Static Ticks

I've been having a problem with static ticks in my headphones for a while now, it happens every time the refrigerator kicks in, or similar heavy electrical equipment switches on. I think it's fucking up my soundcards too, I already fried two. I'm using the on board one right now, and it kind of sucks.

My question is, would a DI Box help cure this problem? Or is there some other fix?

Huisbaas is een lamme zak, hoef ik niks van te verwachten.

DI?

I never used to have this with my previous PC btw, so I dunno maybe it's my motherboard or something?? I'm not overloading my setup with heavy duty video card nonesense or anything like that.

hey lon, thats magnetic radiation,. radiation from your computer components inside the case, or from other electric machines. using balanced cables (in combination with an actively buffered DI box) may help a bit, you can give it a try, it should cut down the noise a bit.

but the best thing to do is to shield every electric machine in your house (expensive and virtually impossible to make watertight). if you're using any PCI cards, try moving them to PCI different slots, spreading them out as much as possible. move your PC case to a different spot perhaps?

earth. are you using a mixer or an amplifier then? look for GND connections.

edit: hey iep,days ago i showed some interest for your supercollider patch,but i can't find that thread anymore.

i don't think this is a earthloop, doesn't sound like it at least. earth is always a steady 60hz (or 50hz in USA) hum, no ticks.

(dildo i'll send you the patch later today)

forlon can you tell us your setup?

it's strange because i actually have static-tick problems with my audio system and i know that the problem is me that i'm too lazy to wire the GND connection on my 70's ampli. :tongue2:

(thanks for that iep! are you a coder?)

  iep said:

hey lon, thats magnetic radiation,. radiation from your computer components inside the case, or from other electric machines. using balanced cables (in combination with an actively buffered DI box) may help a bit, you can give it a try, it should cut down the noise a bit.

 

but the best thing to do is to shield every electric machine in your house (expensive and virtually impossible to make watertight). if you're using any PCI cards, try moving them to PCI different slots, spreading them out as much as possible. move your PC case to a different spot perhaps?

I dunno if it's magnetics man I've actually changed my room a couple of times and nothing changes. I do have a cheap behringer mixer without a ground connection but an adapter. Was using a firewire soundcard for a while and when I used the headphone out instead of routing it via the mixer the clicks and pops where more faint, but still there.

I do have my speakers + HUGE CRT monitor on my deskt next to the PC though. Come to think of it though, things kind of started when I got that monitor. Hmm :)

the fact that you don't have those ticks in onboard-mode is indicative.

try running your firewire card in bus power-mode with your head phones directly connected to it. and tell us.

can you?

  dildo said:

the fact that you don't have those ticks in onboard-mode is indicative.

 

try running your firewire card in bus power-mode with your head phones directly connected to it. and tell us.

can you?

No no it does, but the motherboard doesn't get fried by it for some reason. If I insert a PCI card it gets fried pretty quickly. And the firewire card is busted now too (pot meter got fucked up).

ah,i was believing you were on a laptop,well here the whole thing become more complicated.

what do you mean with "fried"?

fried? man, dont call an electrician, call the fucking Ghostsbusters

i mean, magnetic interferences are common & everyone has them (in meer of mindere mate), but chips dying, that's pretty extreme.. you might want to try using a different power supply for your computer.....

  iep said:

fried? man, dont call an electrician, call the fucking Ghostsbusters

hahaha,forlon you don't mean fried chips,don't you?

Okay. Hmm, yeah I actually bought a new motherboard but don't want to stick it in just yet. Just wanted to run this by EKT first.

I recently bought this too, didn't help much: http://www.sweex.com/producten.php?sectie=...il=a&foto=1

dildo: yeah fried as in busted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

  Forlon said:

(dildo: yeah fried as in busted :)

:omg:

you can buy all the protection you want,it won't solve the problem.

if you tell me that:

-the house wiring is the same

-your old PC was healty

this make me think that who assembled your new machine is a total prick.

if you were having problems also in the old setup then,so the point is on the house wiring.

  dildo said:

you can buy all the protection you want,it won't solve the problem.

 

if you tell me that:

 

-the house wiring is the same

 

-your old PC was healty

 

this make me think that who assembled your new machine is a total prick.

 

if you were having problems also in the old setup then,so the point is on the house wiring.

lol, I assmbled it myself! :embrassed:

mm.. :getlost:

i need to log out now,if you need help i'll be back later.

Yeah thanks u2, I think I'll try and reassemble it with the new mobo in place.

man fuck this shit, I installed the new mobo made sure everything was tight but still a fucking loud CLICK in my headphones every now and then.. I'll get to the bottom of this will try some other suggestions.

well man,if your house wiring is ok,the problem MUST be into your case. try changing the power supplier.

you sure it's happening due to other things in the house? i once had a cd drive with shite drivers and for some reason it clicked loudly every so often, even when not playing anything, it stopped it when i updated the drivers..!

sample it

  kaen said:

sample it

lol.

if your laptop is in warranty, pursue it. laptop manufacturers take cases that might even borderline electrocute customers very seriously and you can make this sound very sketchy

OK I sort of solved it by plugging my headphones in the back of the computer and not using the mixer at all, the UPS does help apparently. Maybe it's my mixer that's fucked.

wtf i suggested you to skip the mixer 3 days ago!!!

:getlost:

anyway i'm glad you solved it