Eliminate electronic humming sound

I bought a new cherry wood entertainment center for my living room. The problem I now have is the cable box. The box is making a humming sound that is annoying. I had this problem with my comcast box and now with verizon's box. When I place my hand on top of the box you can feel the fast vibration that I assume is giving off the sound. None of the other electronics cause this sound, just the cable boxes.

Any ideas on how to eliminate this damn humming sound?

 

The only thing that would cause that is a fan.
the only uninvasive thing to try is to put it on top of some foam see if that cushions the vibration or make sure it has some clearance on all sides.

I don't really want to adise you to actually open the box and mess with the internals unless you want to go that route.

 

Put the box on an acousting damping foam. But I don't think the hum is coming from that vibration. It's more likely the hum is from a bad ground of the line power. Do you have a line power conditioner or full battery UPS installed?

 

A bad ground? I believe I have it connected to a surge protector. I'll try plugging it directly to the wall instead. What is a line conditioner?

 

FWIW, it sounds more like a Power Supply issue. The coils in the PSU buzz when under load (ie work)......

As to how you get around it, well, it's p1ss-poor design.

The easiest way is some acoustic mat/foam around the offending items - it will be amplified if you've put it in a wooden case (think like a speaker inside a box - the sound resonates and reflects in the box).....

The way to stop it is to stop the vibrations (vibrations = sound)

HOpe this helps in some way.

Dan (an audio engineer )