Tinnitus caused by office noise / computer fans?

[Chris Thorman]

Hi netizens,

Over the past few years, I9ve been developing a mild but steady
high-pitched tinnitus that I feel is related to the constant but low-level
hum of office noise - computer fans, light ballasts, and the like.

Office noise levels are actually much higher than one might think - Ever
been in a "quiet" office when the power goes out? The sudden silence
caused by the absence of the fans and light ballasts is almost deafening.

I do not listen to loud music or have other major sources of loud noise in
my life (except sometimes I sing loudly, but not enough to explain this
problem and not loud enough to cause temporary ringing).

This problem has been increasingly aggravating as I am just getting to the
point in life where I make time to sit quietly and meditate or just relax
in a state of non-doing. The problem is, I end up listening to the
ringing in my ears the whole time! This makes it a bit less fun to sit
quietly, since the quiet never really comes.

I have experimented with earplugs and ear-covering headphones with no
quick results; maybe these would help if used long-term?

Is there anyone else who feels their tinnitus may be due to constant
exposure to low noise levels? Does anyone have more information about
this problem? The excellent Tinnitus FAQ posting didn't seem to have too
much to say about low-level noises.

Chris Thorman

[Chris Grivas]

Chris Thorman (tho...@netcom.com) wrote:
<<Edit>>

: Is there anyone else who feels their tinnitus may be due to constant

: exposure to low noise levels? Does anyone have more information about

: this problem? ...

Yeah Chris,

I became aware of tinnitus this summer when I purchased a used Mac IIx,
a huge box with a loud painful cooling fan (I returned it for a smaller
Mac IIsi).

I have worked for years in an office seated close to the HVAC
(heating/vent/air conditioning?) system and loud (IBM clone) computer
mini-towers. The constant whine and whirr drove me crazy. This was the
the most consistent/present sound source in my life. I rarely listened
to loud music or loud industrial noise (except rush hour traffic).

So yes, I want to blame the commercial office environment for my tinnitus.

I now work out of my home, but still have this problem: MY COMPUTER FAN
IS DRIVING ME NUTS! It and the tinnitus whine at a
dissonantly similar pitch (and the fan is loud!)

Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I use a notebook computer?
(though the ones I have used have a similarly loud high-pitched annoying
sound) Anyway to dampen the fan sound? Any harm in **disconnecting**
the fan?

Thanks.

[65...@mne.net]

I>I now work out of my home, but still have this problem: MY COMPUTER FAN

>IS DRIVING ME NUTS! It and the tinnitus whine at a
>dissonantly similar pitch (and the fan is loud!)
>
>Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I use a notebook computer?
>(though the ones I have used have a similarly loud high-pitched annoying
>sound) Anyway to dampen the fan sound? Any harm in **disconnecting**
>the fan?
>

No! don't disconnect the fan! Your computer may get sick and die!

A friend of mine has two rooms side by side. He has several keyboards
and monitors on his worktable in one room and the cables go through holes
in the wall into the second room where the cpu's (and their fans, diskdrives
etc. are located.)

The silence in the work room is very nice. But it's a darn nuisance if you
have to copy anything to a floppy, or use the printer (which is also in the
other room.)

My current computers have pretty quiet fans and the new miniature IDE disk
drives are almost silent. So the little residual noise acts as noise cover for
the Tinnitus- so I'm happy.

Bill

[Dayton Marcott]

In <3helmm$o...@ionews.io.org> cgr...@r-node.io.org (Chris Grivas) writes:

>I now work out of my home, but still have this problem: MY COMPUTER FAN
>IS DRIVING ME NUTS! It and the tinnitus whine at a
>dissonantly similar pitch (and the fan is loud!)

>Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I use a notebook computer?
>(though the ones I have used have a similarly loud high-pitched annoying
>sound) Anyway to dampen the fan sound? Any harm in **disconnecting**
>the fan?

>Thanks.

I know absolutely that the fan noise on an IBM PC in 1985 abruptly caused
my T and started me down the road to hyperacusis, but that's another story.

If you disconnect your fan your computer will overheat. Don't do it!
I don't know about the MACs these days, but I have heard some impressively
quiet clones--very quiet fans, so you might try shopping around.

Or ...

Another alternative, and one that I used for quite some time, is to
purchase a specially-made extension cable from Cybex (I think)
that allows you to separate the CPU from the monitor, keyboard, and
mouse by as much as 100 feet (and perhaps more.) For a time, I had the
cpu box in the basement and the monitor and keyboard in a third floor
bedroom with the cable running on the outside of the house. Absolutely
no fan noise, but there is a slight nuisance if you must use a floppy
disk a lot. Cybex runs small adds in the back of many computer mags.
The cable runs somewhere around $1-$2 / foot.

If you need help locating the company, send me mail.

- Dayton

[Jim Chinnis]

Chris Grivas wrote in response to Chris Thorman:

>I now work out of my home, but still have this problem: MY COMPUTER FAN
>IS DRIVING ME NUTS! It and the tinnitus whine at a
>dissonantly similar pitch (and the fan is loud!)

>Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I use a notebook computer?
>(though the ones I have used have a similarly loud high-pitched annoying
>sound) Anyway to dampen the fan sound? Any harm in **disconnecting**
>the fan?

I doubt that office noise can cause tinnitus, but it definitely
aggravates one's perception of it in some cases. I also work at home
and have gone to the extreme act of putting my noisy PC-clone tower in
the next room and cut a hole through the wall to run the monitor,
keyboard, and mouse cables. This turned out to be very simple, the
hole in the wall doesn't show, and I have absolute quiet from my
formerly banshee-like machine. I recommend it.

Don't try disconnecting the fan: the processor chip requires the
cooling. It might be possible to remove the computer system case and
then disable the fan (just leaving it open so heat can't build up) but
this might present an electrical hazard and could cause interference
with other equipment). Good luck!

[Sigeroo]

There is a computer company called "Silent Systems", One North Ave.,
Burlington, Mass. 01803 (617) 273-3200 and (617) 273-0500 FAX which
makes a state of the art PC which is totally and completely silent. The
cost is only slightly above regular PC's. You could also call them at
800-SILENT-9.
The man to talk to is Gregory T. Wyler.
Yours,
Dan Segal

[jimb...@gmail.com]

On Friday, 10 February 1995 03:14:29 UTC, Chris Grivas wrote:

> Chris Thorman (tho...@netcom.com) wrote:
> I now work out of my home, but still have this problem: MY COMPUTER FAN
> IS DRIVING ME NUTS! It and the tinnitus whine at a
> dissonantly similar pitch (and the fan is loud!)
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I use a notebook computer?
> (though the ones I have used have a similarly loud high-pitched annoying
> sound) Anyway to dampen the fan sound? Any harm in **disconnecting**
> the fan?

Sorry for resurrecting this thread after a whopping 22 years but I can suggest a thin fanless PC which allows you to connect to your main machine (in another location - loft, spare room etc) via remote desktop.

[cod4sn...@gmail.com]

im 12 and what is this?

[jmreno]

On 9/9/2017 5:48 PM, cod4sn...@gmail.com wrote:
> Den onsdag 8 februari 1995 kl. 18:50:14 UTC+1 skrev Chris Thorman:

Computer power supplies put out a fair amount of ultrasonics, some a
huge amount. And they are vented to the outside so all of the
ultrasonics produced inside comes out.

Some hard drives, especially the ones that operate at 7200 RPM produce
ultrasonics. I don't know why they produce ultrasonics, but they do.
Years ago I had a Quantum HDD that was really really bad.

Ultrasonics can cause tinnitus, and if you already have it, it makes it
worse.

In the old CRT TVs and monitors. The high voltage power supply operated
at an ultrasonic frequency and many produced an ultrasonic sound from
the high voltage transformer. (TVs operated at 15.734 KHz which is the
horizontal sync frequency.)

Ultrasonic motion detectors are bad, too.

Uninterruptible power supplies can be bad if they are not sealed.

The solution is to either wear a good hearing protector when you are at
the computer or use a laptop.

Laptops use a sealed power supply that is external to the laptop. They
also generally use 5400 RPM HDDs.

If you have your teeth cleaned and you dental hygienist uses an
ultrasonic cleaner it is really really really bad.


Good luck.

[magna...@gmail.com]

I am experiencing the EXACT same here now in 2018 with a constant ventilation fan just outside my new apartment.

CANT relax cos of it, and today I was waking up with a constant ringing in the ears. Strange problem, but I actually think its this fan that kind of "trickes" the body. Reacting to sounds, and kind of dont know what to do with unnatural sounds like this.


onsdag 8. februar 1995 18.50.14 UTC+1 skrev Chris Thorman følgende: