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Re: Kernel idle interference??



On Tue, Apr 02, 2002 at 09:29:06PM -0500, H. S. Teoh wrote:
> [Please Cc: replies to me, I'm not subscribed due to high volume.]
> 
> Recently, I noticed this very odd phenomenon with my sound card.  I'm
> using an SB16 with the OSS drivers, and there is this persistent
> background static hum, which is noticeably loud on my headphones. This hum
> also has buzzes which coincides with hard drive accesses and mouse
> movements. At first I thought it was due to bad hardware, or perhaps
> broken/incompatible sound drivers; but one day, I got an idea and ran the
> following program: 
> 
> 	#include <unistd.h>
> 	void main() {
> 	  nice(19);
> 	  for(;;);
> 	}
> 
> I ran the program in the background, basically to eat up all idle CPU
> cycles.  Amazingly, when this program is running, the static hum
> disappears. When I kill it, the hum returns. 
> 
> Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this? I suspect it might
> be something in the kernel idle loop that's causing this; but I've looked
> over my kernel config several times and can't see any option that might
> affect this. 
> 
> I'm using kernel 2.4.18 currently; the problem happens on both 2.4.16 and
> 2.4.18.
> 
> Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
> 
> 
> T
This is a shot in the dark - but have you checked your CPU/MB fans? When
my computer boots up these fans make a lot of noise, but after a minute
the noise subsides.

HTH,
Andy


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