hard drive noise thru stereo

**gameboy** · 05-21-2005, 05:05 PM

hey i am getting hard drive noise threw my stereo

this is my setup

acer laptop w/car adapter(no inverter here)
using a modulator to get pc to head unit.

this is a temp setup, in a few months i'll get an itx and opus combo up and running

but for now, this is the problem:

when ever the pc is accessing the hard drive, i get noise thru the radio

if i put diodes on the power cable going to the laptop would this help?

or any suggestions?

**optip** · 05-22-2005, 04:39 AM

Hi!

I think this is an FAQ question... you should probably search more on the board.

The noise problems often come about because of grounding problems. One of the most popular solutions/workarounds that seems to be used to solve the problem is to use an external usb sound card such as a Creative Soundblaster NX card.

I'll be crossing my fingers in a weeks time... i'll be installing a CarPC with a PCI Soundblaster Audigy. Hopefully it'll work without noise... i'm not too confident tho!

Good luck with it!

/Optip

**gameboy** · 05-24-2005, 07:26 PM

please let me know how that works for u, i had similiar plans for down the road

**Jahntassa** · 05-25-2005, 12:53 AM

Are you using a wireless FM Modulator? Or one that wires into the antenna behind the radio? If it's wireless, then it's not a ground loop. If that's true, it might be something with your power supply. Try using an inverter with the AC power supply and see if that cleans it up.

**gameboy** · 05-26-2005, 08:37 PM

wired fm modulator, no inverter...with inverter it was worse, i butchered the plug for the laptop(laptop is junk anyway) ...

just have this last little buzz

i have one more thing to check this weekend, i'm going to run a wire from the stereo ground to the ground of everything else....it was an oversight earlier

**Jahntassa** · 05-26-2005, 08:50 PM

I have a random buzz that showed up overnight...i'm going to try grounding everything together as well..

**gameboy** · 05-27-2005, 05:29 PM

well, the radio was the only over sight(i think),

the laptop, monitor, modulator all share the same ground, so, i am going to pull my h/u out this weekend and tap the ground there, and tie it in with the others....

could not hurt anyway right?