Stop LCD from making humming noise

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.


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116 responses to “Stop LCD from making humming noise”

  1. Ted Avatar
    Ted

    Wow, thanks!

    I had noticed that my tv would sometimes have the sound and at other times it would not. Turns out that it was in automatic mode for power saver, which would adjust the brightness regularly. I disabled power saver and it is now back to the default brightness, with no more buzzing sound!

    Thanks again, so glad I checked google for this.

  2. Bob Avatar
    Bob

    I have a new Dell U2713HM Ultrasharp which uses LED technology. I’ve read that LEDs don’t make any buzzing noise. This is incorrect as I have only had this monitor a few days and the buzzing is driving me mad!

    I will try the method in this article later today!

    Hope it works and stops the buzzing noise!!

  3. Hitanshu Avatar
    Hitanshu

    Excellent,
    thanks for the solution, the noise was driving me mad.

  4. Ryan Avatar

    THANK YOU! I should have looked this up years ago. I have a Hanns•G monitor, but the solution worked perfectly. I’m glad you are the first in Google’s search.

  5. Thomas Avatar
    Thomas

    Awesome. It disappeared for me at 90% brightness. Thanks!

  6. shawn Avatar

    Wow, it fixed mine at 92. Thank you!!

  7. stacey Avatar
    stacey

    wow thank you!!! worked for me and I was going crazy with the humming

  8. julle Avatar
    julle

    hey thx for the advise mine was just the contrast, and not the brightness… a bit darker screen now but not so much buzzing..

  9. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    Thanks for the post. I have a Viewsonic VX2025 and found somehow the volume control, a menu item, was turned up 75/100 from the 0/100 I kept it at. Turned it down, humm went away.

  10. Jack Avatar
    Jack

    David, you are one genius my friend. I believe that the noise that is made comes from the voltage input. therefore if adjust the brightness it takes in more power.

  11. Ross Avatar
    Ross

    Thankyou so much. I was about to go out and buy another monitor!

  12. Hau'oli Avatar
    Hau’oli

    Mahalo nui loa (Thank you very much in Hawaiian)

  13. Jay Avatar
    Jay

    So when u turned the brightness up, did the noise just get less or did it totally go away?
    I plan on having a recording mic right by my monitor I’m getting and am looking for one that is completely quiet.
    Thanks for any help and advice you can give

  14. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    Hmmmm. Did not work for me! Sceptre junk!

  15. Dana Avatar
    Dana

    Thank you, thank you, thank you. I recently moved and had the movers pack my computer and monitor. When I got to my new home I set up my computer and monitor and the monitor hummed, never did before, and it was driving me crazy. I thought my monitor was shot. I did a factory reset and that did not help. I adjusted my brightness like you suggested and the higher I went, the humming got less. Now my monitor does not hum any more. I am 65 years old, and I am so proud of myself.

    1. David Vielmetter Avatar

      Go Dana! Thanks for sharing, you’ve made my day.

      1. sb Avatar
        sb

        I have an 18 month old Coby 32″ LED TV that produced a hum (I believe it was 60 Hz ) coming out of the earphone jack. Never heard it on the TV’s built in speakers, only on external speakers and headphone plugged into that jack, and only when using one of the 3 HDMI ports. After reading David Vielmetter’s suggestion, I went into my TV’s setting to try and change the brightness. Found the screen settings were on an “energy savings” mode that set the brightness to some canned level. As soon as I changed to one of the other picture settings, the noise went away. Doesn’t matter what brightness level I use now.

        Not exactly the same solution as David’s, but without it, I never would have suspected the picture setting, and would still be chasing down audio solutions. So: THANK YOU DAVID!

  16. me Avatar
    me

    I love you! It worked!

  17. nirpan Avatar
    nirpan

    Wow. Now this is what you call a solution. I tried everything and then right after reading your solution, I knew this was the fix because I suddenly had a ‘lightbulb’ moment that I had reduced the brightness recently on my monitor. I put the brightness to the full and there it was. Thank you good sir, thank you very much.

  18. Amir Avatar

    Thanks for the advise, tried to adjust the brightness, contrast and color scheme, non of them worked. Then is sow a reset button, pressed on it and there it goes. The buzzzzz almost gone and now it is much better than it was. (19″ Fujicom 3/4). Thanks again for the direction.

  19. Rich Avatar
    Rich

    Thanks! That buzzing sound was driving me nuts! I was about to toss out my Gateway FPD2185W and go shopping for a new monitor until I read your post. You just saved me a few hundred $$.

    Much appreciated!

  20. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    Tanks for this! My screen was making my ears ring with its constant buzz and driving me mad! So much better now!

  21. Fred Avatar
    Fred

    Thanks so much for this simple fix David. Never thought it would have been that!

  22. David Avatar
    David

    Thank you sir.

  23. Vikram Avatar
    Vikram

    I have a View-sonic 19″ LCD Monitor. And initially, I didn’t notice this noise. When I did it was too late to return it. So increasing the brightness solved the noise problem.

    Thanks David.

  24. Steve Avatar
    Steve

    Jackpot!!! worked like a charm at 96. You rcok! Glad Google had you first 🙂

  25. Peter Avatar
    Peter

    ????????? ?????! Thanks a lot !!! (in Bulgarian)

  26. Victor Avatar
    Victor

    I don’t know why i didn’t look this up in google earlier.
    Or how the answer didn’t even come to my mind.
    I guess sometimes you just need someone to tell you how to resolve you problems.

    It’s so insignificant, yet my ears revive.

    Thank you!

  27. Katheryn Avatar
    Katheryn

    Thank you so much. The noise was driving me crazy!

  28. Eli Avatar
    Eli

    We had a monitor that made an annoying buzzing noise whenever you opened an excel document. We switched out the VGA cable on one of our monitors, sprayed the ports with canned air, and it stopped buzzing completely.

  29. google Avatar

    Its like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot about this, such as you wrote the e book in it or something. I think that you just can do with a few percent to power the message home a bit, but instead of that, that is wonderful blog. A great read. I’ll definitely be back.

  30. Anon Avatar
    Anon

    Thanks man, worked like a charm!

  31. Ogún Avatar
    Ogún

    Your simple post made all the difference in my work environment. Thank you VERY MUCH!!

  32. Julie Avatar
    Julie

    Wow, thank you! I turned the monitor brightness up and graphics card brightness down, it worked perfect! That mosquito-like high pitch hum was hurting my brain and giving me headaches at the end of the day. Our IT dept was stumped on this and wanted to throw money at this monitor (that is only 2 months old) so I am going to forward this post to them.

  33. Jack Avatar

    This did the trick for me too! Wow, I was getting so annoyed with that noise! I use my HDTV as a computer monitor, so I’m very close to it all the time. All I needed to do was turn the brightness down & the back-lighting all the way up. Sweet! It’s super-silent now! Thanks a mint!

  34. rob Avatar
    rob

    hooray, i just bought a second hand monitor and had some awful buyers remorse until i found this

  35. Robert Marquardt Avatar
    Robert Marquardt

    I have had this problem for over 3 years until now. Thank you.

  36. prakash Avatar
    prakash

    Great! worked for me too. I have had this problem for a while. After setting the brightness to 98 its gone but the screen is bit bright. Instead of having to hear that noise i don’t mind the brightness. Thanks

  37. Brian V Avatar
    Brian V

    Was this article meant to be satire? I came here hoping for a solution to the humming noise when I turn my brightness down and instead the instructions say to turn it back up. Thank you for the laugh!

  38. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Thanks so much, was about to throw the monitor out of the window

  39. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    Excellent!

  40. thankful Avatar
    thankful

    Thank you soooo much, have been trying to stop that driving me insane buzzing for long time now……..Click control panel, display, advanced settings, monitor settings, mine was at a frequency of 60 Hertz……clicked on 70 and it immediately stopped buzzing! So very grateful that people post to help each other!

  41. Corinne Avatar
    Corinne

    This is amazing. I thought I was slowly being driven crazy by that noise. THANK YOU!!!!!

  42. Ping Avatar
    Ping

    Absolutely brilliant! What a bright solution (pun intended)

  43. John Avatar
    John

    Rarely does the internet give me a solution so quickly!

  44. francis Avatar
    francis

    That good

  45. Marc Bourassa Avatar
    Marc Bourassa

    I thought my Samsung SyncMaster 2343BWX was giving up the ghost. At *exactly* 95 the humming vanished completely.

    Thank you for posting this solution!

  46. Don Avatar

    Nice one David. My LG IPS235 was making a high pitched noise: I thought it was on the way out. At 100% brightness – silence! Thanks for the suggestion!

  47. Chris Avatar

    Wow, that worked really well. My monitor came at a default of 75%, two clicks up and the stopped instantly. Much appreciated.

    1. Chris Avatar

      *the humming.

  48. DS Avatar
    DS

    Thank you, the humming indeed disappeared. It’s kind of strange, but it works.

  49. Wouter Avatar
    Wouter

    Lol how awesome, I just thought I’d Google the noise coming from my Acer H243h before ordering a new one… I should have done that many months ago! You sir, deserve a hero status for sharing this!