Last month I finally made enough consulting money to afford myself a 24″ LCD monitor for my desk. Up until then I had been using my notebooks display for coding which was less than perfect. On my notebook I couldn’t see more than forty lines of code at a time and found myself scrolling incessantly. Also there just wasn’t enough desktop real estate to multitask at 1280×800, if I had a browser window open I couldn’t see anything else. So when I saw the Acer H243H on sale for $219 at Fry’s, I couldn’t resist and bought it. After setting up my new toy in all it’s HD glory, I was disappointed to find that it made a quiet yet persistent humming noise. Here’s how I fixed that.
To fix a quiet humming noise emanating from the ACER H243Hbmid 24″ LCD Monitor it was useful for me to understand how an LCD Monitor works.
The basic concept that pointed me in the right direction was that my LCD contains built-in micro fluorescent tubes (yea just like those tube like lights you sit under all day at work). I know from “experience” that those lights tend to make humming noises. Also, ever since i replaced my light bulbs with CFL’s at home (some of which are connected to dimmer switches), I know that they start to humm if you dimm them. So taking those two facts into consideration, I put together the hypothesis that adjusting the brightness of my LCD may eliminate its annoying humming sound.
I was right…so here’s howto get rid of the noise:
[step 1] Adjust the brightness to a value greater or equal to 95. Mine was set at 50 by default and the humming noise was definitely audible at a brightness setting of 50. As I adjusted it towards 95 it gradually got fainter until it faded at 95.
That’s it.
Genius! I’ve recently improved my music studio and everything runs so quite I commented to friends how I can hear my monitor hum, and I didn’t know it did… Happens to be a … H243H.. Thank you so much for thinking this through and posting it, you have no idea what it means to me.
Hey it worked! I was about to return it. Still might, since it might be too bright. Thanks
you rule…..
Is the humming a bad thing though? I’ve read that the bulb won’t last as long if left on a high brightness. I can live with the noise since I can only hear it from a very short distance.
Enrique,
I can’t attest to whether or not the bulb will last longer or shorter on the highest brightness setting…but for me the sound was unbearable so I’m taking the chance and hoping for the best. I will however gladly inform you if my monitor gives out before the warranty period.
Cheers,
David
Sure enough mine stopped at 94. If that is all then ends up wrong with it I am still a happy man.
Wow! what a simple fix. I just put a new lcd in my studio as well and noticed the hum. Thanks for the tip!
How clever. Thanks! And thanks for posting with all the right keywords
OMG! I can’t believe the answer is as simple as adjusting the brightness!
I haven’t even bought my first LCD yet; still using my 19″ CRT with its killer blacks-AND dead quiet electronics. Its brightness is set at 65. 95 would have been way too much. How bright would it be on the average LCD? Blinding? I noisy monitor would drive me nuts-but one with the brightness cranked up would be just as bad! There has to be another solution.
@Raffaella
Raffaella,
There sure is another solution. Don’t buy an ACER H243H LCD. I’ve since bought screens from samsung and other manufacturers that don’t have this problem…they’re just more expensive.
The hum was annoying me, too.
Try a software-based dimmer, but keep the monitor, itself, at maximum to stop the hum.
I just installed this freeware app that seems to do the trick. I set the monitor to 100% brightness, and then set the brightness software to 50%.
The program I installed is called “Desktop Lighter” (version 1.3).
http://www.filetransit.com/download.php?id=75378
That’s ingenious! Thanks for that Robert! I’m sure it’ll help someone else.
I have a LG 37 in and adjusted the backlight to 100 and hum went away.Thanks for the comments.
I had my monitor’s built in PSU repaired, then when I got it back it had that noise. Like the OP said, adjusting the brightness to 100 removes the sound, but it’s waaay too bright. I read on a forum that this one guy opened his monitor, and adjusted the tightness of all the screws. Then the sound went away. I’m gonna try that after I try that Desktop Lighter.
I tried that desktop lighter, but it only adds fake brightness. It works the same way as my graphics card. Adjusting the brightness on the monitor adds clarity, while the Desktop Lighter only makes the screen appear whiter (if you know what I mean). And to make things worse, when I uninstalled the program the effects weren’t removed. So I had to re-install the program, change the “brightness” back to about 70, since that appears to be the original brightness, and only then uninstall it.
Now I’m waiting to hear from my technician. If he wants to charge me, then I’ll just try to adjust the screws on the PSU etc etc myself and see if that solves the problem. I’ll have to do some more googling to make sure I don’t break the monitor, or worse electrocute myself. I already know that (or at least I think) I can discharge the monitor’s capacitors by unplugging the monitor from the mains, then pressing the powerbutton to drain whatever power’s still stored in the monitor’s PSU. Then I can open it without killing myself. Just gotta be careful so that I don’t tamper too much with it, to render the monitor unusable.