On Jun 8, 5:43*pm, "Cheryl" > wrote:
> No where else to ask this, plus you're all a smart bunch.
>
> Today I got my new laptop at work and the help desk brought it in and said
> they had to send it back because it was making a high-pitched sound that was
> annoying. *I couldn't hear it. *I asked a couple of others to come listen to
> my laptop and tell me what they heard, and without knowing I couldn't hear
> it and without knowing the help desk was going to send it back, everyone
> said high-pitched sound, maybe hard drive or maybe video. *More intrigued at
> why I couldn't hear this, I asked others, and some even said it was giving
> them a headache to hear it. *WTF? *Could there be frequencies some people
> can't hear that others can, similar to how some animals hear frequencies
> that no human can hear? *I asked people of different ages and there was only
> one other person about my age who didn't hear anything at all, but some
> close to my age heard it loud and clear. *I have never had a reason to think
> my hearing is impaired.

Some people are more sensitive than others. Sometimes, I can hear the
lights make a whining noise that others do not hear. Years ago, I
heard a horrible whining noise and nobody else could hear it. After
moving around the room and locating the sound, I found a walkman with
two buttons pressed at the same time. I hit the stop button, and the
noise stopped. It was bothering me a lot, but nobody else heard it.

That said, my hearing of lower pitched sounds are not so great. When I
was a teenager, my parents learned that calling me by name when I was
up in my bedroom resulted in no response, but whistle, and I would
hear it right away.

So, overall, my hearing is not as good as most normal people. I had
ear infections frequently as a child. I can usually hear people talk
when they are in the same room, but I will often misunderstand what
they say. I realized a couple years ago that I am partially lipreading
because I can hear better when I can the person's mouth. I also have
poor directional hearing. I can never tell which direction a siren is
coming from. And I will often turn the wrong direction when somebody
out of view calls me. But high pitched noises are painful for me.