Hard Drive causing speaker interference?

L

LittleHoov

New Member
Hey all, Im running a set of Logitech Z-2300 speakers off of the laptop in my signature.

I have a somewhat interesting problem. When the speakers are at a decent volume level but there is no sound, for example if Im cranking one song and decide to stop playing it while I look for another one, I hear a lot of popping and cracking.

At first I thought it was just the laptop's onboard sound causing the problem, and Im still not convinced it isnt. But what I started noticing was that the popping sounds were absolutely consistent with the blinking HD light. Meaning that everytime that HD light does its thing, the speakers pop.

I dont think there is anything wrong with the speakers, I used them with no problems on a desktop machine in the past, and they are good quality speakers IMO.

My theory is that its the laptop itself and the hard drive is causing problems with the onboard sound, because I have noticed this occasionally with headphones, although its not as prominent.

Is there anything I can do?
 
How could longer speaker cords do anything? If it is the hard drive then the interference is coming from inside the computer. Since it is a laptop, there is a good chance that the sound card is very close to the HDD and the HDD is causing interference. I'm not sure of any way to rule out if it is the hard drive or the sound card because playing a song requires regular access to the HDD.

Well if it is consistent with hard drive access then do a defrag on your computer while having your volume high enough to see if it makes a difference. A defrag constantly accesses your HDD so if it is the HDD causing interference then it will show you.
 
Wifi and Bluetooth are not turned on by default on my machine, I actually have to manually turn them on as opposed to turn them off.

Im definetely convinced its the hard-drive causing the interference, it was very pronounced when I tried to defrag.

Its not horribly loud or anything, just loud enough to annoy you in an otherwise quiet house. But, once music or games or whatever is playing its no longer noticeable, so I guess that means I should turn the music up and not worry about it.
 
Is there popping and cracking sound when you have the volume on mute?
I had the same problem with headphones even when not playing any sound.
 
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There won't be much chance of stopping something like this if it is hard drive interference. It won't be a digital harware/software clash internally either, it'll be an electrical one that is directly affecting the analogue output mini jack.

Solutions (if you're desperate to fix it) are to get a USB sound card, which would no doubt cure it.

Also, if the z2300s have a digital in, use it instead.

Also, just for the hell of it, plug in a set of headphones instead of the speakers and listen for the sound. If it doesn't appear, then buy a better quality cable the connect to the z2300s. But this is incredibly unlikely.
 
LittleHoov said:
Wifi and Bluetooth are not turned on by default on my machine, I actually have to manually turn them on as opposed to turn them off.

Im definetely convinced its the hard-drive causing the interference, it was very pronounced when I tried to defrag.

Its not horribly loud or anything, just loud enough to annoy you in an otherwise quiet house. But, once music or games or whatever is playing its no longer noticeable, so I guess that means I should turn the music up and not worry about it.
Click to expand...

Well if it bothers you, they do make USB sound cards, some as small as flash drives, and that would likely fix your problem.
 
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