Hi,
This has been a grueling week and I'm pretty much stuck. The problem is that I moved into a new flat and whenever I connect my speakers to my desktop computer, they produce a very loud, persistent static which makes them unusable. The setup used to work fine at my previous home! My monitors are active Yamaha HS7. Here's all the troubleshooting I've done, based on advice I could find online so far:
- The character and intensity of the static varies with computer activity, e.g when moving the mouse, CPU computations, updating the display, etc.
- The static is also present, albeit less intense and chaotic, when browsing the BIOS menus
- Disabling all power savings features in BIOS didn't help
- Speakers are quiet if they're not connected to an audio interface
- Speakers produce clean audio when connected to my laptop, whether the charger is attached or not
- Plugging the computer and the speakers into various sockets around the flat and changing their relative locations doesn't improve it
- Using either the front panel, or the rear panel output from the onboard audio doesn't improve it
- Tried using two different external USB-powered audio interfaces, no improvement
- Tried using a separately powered amplifier connected to the output of the onboard soundcard, no improvement
- Tried routing audio via the HDMI output of the discrete GPU card, hooking up an HDMI monitor, then connecting the speakers to the audio output of the monitor; no improvement
All this seems to suggest that any audio interface connected to the computer, regardless whether it is powered separately or not, regardless whether it takes digital or analog input, is receiving this electric discharge, which then travels across the audio cable and into the speakers. This is all the more bizarre since the setup used to work fine at my previous flat. I guess sending the audio wirelessly to an audio interface is possible, but it would introduce unacceptable latency for my needs. Can anybody please help me troubleshoot this further?
This has been a grueling week and I'm pretty much stuck. The problem is that I moved into a new flat and whenever I connect my speakers to my desktop computer, they produce a very loud, persistent static which makes them unusable. The setup used to work fine at my previous home! My monitors are active Yamaha HS7. Here's all the troubleshooting I've done, based on advice I could find online so far:
- The character and intensity of the static varies with computer activity, e.g when moving the mouse, CPU computations, updating the display, etc.
- The static is also present, albeit less intense and chaotic, when browsing the BIOS menus
- Disabling all power savings features in BIOS didn't help
- Speakers are quiet if they're not connected to an audio interface
- Speakers produce clean audio when connected to my laptop, whether the charger is attached or not
- Plugging the computer and the speakers into various sockets around the flat and changing their relative locations doesn't improve it
- Using either the front panel, or the rear panel output from the onboard audio doesn't improve it
- Tried using two different external USB-powered audio interfaces, no improvement
- Tried using a separately powered amplifier connected to the output of the onboard soundcard, no improvement
- Tried routing audio via the HDMI output of the discrete GPU card, hooking up an HDMI monitor, then connecting the speakers to the audio output of the monitor; no improvement
All this seems to suggest that any audio interface connected to the computer, regardless whether it is powered separately or not, regardless whether it takes digital or analog input, is receiving this electric discharge, which then travels across the audio cable and into the speakers. This is all the more bizarre since the setup used to work fine at my previous flat. I guess sending the audio wirelessly to an audio interface is possible, but it would introduce unacceptable latency for my needs. Can anybody please help me troubleshoot this further?
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