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.
Comments
116 responses to “Stop LCD from making humming noise”
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.
Wow, thanks for the advice. It worked at 100. But it also worked down at 19, which for my new ASUS 24″ ProArt, is still a very usable, albeit low brightness.
the brightness adjustment solution didn’t work for me but it gave me idea to do it myself.I minimised volume set off and minimised all the bars in 5 band equaliser and YES it worked. I got rid of that horrible humming sound .
thank you dear DAVID VIELMETTER.
nice. brightness didnt work for me too. so i followed your method . cheers.
Hey it worked! I was about to return it. Still might, since it might be too bright. Thanks
you rule…..
EXCELLENT ADVICE!!!!!!!!!!!
this is great advice. for those of you who now feel that your monitor is too bright, remember that you can dim the brightness via your graphics card settings, and it won’t effect the buzzing.
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 also had a hum on my no-name 24″ monitor. Increasing the brightness got rid of the hum when using the monitor’s controls. I’ve used Desktop Lighter for years and it works like a champ – can still increase/decrease brightness using DL without the annoying hum. Strange that DL can raise brightness and not create a hum though…
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.
Wow! Thanks for sharing! This is the type of thing that would prompt a product return and all the waste that it entails.
Thanks!
I have an HP 2509 that exhibits similar behavior where the middle range of brightness causes a hum that slowly decreases to nothing as you approach the brightest and dimmest settings.
I like the monitor at 50 brightness, as 90 is too bright and tires the eyes.
I discovered that setting the refresh rate at 59 or 50 Hertz causes the hum to disappear. This can be done in Windows 7 by right clicking on the desktop, choosing Screen Resolution, then the Advanced settings “link” in the lower right, then the Monitor tab, and then by choosing from the Screen refresh rate drop down.
There is not noticeable difference between 59 and 60 Hertz as far as tearing in video games or other display anomalies. Even 50 Hertz seems to be fine as well.
Much more satisfying than an overly bright display.
I had been googling for answers since my LCD HD TV had started humming recently. I honestly didn’t figure the idea mentioned here would apply or work, having become skeptical of everything on the internet. But holy shit, it did. Jamming the back light to 85 or higher stopped the noise. Thanks~
Unbelievable! I increased my brightness to 93 and the humming stopped. Thank you VERY much for this post. I was about to toss my monitor out the window but this simple fix is all I needed.
Thank you again!
Thanks so much! Increased brightness from 89 > 91 and it stopped.
I just had to say my wifes ViewSonic had started buzzing since we recently installed wall mounts and I started to think somehow the stresses on the monitors plastic housing had somehow flexed something loose inside vibrating on some noisy electronic. I was watching my wife pinching the bottom of the monitor which would abate the sound for a while then it would return. It was coming back so often just now she couldn’t take her hand off it while using her computer. I tried your trick and so far the noise has not come back.
I have to say that even if setting the brightness to 95 makes it burn out faster and we have to replace it, if we didn’t stop the noise we would have replaced it come Monday morning. 🙂
Thanks so much for saving us a few hundred bucks.
Mike
Brilliant. Mine had ended up at 24 somehow and was very loud. Glad I googled it!
I restored factory defaults and it stopped o,O
it was the volume of the speakers (was at 100)
ah, mine was the same. the speakers on the monitor are what i primarily use, but turning it down to 80 from 100 took away the hum! thanks.
Perfect,
nicely done, good tags and keywords for searches as well, this should be high on the internet! well done!
Thank you, fixed the issue with a Benq desktop monitor. Pity I can’t have low brightness *and* no humming though!
Thx. My acer was about to make me grazy.
My friend you are an absolute genius !!!! I thought i was going crazy with super natural hearing; that of a dog. I hated the buzzing nose of my Benq LCD screen. I was starting to think there was some kind of fan built in to cool the tiny power supply withn the screen itself. I was ready to cry and buy an LED or OLED in the future. I have multipel screens interconnected hummmmmming like bees. This is not the kind of interaction i expected form my screen. BUT NO MORE. Thanks to you sir, for my life is now field with sound of humming birds out side my window insted of humming LCD’s within my room.
– For those of you who don’t understan our pain, let me explain; I have the CPU with its loud fans wired in the basement throu my upstares bedroom via 15feet HDMI cables. So now, the noisy CPU/Computer is in the basement. The only thing upstairs is LCDs screens. I didn’t even know LCD made a humming noise if brightness is decresed to 45% ! Ahhhh but the internet is our University and you sir are our professor. This solution worked flawlessly for me. Thank you for being a contributor to our information age. Good bless Google and you 🙂 NEXT TIME I’M GETTING LED or OLED monitor; if i want a humming bees i’ll go the park or just call my girlfriend; she makes the same nonsense noise.
Why thank you for those kind words. I’m glad I could help.
I love you. My 32″ LCD has been humming from the day I got it over a year ago. Sure now IR doesn’t hum and it looks like a bestbuy display model but it’s quiet finally. I don’t assume there’s any way to fix this? In not thinking of opening the tv or anything but I can’t help but see a little cathode ballast buzzing around. Wish I got an LED
Nick,
Glad you quieted your LCD. The only think I can think of to solve the problem would be to attempt replacing the cathode light element…and honestly for my LCD’s that’s just not worth it until it goes out. My next TV/LCD will definitely be LED back-lit. The Cathode ray tube back lighting technology is dead anyways.
nice quick fix.
whilst setting brightness to a high level works it still shows a fault in the monitor. I have 2 side by side of the same Acer g234h.
one makes the hum the other does not at the same settings. im going for a warranty fix/replace as i dont want it that bright.
I have an Acer X233H and it’s been driving me crazy for a while. I set my brightness and contrast to 50%, then with nvidia control center I reduce the brightness/contrast further, but the buzzing was too annoying when trying to read in silence. The only solution was to set it to 100% but that’s way too bright. BIG thanks to the person who suggested Desktop Lighter. I just installed v1.4 of it and it worked like a charm. I set my monitor to 100% brightness (buzzing gone) then I use Desktop Lighter to dim to 5%. Although this setting remains slightly brighter than my monitor set at 50% + nvidia settings. And the advantage of Desktop Lighter is the ease of use and no more need to play with monitor buttons to adjust brightness anymore 🙂
Hey thanks for sharing Buggsi! Appreciate it.
David Vielmetter thank you so much! I was going crazy with my 22″ LCD Hyundai monitor. I forced myself to listen to some music while working, it was that annoying. My husband decided it was enough and purchased a new LED monitor for Christmas, which is coming next week. And now what am I going to do with two working monitors :))))) Having the brightness over 90% takes care of the buzzing. Thanks again and Merry Christmas!
I tried your idea on my Envision 24″ monitor. At first, I thought that would do it, but it helped only a little, and the buzzing went up when scrolled to the limit,.up or down. I spotted the audio adjustment, and volume was set at 76%. Everything quieted as I turned the volume down some, To regain the volume, I just turned the speaker volume up a bit. Great! Thanks for the thought.
I just bough a good tube microphone and as I’m about to start recording my monitor starts to make this high pitch sound. It’s fixed now!!! Thank you thank you thank you David. I though my monitor had just broken…
dude you saved my sanity
What type of monitor were you speaking about in this post?? Want to see if its the same as mine..
My Monitor is an ACER H243 LCD.
Thanks pal, you made my day
Fantastic! I just bought my wife an LG led unit and took her Hyundai. Immediately I noticed a hum and knew I couldn’t live with it. I hit Google, found your solution and it worked immediately. You Rule!
Whaaaaat!?!? This worked perfectly!! I am now the hero in my office thanks to your fix! If I were a Sim my mood meter would have just gotten a permanent +20 now that the stress of the humming from my monitor is gone! THANK YOU!
Worked perfectly on my 26in I-inc Thanks so much for this… it was driving me crazy and other sites said that my monitor was about to die. Appreciate it!
Genius!!! Thank you 🙂
worked 100% thankyou so much. i am a computer repair specialist and never knew why my monitor made that sound. thankyou so very much and i will pass on the good word to folks who may not understand or know
Wow that was really bothering me for the last few months! Thank u so much David!!
Realy good post, so useful information.
Thanks very much for the quick fix! You just saved me $200 on a new monitor! I googled “monitor humming” because it was driving me nuts, funny to see I also have the H243H.
Thank you.
I could kiss you!
Excellent post. Fixed that small but very annoying problem for me. Thanks!
Amazing! You just saved me a trip back to Fry’s for a replacement which inevitably would have had the same sad result. THANK YOU!!!
You hero.
Thank you so much!
Does anyone know why the humming occurs?
The humming is typical for most CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulbs. If you don’t want to hear humming or buzzing, opt for an LED backlit LCD. They’re the standard now and CFL’s are getting phased out in the LCD world.
Hope it helps.
Also works for Samsung SyncMaster 913N.
Thanks.
I look forward to trying your solution when i get home tonight!
However, i doubt whether it will solve my problem. My problem is that when I plug the screen (LG W24 LCD) into my laptop, my studio speakers which are also connected to the laptop emit a high pitched noise. I bought a power conditioner to clean up my electricity but that did not help. The noise is emitted regardless of whether the monitor is on or off. The noise is always emitted if there is power to the monitor.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be truly appreciate!
Sean
Thanks! This has been driving me nuts, but now it’s fixed.