E6410 Noisy Headphone Jack Normal?

I recently acquired an E6410, which I like except for one thing: The analog audio jack is absolutely atrocious. There is so much noise on it. Low pitched rumbling, high pitched whines and squealing, and clicking noises. I can hear an aural representation of just about anything the laptop does, like a whine to accompany mouse movement, buzzing every time the drive is being accessed etc.

Is this a normal characteristic of the E6410?

 

Do you also get the noise through the internal speakers or only when plugged into the audio jack?

If the internal speakers are OK then I wonder whether the audio control panel is enabling the internal microphone when you plug into the jack and this is being merged with the audio output. Hunt through the various audio option and make sure the microphone is disabled.

John

 

Have you tried multiple headphones as well. I've seen that happen when the jack wasn't making proper contact. It's also possible there is something wrong with the jack, but until you check with multiple devices as well as what John suggested, you won't know for sure.

 

I don't know about the E6410 in particular. I had this issue with a past machine (Inspiron 1720). Turned out to be poor construction — Metal tabs touching the headphone jack (on the inside) was causing noise and you could hear different noises based on what the machine was doing as you describe. I fixed it by covering the headphone jack with electrical tape so that there was no direct contact when the other piece of metal touched it. Maybe E6410 has a similar issue.

Even if the issue is not this simple in the E6410, it is definitely a case where the path from the sound card to the headphone jack is not properly isolated from the rest of the system. You can work around it by using a USB headphone out connector.

Some pictures from the 1720:


Metal tabs that directly touch the audio connectors (when the machine is assembled back together).


Fix — Electrical tape over audio connectors (inside the machine).