Computer Interference (1 Viewer)

[CraigC]

I have the speaker output on my computer running to my Yamaha receiver (R-V503) I don't use a cd player so I just ran it to the cd inputs, however when I run it this way I get an amazing amount of interference. I've tried replacing the chord that runs to the receiver, I've unhooked and rehooked everything multiple times, at one point I thought I had it pinpointed, whenever I would push the surge protector that the computer is connected to into the outlet harder the buzzing sound would temporarily stop, but now that doesn't even work, I tried a different surge protector, not using a surge protector, plugged into different inputs on the receiver, etc... no help. It's seriously going to drive me crazy. I don't get any interference at all when using the xbox, or the dvd player.
Any help would be very appreciated.

 

[Matt`G]

Do you know if your speaker output is on its own sound card, or just part of the motherboard? If it is onboard sound (built right onto the motherboard), it probably uses very poor quality components and is very partial to picking up interference from your processor, your hard drive, etc. Running your sound through a higher quality standalone sound card might improve your situation. It will still be prone to interference from your computer's processor or components (I could hear clicking noises when my hard drive had activity), but it would probably be better than onboard sound. If you want to continue to use your computer as a source, I'd recommend picking up a Sound Blaster Live / Audigy card, or look at offerings by Turtle Beach. While by no means great signal, these should be cleaner and have better processing of your sound.

You've hooked up headphones to the speaker out to see if you can hear the interference directly from the computer? Another thing you could check would be to see where your computer's software volume levels are at. Make sure that none of the volume levels are above 75%, because, like any amplifier, it will begin to distort when hitting its upper limits. This might translate into buzzing or interference. That's about all I can think of right now. Hope it helps.

 

[CraigC]

Yea I've thought of purchasing a better sound card, and yes I still get the sound in the headphones thats what led me to beleive it was something rather then the card.