Electrical sounds in earphones when laptop is plugged in

Question

I hear annoying electrical static noises in my earphones when my laptop is plugged in. They disappear upon my unplugging the power supply. However there is still a buzz when I move the cursor. Can this problem be fixed?

My Ubuntu version is 12.04. The laptop is a Dell Latitude D630.

Thanks in advance.

Solution 1

I switched power adapters and the problem seemed to go away.

Solution 2

The problem is probably related to improper electrical isolation, or due to power supply noise.

Noise on the power supply could possibly be transferred over to the headphones. The issue is caused by improper electrical shielding or isolation. There is generally no fix for this because it is in the hardware design. You could listen to it while unplugged.

An alternative solution, assuming that you have some familiarity with electronics, is to build a static limiter. http://www.ittc.ku.edu/~jstiles/312/handouts/Diode%20Limiters.pdf

By adding a capacitor in series with the headphones and connecting two reverse-parallel diodes across the two terminals, it will reduce the amount of pops, clicks, and static.

Comments

[Marc]

If the input cord from my speakers gets too close to the USB dongle to an old wireless keyboard/mouse, it makes whines, pops and clicks. Move wires and cables around. Move your wireless mouse dongle to a USB port on the other side of the computer from the earphone/speaker jack.

[Robert Buckmaster]

The problem seems to be solved by my switching power adapters. Thanks for your help.

[David Foerster]

Could you please edit your answer and include that link at a sensible place? Thanks. :-)