Karaoke Forums

Alrighty gurus, I need some serious help.

When playing audio on the laptop through my system I'm getting a very loud staticky hiss which disappears completely when you unplug the power supply and run on battery power.  We've tried a different AC adapter with the same results.  Could this be a RAM problem (i.e. not enough)?  Or could it possibly be something more sinister as in the internal power source?

I'm in a bit of a jam with an upcoming gig over the Memorial Day weekend and trying to get this sorted and running correctly.  Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated folks.

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[shadow=white][scroll]Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.....It's about learning to dance in the rain[/scroll][/shadow]

Buy an Ebtech Hum eliminator in the audio lines. It will eliminate this entirely. I had it, and it appears to be related to the hard drive operations.
http://www.zzounds.com/item--EBTHE2PKG

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I'm Not Dead yet...... But every day Im getting Closer !

Is  this his/static coming directly from the lap top  ?

If you listen to JUST your laptop ( no external mixer/amp) do you still here the hiss ?
If that is the case you have a problem ...are you running any external AUDIO CARDS etc ?

What type of laptop
Have you tried another power cord ?

Hi Jam, I've tried two different power cords with the same results and yes, the noise is still present even without listening through the mixer/amp.  I'm running a Soundblaster external sound card on a Dell Latitude C800, an older model but it runs perfectly.  As I said, the noise disappears as soon as you unplug the power source and run on battery power.

EElvis thank you for the suggestion, I'm looking into it and may purchase one.

Any other suggestions?

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[shadow=white][scroll]Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.....It's about learning to dance in the rain[/scroll][/shadow]

Sometimes it just takes a couple suggestions from outside sources to get you on the right track to solving a problem.  Turns out it was just a grounding issue but I'd never have been able to solve if I'd not gotten ideas from you two.

Thanks bunches, this place really is da best!!

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[shadow=white][scroll]Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.....It's about learning to dance in the rain[/scroll][/shadow]

Just something I found...

Run your laptop off battery for a moment, does the hiss go?

Quiet as a mouse running on battery power

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[shadow=white][scroll]Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.....It's about learning to dance in the rain[/scroll][/shadow]

So Cat, when you say it was a grounding issue, was it on the in bound side of the AC adapter or the out bound side? I ask because i have experienced the same problem. What did you do to correct it?

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Quickness of mind will deceive the eye

Thee hissing is caused by a ground loop, either lift the ground on the laptop with one of those (usually) grey adapters that remove the ground on a plug http://www.electronicplus.com/images/products/419GY.jpg


or buy a ground loop isolator, available here....
http://www.radioshack.com/sm-buy-the-gr ... 62214.html

had the same problem but the answer was a bad hard drive it had bad sectors in the drive replaced it and all was good  good luck

its common over here cat, the rock shop cut the ground pin off my 3 pin plug and I never had another prob

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Plugs have a 3rd prong for a reason.

You will be very happy when your notbook isn't fried by bad power that you spent the $20 on a ground loop isolator.

What you're all saying is what we did, plugged it into a piggyback and Voila!, no more noise.  I'm still planning on getting a better fix but at least we know what the problem was now.

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[shadow=white][scroll]Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.....It's about learning to dance in the rain[/scroll][/shadow]

welllll its like this...becos I believe all the stuff that you techies say on here I ran out to buy one, only to find they wont sell them here...so I takes my chances for a clear sound

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

this topic has been covered quite extensively, of late.

I don't know why laptops are prone to this problem but several people (including myself) on the forum, in addition to people I know locally, have experienced this.

The Radio Shack ground loop isolator didn't work for me.  The unit EElvis recommended, which I purchased, did the trick.  Meanwhile, if you're bypassing the ground, as I did initially, make sure that you have a good surge protector in line, perhaps use two?

(PS:  I liked the idea of running the laptop on battery power to help confirm it is a ground loop problem.  Also, and I may be wrong in this, I believe that if you remove the video line the problem goes away)

is it a buzzing sound that gets annoying after a while. if yes it could be your head phone plug in. i had the problem and got a diff laptop no more buzzing...

Just use a couple of direct boxes with ground lifts. Should fix the problem.