can the power supply cause poping through speakers?

[suckit]

I built a system with an ecs board and pentium d 945, and was having problems with audio. there was faint static or poping every so often. althogh it is quiet it is anoying. also a loud pop at shut down, and occasionally at startup. a tech at frys encouraged me to swap out board for a new one and i did and i still had the same problem. so i also tryed upgrading from onboard sound to a creative audigy card and still had problems. i had all the latest drivers installed so im running out of possible solutions here. I'm no expert and this may sound crazy, but i was thinking it was possible that my power supply is so cheap that electrical current isnt flowing right causing some interference or something. i went the cheap route with the caase and bought a tricod 8068 with 480 watt power supply for 60 bucks.

Does anyone think this might be even remotely possible or am i just way off on this one?

 

[ellover009]

The logitech 5500 is famous for popping from unclean power, specially when you turn other things on, so I don't see why it couldn't be that. Try to get a battery backup supply, they are getting cheap enough.

 

[krfan1]

Get another set of speakers or headphones to try (to see if your main speakers are shielded)?

I am betting it may be your speakers--since you said you started with onboard audio and then went to an Audigy (and the problem persisted).

I don't think you need a battery backup.

Concerning the power supply, I suppose that could be the problem. I have been using generic powersupplies for years (until recently when I had to repalce one with a thermatake) and never had a popping noise.

EDIT: Come to think of it. I used to have a popping noise in Linux with my Audigy. The problem was remedied when I disconnected the audio cable from my DVD drive. You could try that also. I'd still test the speakers first, then try the audio cable

krfan1

 

[AddictiveHerring]

It is almost certainly your speakers, however, that last post has a good point too, most "cd audio jacks" actually output terrrrrrible sound, that is distorted by the spinning cd inside the drive. you can disconnect that if the problems have anything to do with playing a cd, or dvd, although I don't think that was your problem. It's good to know anyway. If you just unplug the cd audio jack your soundcard will digitally internalize the sound, and soudn quality will vastly improve. Try using an actual stereo/home theater reciever, with real speakers. That should isolate the problem, if the problem goes away. It was the shitty internal amp on your computer speakers.

 

[asdasd123123]

Mute everything but wave out, possibly something is actually on, like LINE-IN, that's a solid source of noise.

Although it sounds unlikely to be just that with both onboard and your Audigy.

You could try placing the Audigy card at the very bottom PCI-slot, they've traditionally been better off down there, not having any other cards running through their connector.

It can be your motherboard having inadequate shielding, or even something like an IRQ-conflict.

Try shutting off a few devices in bios you don't need, like the COM port and the LPT port, few use that these days

Increase PCI latency (if you can) to 64 from the usual 32.

 

[Sizlik]

If it pops at startup and shutdown get a higher end power supply.

If it pops during normal computer use I would say your problem lies with your AC power source. My logitech speakers pop whenever any electrical device in my house turns on or off. Try using a different circuit or have an electrician run a dedicated line from the breaker box. If you live in an apartment you may even be getting the popping from your neighbors appliances. As mentioned above, a power backup would probably be your cheapest solution. This is what i intend to do on my next trip to the computer store.

 

[AddictiveHerring]

You could also try cutting off the grounding prong/or adapting it so it goes away. The ground is often a source of feedback for speakers, an adapter would be like 99c at any hardware store.

 

[asdasd123123]

You could also try cutting off the grounding prong/or adapting it so it goes away. The ground is often a source of feedback for speakers, an adapter would be like 99c at any hardware store.

Erhm, how about NO, Scotty? The ground is important for getting rid of static electricity and should reduce noise, not increase it.

I can't use a microphone without a grounded outlet, it'll snap crackle and hum more than I can shout..

 

[AddictiveHerring]

lol, fine, I don't know what I'm talking about at all, despite the fact that a microphone is pretty much the exact opposite of a speaker, and that wharfdale just issued a notice to the owners of their subwoofer lineup that the subs hum constantly if grounded and that they apologize and will send an adapter for free to any owner who asks, and that the defect will be eliminated in the next lineup. Have you heard about the new highspeed connection that uses your grounding plugs to send internet around your house? All the grounds in your house are connected and the fact that it popps when the electricity grid changes implies that could be the problem. Try the 99c adapter, if it does nothing oh well, 99c down the drain. And for the record, many houses in the us still are not grounded, and if you unground your shit, nothing bad will happen, just unplug it in a storm. I have been lanning at an ungrounded friends house for years ang guess what, I'm still alive and so is my computer.

 

[thelvyn]

LOL
If you ever looked in your Breaker/Fuse box you would see that the white wire and the ground wire are connected at the same place.
The ground wire is an alternative path to ground that is all.
If there is a switch between the outlet and the box the path to ground may be severed( IE: Turned off ) unless you have a ground wire and dont do something silly like using that adapter or breaking off the third prong.
If your system is drawing power then theres no difference unless theres a short or surge in which case that ground wire may just save your hardware and prevent a fire.
That is just ridiculous. Some company blames the ground for their poor product and you believe it.

 

[cg0def]

I think I know what you are talking about. The noise at the start up and the shutdown is nothing to be worried about. The startup noise is due to windows not having loaded the driver and thus crap gets produced by the sound card. The shutdown is a similar problem. Since you also get ghost feedback in your speakers even after the drivers are loaded, your start up and shutdown noise *problems* gets worst. You can solve some of this by moving the speakers (and subwoofer ) around and further away from sources of EMF ( such as a CRT ). I don't know what kind of speakers you have but if the ghost feedback really bothers you you should think of getting a better set of speakers. Do some research before you buy though.

And don't worry too much about the boot up pops. A similar thing happens on my notebook computer with an Echo Indigo card ( well over $100 price tag ) but as soon as the drivers get loaded everything goes back to normal with virtually no audible ghost feedback.

 

[AddictiveHerring]

"Some company blames the ground for their poor product and you believe it."

http://www.wharfedale.co.uk/speakers.php

"Some company" my ass, you cock, not only did the solution work for there sub, (first hand experience) but if you took even a cursury look at the caliber of wharfedale products you would know that they are NOT blaming the ground for a poor product.

 

[thelvyn]

So now you are saying that the entire electrical industry is wrong and you are correct ? Thats a load of shit.

Every company makes mistakes and they are no different. If it only happens with the ground connected then there is something wrong with their hardware.

Piss off moron.

 

[sailer]

You could also try cutting off the grounding prong/or adapting it so it goes away. The ground is often a source of feedback for speakers, an adapter would be like 99c at any hardware store.

If you've got any power over that third line, there is a problem in your electrical wiring that needs to be fixed, before something bad like a fire happens, or worse, you touch something and get electrocuted. That third wire is for handling shorts on an emergency basis only.

I have seen this type of consistent popping noise come from speakers that didn't have adequately shielded speaker lines. Yes, cheap power supplies can also cause part of the problem, because they aren't shielded properly. Popping that only happens when turning the speakers on or off, though annoying, is common and I don't worry about it.