High Pitched Sound from Display Lamp

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When starting ubuntu on battery power I hear high pitch noise going
somewhere from under keyboard. I think it is the same kind of noise that
several users reported to hear in Win7.
The issue can be easily triggered when even changing brightness of screen
to anything else than maximum brightness (in battery or power supply mode)
And when changing display brightness back to maximum, the high pitch noise
is gone.

There was some crazy solution in Win7 to change some settings for microphone.
I saw this issue on official ubuntu kernel and I didn't applied yet the
solution to get microphone working

I did apply the changes required to get brightness up&down working as
described in the wiki

My Vaio version: VPCF11Z1E
Ubuntu 10.4 (x86_64)
kernel: 2.6.32-22-generic
Nvidia driver version: 195.36.15
alsa-base: 1.0.22.1+dfsg-0ubuntu3

Original issue reported on code.google.com by roman.mu...@gmail.com on 25 May 2010 at 9:19

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Not sure but it gone since I followed in here the wiki "DisplayBacklight",
http://code.google.com/p/vaio-f11-linux/wiki/DisplayBacklight from roman.murar, 
May 25.

Original comment by bnjb...@gmail.com on 28 May 2010 at 1:09

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I have the same problem. And it didn't go away after enabling the display 
backlight. 

Vaio model: VPCF11M1E
Ubuntu 10.4 (x86_64)
kernel: 2.6.32-22-generic
Nvidia driver version: 195.36.15
alsa-base: 1.0.22.1+dfsg-0ubuntu3

Original comment by kenjiru...@gmail.com on 31 May 2010 at 11:48

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I have a similar issue:

Regardless of battery or A/C power I get a high pitched noise from the LCD 
screen 
when changing the brightness from anything BUT maximum. I've hade this issue in 
Win7 
aswell but it disappeared when I updated my drivers to the latest from Nvidia 
(256). 
Updating the drivers in Ubuntu to 256 did not solve this problem.

Vaio model: VPCF11S1E/B
Ubuntu 10.4 (x86_64)
Nvidia driver version: 256.15

Original comment by ola...@gmail.com on 1 Jun 2010 at 8:59

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I have the same problem too, the nvidia drivers and the back light control are 
causing 6 major problems, i dont know why the priority of these defects are not 
considered critical while the internal microphone is CRITICAL!!! The defects 
are:
1. noise from LCD when changing brightness
2. if the brightness is less than 85% and the display off button is pressed, 
weird back light behavior is encountered.
3. resuming from hibernate doesnt work as the screen becomes grey.
4. the command line alt + ctrl 1 to 6 are not working. 
5. Boot occurs at 800*600 pixels resolution.
6. when decreasing the brightness fast, the brightness control may become 
useless 
untill the display off button is pressed.

I have all of these defects on my 4 days old Vaio VPCF117HG. I guess the issue 
should 
be reported to Nvidia. If the screen is supported without adding the EDID, some 
of 
these problems might disappear.

Original comment by amras...@gmail.com on 1 Jun 2010 at 11:42

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Hi,
I was actualy hearing more closely to that noise and it is really going from 
the LCD
screen. Somewhere from back of the LCD screen. And it really is not dependent 
on the
fact whether you are connected to battery or power supplly as oladah mentioned

I don't see this issue in Win7 so the hw is working hopefully corectly :)
And the high pitch noise going from under the keyborad seen in Win7 is different
issue I think.

This is pretty serious issue and should have higher priority

To some issues that amrasmio sees in his Vaio:
1. noise from LCD when changing brightness - same in my case
2. if the brightness is less than 85% and the display off button is pressed, 
weird
back light behavior is encountered - I don't see this issue in my case
3. resuming from hibernate doesnt work as the screen becomes grey - till now I 
was
resuming the from hibernation only 2 times I think and I'm not seeing that issue

Will need to confirm other issues reported from amrasmio

Original comment by roman.mu...@gmail.com on 1 Jun 2010 at 9:45

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Good news, the Nvidia beta drivers fixed suspend and hibernate for me. Also, 
the noise from the LCD when changing the brightness is significantly lower now 
but is still present if you listen carefully. I used the 256.25 driver on 
Ubuntu Lucid 64 bit. Hope this helps somebody

Original comment by amras...@gmail.com on 11 Jun 2010 at 7:45

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Yes, no more noise on Lucid 64 2.6.32-22-generic with beta driver 
NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-256.25.run 
(http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux-display-amd64-256.25.html)

Original comment by bnjb...@gmail.com on 13 Jun 2010 at 7:53

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I tried that version of NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-256.25 driver as bnjbenj describes 
on 2.6.32-22-generic, but the noise is still there. It is not so loud, that's 
true, but it is still there.

It is not so anoying anymore, but does anybody know whether that can actually 
harm your screen or not. Because I'm not sure. The noise is now manageable, but 
there seems to be something wrong with driving of the brightness of LCD screen 
what concerns me more then the actual noise

Original comment by roman.mu...@gmail.com on 14 Jun 2010 at 10:39

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I was experiencing a similar issue with my VPCF11S1E, and it turns out that it 
was related to the CPU.  I got rid of it by appending "intel_idle.max_cstate=2" 
to the kernel command line in GRUB (if you are using a different CPU idle 
driver, you might need to use "processor.max_cstate=2" instead).

Original comment by mich...@gmail.com on 7 Jul 2010 at 12:18

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I discovered something unexpected. I was scrolling through a file in vim when I 
 noticed that the whirring noise almost stopped. A little experimentation shows 
that holding a cursor key, page up/down, etc. reduced the noise to almost zero.

Try:
- Open a terminal
- Hold the down cursor key

Can anyone repeat this? And does it help anyone progress a solution?

Original comment by auxb...@gmail.com on 28 Jul 2010 at 8:36

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I tried that suggestion from auxbuss, but the noise level is the same in my 
case (Ubuntu 10.04, kernel: 2.6.32-23-generic, nvidia driver 195.36.24)

Original comment by roman.mu...@gmail.com on 28 Jul 2010 at 7:47

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 michalj is exactly right about the idling.I from the installed a dual boot with windows 7 so I could install the overheating bios patch (It went well and both win7 and Linux run cool with no loss of speed). When in windows there is no high-pitched noise from the keyboard at all. In Maverick (had issues with Lucid)there is the high pitched noise but mainly when it's idling. If i'm using syanptic installing a bunch of packages then its quiet like it is in windows.

Original comment by wassons....@gmail.com on 4 Aug 2010 at 7:04

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Could someone please explain how to do what Michalj mentioned about 
"intel_idle.max_cstate=2".

I booted to grub , pressed e , chose the kernel and the added the line in the 
box on the next screen , pressed ctrl x to boot ...

How can I set that so its permanent ?

At one point it worked and was very noticeably quiet even if I had 3 things 
open. I know i'm close. Any help greatly appreciated.

Original comment by wassons....@gmail.com on 5 Aug 2010 at 6:50

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Sorry to multi-post , but you folks know what it's like ... fancy F series vaio 
and a horrible screech noise every time its idling (along with the other 
issues).

So anyhow , I did as Michalj said. I chose the kernel in grub menu , pressed e 
, a box came with grub commands , there was a line with my kernel ro quiet 
splash and I added the intel line , then I hit control X to boot. Before I 
tried to add the line to the bottom of the page by itself  (didn't seem to 
work).

Now I boot and the 10 second timeout is gone , but , there is no fan idling 
noise at all ! I put my ear to the keyboard and only hear CPU churning and 
normal noises (like on the windows side).

Now the only thing is I hope it stays like this for good. Is there any other 
way to permanently add that line so it's picked up every boot ? Right now I'm 
afraid to reboot in case the screech returns. 

Thanks everybody. Without this page I could not have stuck with linux on my F11.

Original comment by wassons....@gmail.com on 5 Aug 2010 at 4:08

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To add these config options permanently, edit /etc/default/grub, add the new 
settings to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT variable, save the file, and run 
`update-grub`.

Original comment by mich...@gmail.com on 5 Aug 2010 at 8:52

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Thanks for taking the time to respond. Appreciated.

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash intel_idle.max_cstate=2"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

That's what grub looks like. I've tried putting just that line in , quiet 
splash with that line , the other processor line with and without quiet splash 
, it doesn't seem to work. Am I missing something or made a mistake ?

Again thank you very much.

Original comment by wassons....@gmail.com on 5 Aug 2010 at 9:10

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Have you run 'update-grub'?  If so, is the "intel_idle.max_cstate=2" setting 
included in /etc/grub/grub.cfg?  If not, you can add it there directly.

Original comment by mich...@gmail.com on 5 Aug 2010 at 10:04

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I ran 'update grub' each time yes. I edited grub.cfg as root , made the changes 
, saved and updated grub and rebooted.

Does it matter if intel_idle.max is in the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line , or 
can I just keep quiet splash there and us the next line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

I've tried every possible way and it seems the squeal is still there.

Here's what dmesg said , which shows me that the command is working (but not 
eliminating the noise).

[    2.729773] ACPI: acpi_idle registered with cpuidle
[    2.729817] ACPI: processor limited to max C-state 2
[    2.730076] Monitor-Mwait will be used to enter C-1 state
[    2.730104] Monitor-Mwait will be used to enter C-2 state

I know i'm close so i'll keep plugging away at it. Thanks for the help.

Original comment by wassons....@gmail.com on 5 Aug 2010 at 10:15

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It's working. All quiet now (compared with before). Edited in /etc/default/grub 
just like you said. 

Again big thanks! That was a major annoyance that was giving me migraines. 

Original comment by wassons....@gmail.com on 6 Aug 2010 at 9:01

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Hi guys,
I tried those changes, but it doesn't work for me. I can't even see the 
messages from dmesg as wassons.dream describes.

I'm using kernel version: 2.6.32-23-generic

What kernel are you using?

Original comment by roman.mu...@gmail.com on 11 Aug 2010 at 8:14

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Intel_Idle requires kernel >= 2.6.35 (not present in my Fedora 13 distro, for 
example)

If you have Nvidia graphics, a quick & easy way to quiet down excessive fan 
noise (I have Sony Vaio F12 Signature with Geforce 330M) is to add this to 
devices section of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Option "RegistryDwords" 
"PowerMizerEnable=0x1;PerfLevelSrc=0x3333;PowerMizerLevel=0x3;PowerMizerDefault=
0x3;PowerMizerDefaultAC=0x3"
Option "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "True"

Net effect is your GPU is downclocked and you can work in relative silence at 
last ;--)

Original comment by sit1...@gmail.com on 16 Oct 2010 at 5:45

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* warning*

I have a vaio VPCF111FD with 310M nvidia and adding the lines above to 
xorg.conf almost instantly after reboot started to make the fan(s) belch out 
some awful noises. Real bad noise that stopped as soon as I took it out of 
there. 

For the F111FD model , through lots of trial and error , I can say that the 
earlier mention of:

"I was experiencing a similar issue with my VPCF11S1E, and it turns out that it 
was related to the CPU.  I got rid of it by appending "intel_idle.max_cstate=2" 
to the kernel command line in GRUB (if you are using a different CPU idle 
driver, you might need to use "processor.max_cstate=2" instead)."

.. is what works. I put both in , and fans are quiet , no errors. Dmesg tells 
me that the command takes.

Original comment by wassons....@gmail.com on 19 Oct 2010 at 5:16

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Right I tried the max_cstate fix, did absolutely nothing, presumably since I'm 
on kernel 2.6.34 (Fedora 13) where intel_idle.max_cstate is not yet supported 
(only in >= 2.6.35)

The PowerMizer fix did work in my case, as GeForce 330M is a noise beast when 
run at default max settings.

I'm waiting for Fedora 14 to try out max_cstate, hopefully that will make this 
machine actually quiet! Interestingly, as another poster noted in the 
max_cstate thread, if I press and hold down any key, the CPU noise quiets down 
to almost nothing -- probably since the CPU is not IDLE, bizarre, a laptop that 
is more quiet while processing... 

One question, if max_cstate actually made your machine quiet, why would you 
even try the powermizer fix?? Something tells me these F11/F12 laptops are loud 
on linux no matter what you do....

Original comment by sit1...@gmail.com on 24 Oct 2010 at 8:41

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Changing the topic of this issue to be more relevant to its discussion. Comment 
22 seems like a good one.

Original comment by Jason.Donenfeld on 9 Nov 2010 at 5:49

• Changed title: Fan is Loud

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I don't think that change the topic to "Fan is Loud" is completely correct. But 
maybe I should create different issue report? I tried all proposals, but I'm 
still getting that high pitch noise when changing brightness of screen to 
something else than maximum brightness. But yes, probably I was wrong on first 
description, the noise is not going from under the keyboard, but from lcd 
screen itself. Maybe there is actually that issue with noise due to fan and 
noise from lcd screen? Maybe some issue with brightness lamp driver? Has also 
somebody else such experience? Thanks ;)

Original comment by roman.mu...@gmail.com on 10 Nov 2010 at 10:12

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Okay.

Original comment by Jason.Donenfeld on 10 Nov 2010 at 10:14

• Changed title: High Pitched Sound from Display Lamp

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Cool :)

Original comment by roman.mu...@gmail.com on 10 Nov 2010 at 11:01

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The fan is not the problem in my experience; it's just blowing hot air, a 
constant white noise, which is normal for laptops.

The problem is the constant ebb & flow of sound generated by the CPU when idle. 
Linux kernel >= 2.6.35 appears to address this highly annoying problem (which 
is why Ubuntu 10.10 users are reporting success with the intel_max_cstate boot 
param, and others with older kernels are seeing no change at all when trying 
this fix).

auxbuss proves this by his little discovery, holding down left or right arrow 
key in terminal window -- machine quiets down and if you run top in another 
terminal, you'll see one of your cores running at 100%, which is to say your 
CPU is not idle and therefore, ironically enough, quieter.

Awesome machine: 6.5 lbs, quad core CPU, 8GB RAM, near 300mb/sec SSD read/write 
-- but the noise, arrrggghhhh, please, some constant white noise and not this 
I-hear-the -laptop-from-the-next-room madness!

Apologies for "venting" ;--)

Original comment by sit1...@gmail.com on 14 Nov 2010 at 2:50

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I have the same problem with F11Z1E. If the brightness is anything else than 
100%, I hear it.

Original comment by web...@gmail.com on 26 Jan 2011 at 7:47

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It seems that this problem with high pitch noise from display lamp is possible 
to hit anybody with screen with high resolution. 

But I still don't understand why I don't hear any noise when I change the 
brightness in the preinstalled Win7 (by the way only very very rarely :)) . But 
when I change the brightness to something else than 100% in ubuntu I hear then 
noise. 

The noise is not loud, but is high frequency noise and could be disturbing. I 
think there is some special way how win driver is driving the change of the 
brightness.

I mentioned the also to maintainer of sony-laptop driver, but didn't get any 
response. This issue is not very critical of course, I'm happy that I can 
change the brightness at least, but it would be nice if it will be quite :) 

Original comment by roman.mu...@gmail.com on 26 Jan 2011 at 8:50

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Recently I found out that it's definitely a problem with Nvidia binary drivers. 
There is no high pitch noise coming from laptop if I use open source nouveau 
drivers.

Original comment by web...@gmail.com on 11 Apr 2011 at 5:01

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I agree with the latest comment. When using nouveau open source driver the high 
pitch noise is not there. Also when setting the brightness level to lowest 
value, with nouveau driver it is fine, while by using nvidia binary driver the 
brightness starts to fade in my case.
The issue seems to be related to nvidia binary driver. Also with the latest 
270.41.06 Nvidia driver and kernel 2.6.38 the high pitch noise is there when 
changing the brightness level to anything less than maximum brightness.

Just one more information: 
I did tried to modify sony-laptop driver - calling different acpi methods, 
because initialy I thought it is issue with acpi. But calling any of brightness 
acpi methods (direct/indirect) doesn't solve the issue.

Possibly this high pitch noise was also problem before in Win7, but then Sony 
created a patch. I'm not sure whether the patch was to solve the high pitch 
noise from LCD screen, but it was fixing some noise (I remember reading 
something on some forums)

But the main question - how to get that patch to Linux. Or where to report the 
issue? To Nvidia or to guys maintaining video acpi driver in linux kernel? 
(video acpi driver is the one registering proc or sys entries that allow to 
change the brightness)

Now I'm considering to roll back to nouveau, but the Nvidia acceleration, vdpau 
is sometimes handy ... ;)

Does anybody has some suggestions? 

Original comment by roman.mu...@gmail.com on 29 Apr 2011 at 11:26

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For me the high pitched sound is gone with Nvidia driver release 280.13

Original comment by tmhoogl...@gmail.com on 3 Aug 2011 at 7:56

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For me, it is still there even with nvidia driver version 280.13 ... :-(

Original comment by dr.peter...@gmail.com on 3 Aug 2011 at 8:15

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For me the same - it is still there even with 280.13 nvidia driver

Original comment by roman.mu...@gmail.com on 3 Aug 2011 at 8:37

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I've been having this problem for a year and a half now and have been trying to 
fix it now and again in Ubuntu and it seems I have just found a fix. When I 
open up my sound preferences the high pitch noise goes away... I just tried it 
twice and it seems to work, this is with Ubuntu 11.04. Unfortunately, closing 
the Sound preferences causes the noise to come back but hey, at least it stops 
the noise.

Original comment by ols...@gmail.com on 27 Sep 2011 at 2:14

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I've tested on the same system and there is no difference.

Ubuntu 11.04 64Bit
Driver 280.13
GT 330M on VAIO VPCF11Z1EI

Original comment by lkora...@gmail.com on 29 Sep 2011 at 8:30

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That's too bad, the fix is still working for me. The difference must be the 
model, mine is VPCF1190S

Original comment by ols...@gmail.com on 3 Oct 2011 at 7:59

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https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36114

If anyone is still having the tty switch problems while using nvidia drivers, 
install uvesafb. 

Original comment by geeksano...@gmail.com on 31 Oct 2011 at 2:50

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I hope I'm not necroposting, but I would like to confirm olssy1's fix for my 
machine; a Sony VAIO F12 MOE/B.  I am dual-booting Windows 7 64-bit and Ubuntu 
11.10 64-bit.

Under Windows 7, you have to deactivate 'listen to this device' on the internal 
microphone to get rid of the high-pitched weird sound that although not too 
loud, is at a really annoying frequency that you can't ignore.  Only the usual 
whoosh of the fans once this is done.

Under Ubuntu 11.10, I couldn't find an analogous option to 'listen to this 
device'; maybe someone knows where this option would be or which package to 
download to get at it?  In any case, if I open the basic "Sounds" utility under 
Unity, the high-pitched noise is gone until that application is closed.  

It's a bit of a pain to open the "Sounds" utility every time you boot, but you 
can add the appropriate command to a /etc/init.d/ script to open the dialog 
automatically.  This is only a temporary fix, however, and I'm hoping someone 
who knows the audio system better than I do can suggest a more permanent fix.

Original comment by r.j.lewi...@gmail.com on 15 Nov 2011 at 11:28

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i have the same problem on ubuntu 12.04 ? 
do you have a fix ? 

Original comment by lacsebas...@gmail.com on 21 Apr 2012 at 8:10

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Although this discussion is dead and buried, it proved to be the only useful 
advice to be found after a week of searching. I'm now running Linux Mint on my 
Sony F115 in peace. Thank you to all posters.

Original comment by cont...@paco.org on 1 Oct 2012 at 2:28

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I am going to necro and i don't care. sudo gedit /etc/default/grub and adding 
the lines "intel_idle.max_cstate=2", worked perfectly on my Vaio VPCF115FM. 
Silence, worked even better than the windows fix of opening up your recording 
devices. Thanks alot!

Original comment by brad.ra...@gmail.com on 20 Feb 2013 at 7:00