Clicking noise with M-Audio Audiophile USB

I just got an M-Audio Audiophile USB, and the quality of the music from my pc is definitely better than the internal card. However, no i have a worse problem than before. When i play music on my computer through my home stereo there is a significant clicking noise that comes out of my speakers about every five seconds. It's hard to decribe the exact sound in words, sort of a noisy distorted click about every five seconds. I know the problem lies with the M-Audio card cause my speakers sound perfect when i'm not playing music through the computer. Is this problem due to the fact that the card is externally connected to the computer with a usb cable. Before I got this product i was wondering whether a usb hookup is a good thing. I wonder if my suspicions were correct. The cable length is about 10-12 feet, so it's not extremely long. I also noticed, that when my CPU is working really hard, the music I'm playing on my computer sounds horrible, full of distortion and completely unlistenable. But even when all i'm doing is playing music through winamp, i get that terrible click every 5 seconds or so. What's my problem here?

Sorry, another thing. When the mini-fridge's motor in my room just turned off, the music actually stopped! WTF! About 10-15 seconds later it would play again. This is really weird to me.

Also wanted add, it sounds as if it's "skipping" on the music. There's a sort of brief pause during the noisy click.

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Originally Posted by eighthcircuit

Sorry, another thing. When the mini-fridge's motor in my room just turned off, the music actually stopped! WTF! About 10-15 seconds later it would play again. This is really weird to me.

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Just wanted to clarify this statement. When my mini-fridge turns off the sound coming off my computer through my Audiophile USB and out my speakers actually stops until i turn the Audiophile USB's power button off then on again and replay the song. The fridge motor turning back on however does not stop the sound. I don't understand this.

Just a guess. When the fridge switches off, some kind of voltage spike is sent through the house wiring. That spike may be high enough to trigger some kind of self protect action eithei on the sound card or the motherboard.

Maybe good quality surge protectors for both the PC and the fridge might help. Better still would be if you can put them on separate circuits.

You will probably have to do some trial and error to find a solution.

I just found out something really weird. I think this problem may have to do with my new hard drive configuration. Right before i got this m-audio audiophile usb, i got a nother hard drive. My stock drive is a Western digital 80 gig (EIDE) and i added a 200 gig seagate (EIDE)to store my media files. When i have the noisy clicking/skipping problem, it is when i play an mp3 from my new dirve. Oddly enough, if i copy the file and paste it onto my old drive (the boot drive) the music now sounds perfect. I don't even even have to play it from the old drive. The song sounds perfect as long as the song is pasted onto the old drive. I don't get it.