D610 noise in the headphone - Page 3

I too got the BSOD. In addition, after restarting, windows reports that the audio device is not installed but I >still< get the annoying headphone noise. It does show the driver listed though...

hm, im about to switch to thinkpad
-replace the mainboard is shyt, cause it didnt fix it, but you lost the dell xp regist on the board, i think.
the regedit fix works only if you replace the driver once - i think. when you press mute, and the whine goes a little bit, then you are ready for it, but it didnt fix the issue, it only help a little bit.

The Dell saga continues:

"As per our internal database and records I do not find any information
stating, as this is the known issue with Latitude D610. I ensure you
motherboard replacement will surely resolve the issue. I will need to
arrange a depot service for the system to be picked up and returned to
the repair facility."

Their "internal database and records" must not include the multiple posts on their own forums or all the calls and emails all of us have already sent. Any quality control unit that can pass off thousands of d610s without apparently realizing that a small windstorm takes place in the headphone port is not worth a damn. Plus they ensure (sic) me that replacing the mainboard will solve my problem when Dell technicians have already tried this on at least one computer (zzigall) without solving the problem.

Dude, I got a dell and I got duped. I'm strongly considering the thinkpad as well.

You provide proof which consists of posts on this and their official forums. I did that when dealing with my bluetooth issue (in my signature) and it helped.

Alright, mich, I took your suggestion and gave some evidence and links in a long (like a page :-p) reply to dell. I told them this was not an isolated incident and that replacing the mainboard was not going to solve the problem. Their answer? "As the system in under total satisfaction period of 21 days and you need to get a system exchange." A system exchange? That's their answer to a glaring problem in their product? Argh, I give up.

exchange is already done, now i own two of this wack ass lappies, you know...

System exchange is the best they can do. That type of proof can get me my money back or a system exchange long after the 21 day satisfaction period (happened in my bluetooth fiasco).

I doubt they fix it becasue there is a severe spearation in IT sector between the consumer and the actual implementation department. And it takes a long long time for them to do anything about it.

I hope you know that you're going to have to return one wack ass lappie or else they'll charge you.

I had a similar problem in an old compaq I had and one the responses they gave was to check the impedance of the headphones (as quoted below).

Has anyone checked headphones with different impedences? This might be a possible solution - granted not what should be the solution: Dell fixing the issue, but maybe better than nothing.

As seen on compaq's help website:
"If the customer is using 17-ohm headphones, inform them they should opt for the higher impedance headphone, preferably around 32 ohms impedance with a potentiometer volume control set to be half volume. One recommended model of headphones are the Koss KTX/4 that meets these requirements."

I'm using old mdr-w08 SONY headphones 16 ohms:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...s&vi=tech-data

When I output the audio to my regular TV, the humming doesn't seem to be that noticeable.

If someone has a set of 32 ohm headphones laying around, it might be worth trying them to see if the problem goes away.

The audio-in (RCA) specs on my TV are: 50 K ohms. Like I said the static isn't as bad there.

Good to know. Well if the problem exists on my laptop (when I get it tomorrow), I might try to order some 32 ohm headphones off Newegg.com or something.

Just to add. When plugged into my TV speakers, the humming doesn't appear whatsoever. There is some minimimal humming when you put your ear very close to the tv's speaker but the laptop isn't the source of it (it's always present even when nothing is connected to the TV and the volume is very high). Btw, i tested this with EmulateAllMaters both set to 01 and 00. When it's set to 00, the humming doesn't get louder on TV's speaker as you increase the volume on the laptop.

guys, you seems to have very fine earing, why dont you buy the pcmcia sound blaster from creative, this is what I am gonna do... problem solve anyway with the reg fix, but I want to be able to plug it into my sound system, and this device is so small and light that I will travel with it no problem.

Well, I got mine about and hour ago. It is AWESOME!! It does have the headphone noise issue, but the reg edit seemed to fix most of the problem. Also, when I am listening to music I can't hear the buz or hissing at all. So I am not going to worry about it I don't think. It is nothing compared to the noise that my old laptop used to generate on the headphone port. Oh well, I love this thing. It is fast!!

I can confirm the problem exists in Linux (at least under kernel 2.6.10 using the snd-intel8x0 module) on the D610. The registry fix seemed to help a little in Windows, so hopefully this may be something a new driver may solve. If it matters, I'm also using a 2.0GHz model w/ 1GB (2x512) DDR2 533, and the X300. This definitely sounds like feedback problem (probably poor insulation around the sound card), but I don't see it as bothering me enough to return my notebook. Oh, I just checked the impedence of my headphones, and they're ~32 ohms so that doesn't seem to be the issue.

On a side note, the D610 runs great under Linux (I'm using Fedora Core 3); my only issues were with the wifi card, sound, & hardware 3d acceleration (all of which I resolved in a couple days). If you have trouble getting sound from your headphones in Linux, type aumix and make sure PCM2 is turned on.

I'm about to install linux on mine today (Fedora Core 3). Any other suggestions besides the sound? How did you get the wifi to work finally? Thanks.

This is a post I made to usenet (alt.sys.pc-clone.dell):

For anyone considering running Linux on a laptop, I must say the Latitude D610 is an excellent candidate. I've only had it for a week, and so far I've got everything I want working under Fedora Core 3. After installation, only three parts needed a little work: the Intel wifi card (the Dell card will probably need a little tweaking as well, it uses the Broadcom chipset which requires a ndiswrapper), sound, and 3D hardware acceleration.

To fix the wifi card: head over to ipw2200.sf.net and download the latest driver tarball (currently 1.0.1-23) as well as the latest firmware (2.2-5). Unzip the driver, make && make install it; unzip the firmware, copy it to /lib/firmware and create a symbolic link ( ln -s /lib/firmware /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware). Reboot and it should be autodetected and work.

As to the sound: it does work however by default the primary PCM channel is set to mute on boot. To fix this run aumix and set PCM to 100, escape out of it, run /usr/sbin/alsactl store 0, now add '/usr/sbin/alsactl restore 0 to /etc/rc.d/rc.local.

Lastly the ATI driver for 3D acceleration at the hardware level (as opposed to Mesa): download the latest ATI fglrx driver and switch to run level 3 (telinit 3). Force install the driver (rpm -Uvh --force fglrx_6_8_0-8.10.19-1.i386.rpm), next cd to /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod and run make (sh make.sh). Drop back a directory and run make install (cd .. && sh make_install.sh). Restart X by telinit 5 and you should be set.

There are a few other tweaks I've done thay may be of interest; feel free to email me if you've got questions. My email address is my user name on these forums (sdn...) at yahoo.com

back again
i see some guys get lucky about this handycaped lappie...
form me, its a 2000$ book not worth with line out that is way worser as at at a 20 buck gameboy, you know
some one at the support tell me, its not hifi, you know... ...well, we all know that dell sleeped for 3 years to fix the Sigmatel STAC 9751 issue - compare with numerous threads in dell-talk-forum.
and well, i asked twice about the line-out qualitty before i bought it and everbody told me, no worry: latitude use above-average components.
but, it seems the only ones, whos not affectet by this issue are the inspiron guys with the new i6000
i return both
the repaired and the replaced book
and wait fo the mony back