Humming noise during screen writes
 

Not sure if this is the right category for this, but I picked up an N800 today, and while playing with it in a quiet room tonight, I noticed that there is a faint, but very distinct, buzzing or humming sound coming from the unit. It isn't always there, but seems to be there when ever you are doing something that requires screen writes, such as opening a browser window, or scrolling down on a web page. When you scroll, it buzzes for a couple of seconds, then it's quiet again until you scroll or move off the page.

It's not just in the browser either. I've noticed the sound while looking through the various apps on the device.

Any ideas? Has anyone else noticed something like this? Perhaps I have a defective unit? If so I guess it's off to replace it tomorrow.

Thanks.

Re: Humming noise during screen writes
 

I realized this as well... every time I touch the screen with the stylus I can hear this slight hum for couple seconds. It is not loud, far from it, but can be heard in quiet room.

Re: Humming noise during screen writes
 

Yeah, normal stuff. Don't worry about it.

Re: Humming noise during screen writes
 

I don't get any buzzing at all. I do get a little white noise for a second or 2 out of the audio system whenever I tap the screen. The noise comes from the speaker or the headphones. It doesn't matter what position the volume is in.

My best guess is it is just noise from the audio system and you don't hear it all the time because the power saver shuts down the audio system when it is not in use. Completely normal.

Re: Humming noise during screen writes
 

If it's normal then I won't worry about it.

Thanks.

Re: Humming noise during screen writes
 

LCD screens with digitizers often make different kind of high-frequency noises when in use, how much can vary from unit to unit and also be related to the exact CPU frequency of the unit (it's not the CPU you hear but there are interference products that can combine to noise of different levels). It's quite common on Palm T3s, for example - and there it can sometimes be reduced by slightly changing the CPU freq. with a 3party sw tool. I can't hear any noise from my T3, but it's because of the frequency - I asked a 20-year (young enough to still have 20-20kHz ears) to listen and she said there was a noticable hiss.

On the N800 there's also some noise coming from the speakers during certain operations, that's either a by-product of the screen noise above (picked up by internal circuitry) or a separate thing, but this is also nothing to worry about.

Oh, that got a bit long.. the short version: It's normal.

Re: Humming noise during screen writes
 

Completely normal, yes, because it happens for most of us - but it's not right! It should be fixed and I think I'll raise a bug. :)

EDIT: Bug #1040 raised. Don't forget your vote! :)