STATIC IN MY SPEAKERS!!!!!

[Phat3800]

Hi--I recently purchased a Dell 8100 P4 1.3ghz machine (I wouldn't have gotten it without that nifty employee discount) and got the Altec Lansing ADA885 THX speakers with it. It's a 5 speaker setup, but you have the option of combining the surround speakers w/ the two main ones if you don't have a place to mount them. They sound great, but they're a little staticky, especially when my hard disk is accessing. I have the most current drivers for ALL my components/peripherals and I'm wondering if it has to do w/the power cords on the back of the machine interfering w/the speaker wire (there's a lot of cordage going on back there and I've tried to make it as neat as possible) This has helped, but I'm wondering if there's more I can do. It's barely noticeable now, but as I'm a musician, the quality of my audio has to be the best... Thanks in advance....

 

[mwilcko]

Click on the speaker icon in the lower right hand corner of windows, make sure the volume levels are no higher than the half way up.. alot of people jack the volume control in windows all the way up which will cause static sound on many sound cards.

 

[Phat3800]

Cool-I'll try that..

 

[nightowl]

In making all of your cords looking neat you may have inadvertently caused extra static in your speakers. I remember reading in a home audio magazine that they reccomended leaving the wires hanging loose. When they are bundled together there is a greater change of interference occuring. Now this does not sound like what is causing your problem but it is not helping the situation, especially if you have power cords near the speaker cables.

 

[Aruba]

If the cures the other gentlemen suggested don't work, go to Radio Shack and buy some TOROIDS. Wrap your speaker wires around them and, more often than not, they'll cure the static problem.