returns.

I can't have the Recording tab up for ever, so how can I permanently fix this?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

It happens with speakers as they get old, some cheap speakers it can happen in just a few weeks. You can pick up new ones from eBay for like £5 and that'll fix it!

Edit: well playing music used to get rid of some of my static in the speakers, that doesn't mean it fixed them does it? Now I get my volume through my screen rather than the speakers because I got fed up with the static noise.

Loopy · Answer

Hardware faults can develop/become worse over time.
Hardware suffers from wear and tear while software doesn't.
Updating software means the developer found an issue that needed resolving.

Plug in some other speakers to see if the problem persists.
If it does, the problem is elsewhere.

The connector to the headphone/speaker might be loose/getting old.

A faint possibility would be dust around the contacts of the soundcard or the headphone jack.
Colours (especially white on an image) can create noise (like humming).

? · Answer

Under the Recording tab, select each device in turn and click Properties, and set the level(s) to minimum.

also, open the volume control, then click Device and Properties.  Select recording and enable all the inputs, then click OK.  Set each level to zero.

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How to permanently solve a speaker hum?

3 Answers