problem with static coming from speakers hooked up from receiver to computer [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

PDA

View Full Version : problem with static coming from speakers hooked up from receiver to computer



Matt Valloney
03-19-2004, 04:49 PM
hello,
I am having a problem with static coming from my speakers hooked up from receiver to my computer. strangely enough, the static seems to only occur when the computer is "loading stuff." i hooked up my computer to my receiver with a stereo cable (into the line-in on sound card) and 2 RCA jacks that go into my surround receiver. I have heard people have this problem before, but couldnt find a solution. any help would be great. thanks!
-Matt

Wireworm5
03-20-2004, 12:05 AM
hello,
I am having a problem with static coming from my speakers hooked up from receiver to my computer. strangely enough, the static seems to only occur when the computer is "loading stuff." i hooked up my computer to my receiver with a stereo cable (into the line-in on sound card) and 2 RCA jacks that go into my surround receiver. I have heard people have this problem before, but couldnt find a solution. any help would be great. thanks!
-Matt

I suggest that you don't have enough ram memory and thus when loading and playing music your cpu is overloading. I experience hesitation in a song when the cpu is being worked but not static. Its a good practice to emty your trash can on the computer frequently since this uses up needed ram and close any program that is running that you aren't using.

vivisimonvi
03-20-2004, 01:33 AM
What kind of computer do you have (processing speed, RAM, etc.)? Also, what are you using (programwise) to listen to your music with?

I have a 366 Mhz Inteva (top of the line computer in 1998) that skips when using Winamp (listening to stuff on my harddrive) whenever I seem to "load" other things, that CPU speed simply isn't enough even with 512 Mbs of RAM. Otherwise it plays fine if I'm not doing other things on the comp at the same time... You might have different results just playing music CD's in the disc drive... Other audio programs might have different results (like Media Player, Realplayer, or Musicmatch)... Some other tips that could help is to close as many background programs as you while listening to music.

I also have a Sony Vaio 2.4 Ghz that has no problems with music (I can do other things on the comp as well because of it's high CPU speed and enough RAM). Another nice feature is that it has optical output capabilities that I feed directly to my receiver (every sound sent from my computer is a digital stream). You should try that if you have optical connections on your comp and receiver.

Btw, is it just your speakers on your receiver that causes static? Have you tried computer speakers played directly from the PC and does it sound the same way?

Matt Valloney
03-20-2004, 06:15 AM
What kind of computer do you have (processing speed, RAM, etc.)? Also, what are you using (programwise) to listen to your music with?

Btw, is it just your speakers on your receiver that causes static? Have you tried computer speakers played directly from the PC and does it sound the same way?

Reply: it is a custom 512ram, 2.6GhZ P4. 80gig hard drice with 67.6 gigs of free space. I use windows media player to play music/videos. I dont think its the speakers, because when i watch dvds (from a dvd player not the computer) there is no static.
-Matt

Fallen Kell
03-20-2004, 11:07 PM
The problem isn't RAM or processor, or anything like that. What you are getting is line noise from the computer's internals (more specifically the hard drive from the sounds of it). There are not a whole lot of things that you can do. You can try and put a line filter on the line out from the PC, or use better shielded cables. Since you say it is a custom system I am assuming you feel comfortable working on the system. Open it up and look for the location of the sound card (may be built into your motherboard) and look to see if you have any audio cables going from your CD-ROM/DVD-ROM into your sound card. If you do, try and route them as far away as possible from both your hard drive and your power supply. This can be difficult because the hard drive is usually close below the CD/DVD and the power supply is usually close behind the CD/DVD with the sound card being slightly behind and below the CD/DVD... If re-routing the audio cable(s) does not help, try removing them altogether. This shouldn't affect your system, and if it fixes the problem, try putting some electro-magnetic shielding on the cables and then put them back in the system.

Also, the issue might be becase the audio signal can be sent through the IDE cable now in newer systems. Check to see if your hard drive shares the same IDE cable as your CD/DVD, and if it does, try and reconfigure it so they are on different IDE cables.

Again, from the sound of it, the noise is comming from your hard drive. Lots of magnetic fields are created when reading/writing to the hard drive and this will create an electrical signal in un-shielded and poorly shielded cables because the magnetic field is moving back and forth (which will create an electrical current in a wire that is within its field of effect).

The only other thing you can try if none of the above solves the problem is try replacing your sound card with a higher end model which does a better job of filtering out noise on its line out. But this will cost you about $150...

Just for reference, I'm a Unix systems administrator, with a degree in Computer Science, and I have had similar problems with several computers that I have used and do use to do audio/visual mixing/recording. Most computer speakers will not always pickup this type of noise as they are not usually sensitive enough to detect it, but higher quality/more sensitive gear will amost always hear some of this without taking any of the above actions. I have a few studio monitors connected to my system (Roland speaker/amps), and before I shielded all my internal audio wires, I could hear a pop every time my hard drive tried to read or write to the disk.

Matt Valloney
03-21-2004, 07:50 AM
Fallen Kell, thanks so much. I am going out today to get some shielded monster cable to go from my line out on my sound card to the receiver. hopefully, that will make it better, but if not i will definately take advantage of all the information you gave me in your previous post. thanks!
-Matt

r3dline
03-23-2004, 02:29 PM
I had an old micron desktop 400mhz with 256mb of RAM that I USED to use until I got my iBook. I always kept it hooked up to my NAD C340 (I had at the time, even though I have now upgraded to some bigger NADs, T750) and worked fine. A couple weeks ago I took it over to my girlfriend's apartment for her to use just to type papers and such on. I hooked it up...and found that it now gave off a static noise when hooked up. It was only in the right channel, though...oddly enough. I tried everything to find where the interference was coming from, with no luck. The sound was built into the board. So how did I fix it? I went to Best Buy and bought a cheap 20 dollar PCI soundcard and put in one of the extra PCI slots, and disabled the onboard sound. Plugged into the new soundcard, and sounded perfect, with no interference. So if those shielded cables don't help...which they might not...try putting in another sound card (replace the old one if you can, or just disable the old one if it's onboard). I bet that fixes it...

If it doesn't...please let me know. hehe

Matt Valloney
04-03-2004, 08:25 PM
I had an old micron desktop 400mhz with 256mb of RAM that I USED to use until I got my iBook. I always kept it hooked up to my NAD C340 (I had at the time, even though I have now upgraded to some bigger NADs, T750) and worked fine. A couple weeks ago I took it over to my girlfriend's apartment for her to use just to type papers and such on. I hooked it up...and found that it now gave off a static noise when hooked up. It was only in the right channel, though...oddly enough. I tried everything to find where the interference was coming from, with no luck. The sound was built into the board. So how did I fix it? I went to Best Buy and bought a cheap 20 dollar PCI soundcard and put in one of the extra PCI slots, and disabled the onboard sound. Plugged into the new soundcard, and sounded perfect, with no interference. So if those shielded cables don't help...which they might not...try putting in another sound card (replace the old one if you can, or just disable the old one if it's onboard). I bet that fixes it...

If it doesn't...please let me know. hehe

FIXED! lol all that wasted time, and all i had to do is switch it to onboard sound! forgot i even had an onboard sound card. thanks everyone for your help! STATIC... BE GONE!

rchow
12-15-2004, 03:02 AM
Where can I get a line filter?

Thanks