Speakers Making Weird Noises

[Xizerz]

Yesterday, my dad let me start using his studio monitors that he never uses, so I plugged them in through a mix-amp and they sound AMAZING! But that's not why I'm in the troubleshooting section. I'm here because the right speaker makes noises that sync with hard drive activity and usb activity. For example, I started watching the LED video by techquickie and could hear a constant fuzz being made by the speaker. Also, whenever I click, scroll or type, I can hear a short fuzz sound much like the constant fuzz. I can also hear it making the fuzz when my hard drive is reading or writing data and syncs up with the activity LED. (which is actually kinda cool) Anyone know how I can fix it?

 

P.S. I also tried switching the left and right wires and then the left one was making the noise.

[Skander1345]

Shield the cable, perhaps it's electric noise.

[Xizerz]

Shield the cable, perhaps it's electric noise.

what do you mean "shield" it?

[Skander1345]

what do you mean "shield" it?

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHWA_enQA631QA631&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=shielded%20cable

[Xizerz]

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHWA_enQA631QA631&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=shielded%20cable

ah thanks

[manny8083]

Sounds like something is interfering with the speakers, kind of like when you put a cell phone near them. Try to move the speakers around and see what happens.

[D3L3T3D]

Sounds like something is interfering with the speakers, kind of like when you put a cell phone near them. Try to move the speakers around and see what happens

 

To me, it sounds like the noise is coming from the inside. After all, good sound cards are shielded to prevent such interference. Also, if simply moving the speakers was enough to fix this, then it would indicate external interference, but clicking, scrolling and typing couldn't possibly be a source of external interference... I would try plugging the speakers in a phone just to see if it still happens. You would know if it's coming from the computer or from the speaker setup.

 

One time, I could hear radio from my speakers simply because there were parasites (noise) in the power line. I believe a ferrite core could fix this, but I'm pretty sure you're having a different problem. Perhaps you could find where the actual "sound card" is located on your motherboard and try to cover it with some aluminum foil? Just a suggestion, I have no idea if it could help.

[ApolloX75]

Yesterday, my dad let me start using his studio monitors that he never uses, so I plugged them in through a mix-amp and they sound AMAZING! But that's not why I'm in the troubleshooting section. I'm here because the right speaker makes noises that sync with hard drive activity and usb activity. For example, I started watching the LED video by techquickie and could hear a constant fuzz being made by the speaker. Also, whenever I click, scroll or type, I can hear a short fuzz sound much like the constant fuzz. I can also hear it making the fuzz when my hard drive is reading or writing data and syncs up with the activity LED. (which is actually kinda cool) Anyone know how I can fix it?

P.S. I also tried switching the left and right wires and then the left one was making the noise.

How are the speakers hooked up? RCA style jacks, phono plugs, wire clamps?

Since its isolated to one channel it is either the wire itself is damaged in some way allowing RF interference or the output itself is badly shielded. Lots of onboard sound cards are poorly shielded, especially at the rear I/O.

Inspect the wire closesly, look for kinks or nicks in the outer insulation. If its phono plug or rca jack hookup look at the plug itself, sometimes they break at the base. If there is an extension to lengthen the cable that is a big source of signal interference.

Sometimes speaker wires act like antennas and can pick up all sorts of strange things like AM radio signals. You can always pick up some RF chokes (ferrite chokes, mentioned earlier) and put them around the wires, one at each end, and that will often eliminate signal noise.