How to get the vuvuzelas out of my speakers?

November 10, 2010 3:22 PM

Computer speakers buzz loudly for 15 seconds to a minute when going into sleep mode. How can I get them to go to sleep quietly?

I can stop the buzzing by pulling the power cord from the subwoofer. When I do this there's a loud pop from the speakers as if there's a discharge of static electricity.

My two attempts at resolving it were to wrap the cords in aluminum foil and clip ferrite cores to the wires. Neither worked. I moved houses last year and they buzzed at both locations (one in carpeted room, the other on laminate floor)

The speaker system is a Boston MicroMedia (pictured here), the desktop is an HP Pavilion a1650e running Windows XP SP3.

Any ideas on how to stop the buzzing?

posted by jaden to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Best answer: The hum that you hear sounds like a floating ground maybe - which would mean that they should be repaired/replaced: they're really broken, despite being functional for the principal purpose. Given the computer speaker market, you can probably replace with a comparable product for ~$80.

If I were a betting man, the specific part that is broken is on the electronics in the sub-woofer. A transistor is acting like a diode allowing a cap to discharge improperly along a path it shouldn't.

The computer speaker market is dieing, get more for your money or look for serious promotion. Annually most speakers have been declining in price at about a 10-15% annual basis.
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:05 PM on November 10, 2010

Can you just turn off the speakers?
posted by Carol Anne at 4:14 PM on November 10, 2010

Response by poster: @Nanukthedog I was hoping not to have to buy a new set, but if the prices are going down I may just do that.

@Carol Anne There's no off button and the sub is on the floor so it's a pain to unplug the power every time I leave. Turning the volume all the way down doesn't stop it from buzzing.
posted by jaden at 5:38 PM on November 10, 2010

I have no idea what the problem is, but I have noticed that with cell phone / computer speaker interference turning the volume down also does not help.

Do the speakers buzz even when they are not plugged into the computer? If not, you could hook up an extension that runs across your desk and unplug it there. Not great I know :/
posted by Phredward at 6:33 PM on November 10, 2010

Response by poster: @Phredward Yeah, they still buzz even when they're not plugged into the computer.
posted by jaden at 10:32 PM on November 10, 2010

Response by poster: Follow up: I've had the Boston Acoustics speakers for almost 10 years so I decided to replace them. I found the 3 piece Cyber Acoustics CA-3602 set on Amazon for $37 (w/ free shipping). I'm listening to them right now and they sound great. Most importantly though, there's no more buzzing.
posted by jaden at 1:01 PM on December 11, 2010