Please help me on this one ,I can hear my HDD through my soundcard.

[greggx101]

I have replaced my soundcard (Terratec ews64)
my case and PSU and still i can here my hard drive making noises through my speakers when the hard drive is seeking reading or writing.
As soon as i turn on my PC i can here the noise,its a loud sort of screeching noise.Ive tried another drive.Still the same.
Ive checked the ground.
What on earth is it???

[JP]

The same problem happens to me. I have found that the noise stops when I remove the CD audio cable between the sound card and the CD-ROM drive. Of course, then you can't listen to CDs, so this isn't a real solution, but give it a try.
-JP
http://members.xoom.com/PSComputers

[CMonster]

Sounds like the "leak" may be on the motherboard.

[SysOpt]

How close is your case to your speakers? I had the same problem, only with my mouse. Every time the mouse moved the cursor a single pixel on the screen, I'd here a high pitched "chirp" out of my speakers.. Turns out that the mouse was too close to one of the speakers...

[SNowlen]

In a case like JP describes, the problem is inductive currents in the sound card wires. We get this a lot in instrumentation circuits because of the monster 60Hz sodium vapor lamps in our lab. Shielded cables knock the noise right out.

In your case, you may be able to solve the problem by shielding the sound cable yourself. To do this, simply wrap a strip of tin foil over the entire lenght of the cable. It doesn't matter how you wrap (spiral, one long strip down the length, whatever), just be sure it goes end to end with one full wrap of tin foil. More than a single layer doesn't help, so use just enough to make your wrap. If you really want to go the whole distance, along the last few inches of one end, put in a length of bare conductor under the tin foil. Ground the other end of this wire to the case and you ground your shield. You can then cover the tin foil with a shrink wrap tubing to protect against shorts, and Viola, shielded cable. This should knock out the stray noise if the cable is really the problem.

[CMonster]

You shouldn't have to go to all these great lengths just to get rid of this noise - your average system user doesn't have to and neither should you. Something is definately worong and you need to isolate the problem child and get rid of it, not band-aide it.

[Susan]

This is a long shot, but...
If the internal speaker wire lead is touching the speakers magnet, that noise will occur, too.

[SNowlen]

I don't agree with CMonster on this. The fact that unshielded cables can act as an antenna is well known. Shielding a sound input cable is not a band-aid, it is a well known and permanent fix to Radio Frequency (RF) interference. If you prefer, go out and spend $30 on a manufactured shielded input cable instead.

Having stray noise is a particular problem for computer systems because of the sharp signal rise and fall times that occur throughout the system. This makes stray RF noise a particular problem. The cpu's critical systems are already protected, but things like the sound card and sound input leads may not be. This does make them vulnerable to RF interference. If you have a HDD with a poorly shielded drive motor, then RF interference is quite possible.

I simply suggest trying the simple before you start tearing down the whole system. My first suggestion (in another thread) was grounding and that seems to have been checked. Now look for RF. Then you may have to go deeper but why not start simple.

[CMonster]

I have worked with radio equipment interference in fleet vehicles for 10 years, the radio equipment in emergency and police vehicles has wreaked havok on all kinds of newer vehicle systems including electronic engine controlers,transmission controlers, antilock brake controlers, seatbelt interlock systems and numerous others. There is only so much that shielding RF can do, the best thing to do is find the specific problem...sometimes it requires a "fix" such as adding a capacitor to the rear window defogger so that it does not act as an antena, but more often it means replacing a defective "leaky" piece of equipment.

You went to the trouble of replacing your case - that involved swapping out the motherboard also --sounds like a lot of work to me. You might just as well check the grounding of the entire house and perhaps add a 10' copperclad ground rod. You could buy a $50- $100 motherboard and give it a try, you could alwasy take it back the next day.

Of millions of PCs sold, built, and upgraded how many do you think have this problem? Really? Any patch cable I have seen for sound card already used the ground as a woven jacket anyway - it can certanly be improved with more shielding, but this is no reason to write an essay.

[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 02-23-99).]

[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 02-23-99).]

[greggx101]

Thanks to everyone trying to help me here.I love you all.


Im very sorry but the first thing to be kicked was the cd audio cable.So thats eliminated.The latest from Terratec, the maker of my sound card ,is that my amplifiers line in is of the wrong impendance ?? Weird because ive tried another amplifier line in and it made no differance. Does this sound like a good explanation or do i have to go to Germany and remind them who won the war??

May i point out to CMonster that yes , youre average system user should not have to shield an audio cable but then youre average system user should not have to reload windows every month either.The EWS 64 isnt youre average sound card as well.But thanks for the replys.