It’s as annoying as sand in your shorts…
You all know what I’m talkin’ about…
That galldanged BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
Can’t dim it or it goes BUZZZZZZZZZZ!
Turn it up real bright and the sound stops, but dim it and BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
For the love of creatures great and small, make it stop! Why does this happen? I like to have my lamp dimmed most of the time, and I can’t because of the BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
How can I rememdy this?
Oh the humanity, make it stop!
Do you mean electronic dimmers controls?
If it’s the dimmer switch, I guess it could be the transformer that’s making the noise. I’ve never noticed noise from a dimmer switch, but I don’t have any of them in my current house, either. I would have guessed that dimmer switches work on the principle of variable resistance, but in fact they work on variable inductance (or at least they did in 1962, the latest reference I have). From the Illuminating Engineering Society Handbook, 3d edition: “These dimmer controls are of the auto-transformer type having a movable-brush contact riding on a bared portion of the transformer winding.” Again, I can’t say if this type of transformer would be expected to make a lot of noise. But the big ones you see on utility poles make a hell of a buzzing sound. (They’re the things in the cylindrical metal cans attached near the wires on some poles). Transformers always generate extra energy that is lost as sound and heat. However, the transformer of my battery charger makes no audible noise at all.
I do have a torchier lamp. I just forgot about it because I haven’t used it for 5 years. I dug it out just now. The dimmer/transformer makes no audible noise at all. The lamp (or something near it) makes a barely audible buzz that can’t be heard beyond 2 feet. It does seem to be louder at low settings. Yours is evidently louder than mine. I would suggest making sure everything is tightened up and screwed down tight. Beyond that, I don’t know what to say. I used mine every day for 3 years and never had any trouble with it. I never had to replace anything.
If it buzzes, look into purchasing a capacitance-controlled dimmer switch. Just like for most ceiling fans.
I mentioned this fix in another post…if the person changed over to a capacitor-controlled dimmer, can you please tell em whether it worked or not?
bibliophage, man are you (or at least your info) out of date. Today’s dimmers work with triacs which conduct for only a part of the cycle. This creates loads of harmonics which disturb radio reception etc and can be ammeliorated by using a suitable filter (which should be standard part of the dimmer). Anyway, I won’t go into details as I am sure you can find plenty of info on triacs and dimmers on the net.
Some of the really cheap dimmer circuits don’t use “Zero-Crossing” detection, which has a tendency to eliminate the vast majority of noise that is typical with dimming (or phase conduction) controls.
I’ve torn down good designs and bad designs. Bad designs skimp on the electronics and filtering–in the worst cases they are actually audible when operating in their low-power output regions.
In many cases, you are actually hearing the lamp filament oscillating (vibrating). In other cases, you are hearing the circuit itself (depending upon the specific design involved). Sometimes it’s a combination of the two.
Filtering will help, but won’t eliminate all of the effects that can be observed.
Usually light dimmer controls have a choke inside them, I won’t explain here what it is for as it can be hard to do to the layman.
These particular chokes are quite small and are constructed in layers, or laminations, of ferric material that are held together by enamel varnishes.
What happens is that over time and especially in a warm environment this enamel breaks down and the electromagnetic forces induced into them cause them to vibrate.
One thing that I have found that can help is(make sure the power is off first!) to run a little of super glue into it and this will often bond everything back together.Don’t try this if you have not got a clue, change it .
You probably have heard flourescant light fittings buzzing away merrily to themselves, the cause is very similar.
Oh, I nearly forgot, the triac can vibrate too if it is not fastened properly to its heat sink - which is just a small lump of flat aluminum, try nipping the screw up.
As has been pointed out, really cheap ones can cause lots of problems.
I have never seen anyone using zero crossing technology… I guess I only buy cheap stuff 
For those who do not know: normally the triac starts conducting after part of the semicycle has passed and so only a (variable, adjustable) fraction of the semicycle is “effective”. This creates the said problems with harmonics, etc
In zero crossing full half cycles are used (some are used some are not). This diminishes the harmonics problems and creates other problems of its own. If you do this you do not have the continuous flexibility you have in the previous system and more tendency for flickering etc.
Although I know the technology, I have never seen it used in practice in lamps or wall dimmers.
The really clever, and expensive, ones operate just like a switch mode power supply making the filters physically smaller but also easier to make very effective.