Aspire C24-290 constantly 'hissing'

Jules88

Please help!  I am completely useless with technology.  I bought the above model all-in-one a couple of weeks ago to work from home.  Everything is working normally and overall I'm really pleased with it.  However, for the first two weeks the monitor was completely silent (and I mean completely silent, it didn't make a sound!) and then suddenly when I logged on two days ago it started making a constant hissing sound, which I believe is coming from the speakers at the bottom of the monitor.  Don't get me wrong it isn't really loud, but I work in a home office in complete silence to draft documents and I can hear it all the time and its really annoying.  I haven't changed anything, everything is exactly the same as when I started using it 2 weeks ago, I haven't changed any settings, it hasn't been moved, it is on a flat surface (sturdy desk) with lots of ventilation and there are no other electronic devices near it.  The sound is continuous even with the speakers muted and only disappears when the machine is turned off.  The sound also disappears when I put my hands over the speakers at the bottom so I know this is where its coming from!  Is this something I will have to live with or is it likely there is a problem with the machine?  I think its more noticeable and annoying to me because it was completely silent for the first two weeks!!  As I am working for up to 7 hours a day, its driving me nuts!!  Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.  I realise this may be something really simple but as I say I have no clue when it comes to these things! Thank you.

billsey

There are a couple of different possibilities... As you surmise the hissing might be coming from the speakers. If it's something in the software then turning the volume down will dampen it. If the volume doesn't make a difference the hissing might be hardware. Usually a noise like that is caused by grounding problems in the power circuits. Check to see where you are plugged in and test by either moving the power plug off the surge arrestor or UPS and putting it directly into the wall socket. Or, take it out of the wall socket and try putting it into a surge arrestor or UPS. Finally it might not be the speakers at all, it might be the cooling fans. They change speed to keep the chips down to a normal temperature, and if it's getting hot around there like it is around here, they might be just spinning a little faster than they were a couple of weeks ago. They can also pick up noise if the blades get slightly out of balance, usually by picking up dust and such, but it doesn't sound like your is old enough for that to be the case, unless you have shedding pets that like to hang out next to your system.