Late night gaming: help needed!

[PolarBearClub]

Hey Escapist, I have a slight, albeit odd, problem. Hope someone can help.

I recently moved into a new 'apartment' (quotations will bee explained shortly) and within 3 days the woman living below me, and who's bedroom happens to be directly beneath mine, complained of a humming noise coming through my floor into her room that was keeping her up.

It was fairly obvious that it was the Xbox, as I was waiting on new furniture so had left it on the floor. Fair enough, I think, it is quite loud and it's not one of the quieter Elite models.

But after placing it on my TV unit, about 2 feet off the ground, she still complains. I took the liberty to go so far as to lie down and press my hear to the floor, and annoyingly could still feel the vibration. I tried putting it as high as I could, but could still hear it.

Does anyone have a solution? I've noticed my pc tower has four plastic, eh, bits, in each corner that elevate it slightly off the floor, which seems to go some way to reducing any humming or vibrations? Would love to find a solution because I'm hard pressed to start syncing my sleeping times with hers in order to play games.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Hey Escapist, I have a slight, albeit odd, problem. Hope someone can help.

I recently moved into a new 'apartment' (quotations will bee explained shortly) and within 3 days the woman living below me, and who's bedroom happens to be directly beneath mine, complained of a humming noise coming through my floor into her room that was keeping her up.

It was fairly obvious that it was the Xbox, as I was waiting on new furniture so had left it on the floor. Fair enough, I think, it is quite loud and it's not one of the quieter Elite models.

But after placing it on my TV unit, about 2 feet off the ground, she still complains. I took the liberty to go so far as to lie down and press my hear to the floor, and annoyingly could still feel the vibration. I tried putting it as high as I could, but could still hear it.

Does anyone have a solution? I've noticed my pc tower has four plastic, eh, bits, in each corner that elevate it slightly off the floor, which seems to go some way to reducing any humming or vibrations? Would love to find a solution because I'm hard pressed to start syncing my sleeping times with hers in order to play games.

Put it on a surface that doesn't conduct the resonance [sub]ha[/sub], rubber feet, or something similar. You want shock absorbers, essentially. If the TV is on a flat surface, the vibrations will just transfer through it and into the floor.

Alternatively, tell her where she can shove it.

 

[TheTygerfire]

Try placing a rubber mat under it? :\

Seems like your Xbox shouldn't be making vibrations that bad. Maybe it's something else?

 

[srm79]

Is setting up the xbox in the living room or another part of the flat possible? The flat I live in (only for another 6 days though - woop!) is utterly shite in terms of soundproofing. Seriously, you can hear someone fart in the bedroom below or above at night.

I have my PS3 and PC both in the living room though, as the problem seems to only affect sound travel straight up and down. The walls are not too bad so it doesn't travel from the living room to the adjoining rooms, both in my own flat and the ones above and below.

That said, the old guy below me is deaf as a post, and the guy upstairs is just an utter **** who I don't really care if I disturb - the present setup goes back to my old upstairs neighbours who were a really nice young couple.

I think on my last night here, I'm going to bring my girlfriend back drunk and make as much noise as I can for the benefit of the bastard upstairs. Then I'm going to leave a cheapo alarm clock set for 10am every day. It's a council flat so it will be weeks before the council come to do anything and the guy upstairs is a career benefit scrounger who sleeps from about 8am to 6pm.

Petty, maybe, but it's taken a fuckton of willpower not to punch his lights out over the last year with some of the shit he's pulled both with me and with other neighbours in the stair.

 

[scnj]

I had the same problem, but fixed it by lying the Xbox down and putting it up on rubber pads. Also, installing the games helps as it stops the disc spinning.

 

[PolarBearClub]

Put it on a surface that doesn't conduct the resonance [sub]ha[/sub], rubber feet, or something similar. You want shock absorbers, essentially. If the TV is on a flat surface, the vibrations will just transfer through it and into the floor.

Alternatively, tell her where she can shove it.

That's the dream! Yeah, sounds like what I had pictured, but didn't have a name for.

Try placing a rubber mat under it? :\

Seems like your Xbox shouldn't be making vibrations that bad. Maybe it's something else?

It's most likely the tiniest humming noise, being that I'm walking on what must be the worst floorboards in the world, yet she's had the last 3 years or so without someone living above her and now can't handle it.

Cheers for the suggestions folks.

 

[TheColdHeart]

When I was at university I had my xbox on my desk, laying horizontally, and it made a really loud, annoying vibrations. It was almost like a mobile phone was on the wood when it was switched on. We fixed it by putting the xbox on a poker mat we had but never used folded in half. The rubberised backing and the coating of the mat seemed to work quite well at killing the vibrations.