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HD noise in headphones

This is a peculiar problem. Whenever i have headphones on and no audio playing, if there is "heavy" hard disk acctivity, i hear i kinda of like squeak in my headphones everytime the hard disk is accessed. It doesn't do this on the main speakers, and it corrosponds direclty with the HD activity light.

Machine:
HP nw8000 mobile workstation

Any ideas what the cause might be?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Callandor

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Iggy79

Have you tried a different pair of head phones?

maninblac1

ASKER

Yeah, different headphones result with the same problem.

Callandor

The RF may be leaking onto the sound card. Which sound card do you have? The better ones are more resistant to this.

maninblac1

ASKER

I believe it's a SoundMax integraded audio card, remember this is a laptop.

Callandor

Since it's integrated, not much of a chance of replacing the sound card. I think you'll have to live with it.

maninblac1

ASKER

Why is the hard drive generating RF!?!? The only thing i can think of is the magnetic acuator might be causing a induced current in the headphones, but that should have a frequency far greater than the human ear can hear. And even harmonics would be so quiet as to not make any difference. And that magnet should be so weak that it shouldn't generate sufficient interference anyway. Or am i just underestimating this.

SOLUTION

fredshovel

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maninblac1

ASKER

You could be right fred....my headphones have a "volume" feature midway on the cable. I'm assuming i guess, (since i haven't opened that little thing up) that it's an active bandpass/lowpass filter for the frequencies of my headphones. This would explain the amplification of such small variations in voltage that result in this annoying squeak. And obviously since it's audible it occurs in the pass zone and in my range of hearing.

(Looks at the little blob on the cable) "I didn't know you could make filters this small"....stares in awe, still have 2 more years of college to go....*sigh*

Then again, maybe it's just a riastat and adjusts the resistance of the cable.....hmmmm ponders....either way it's some sort of interference generated by the hard disk....thanks guys.