What are reasons for noise on audio lines?

[Comdrpopnfresh]

I'm used to my laptop giving static when I plug headphones into it and use them to listen... but my desktop gives very bad static over headphones too. It gets worse with disk usage and gpu loading... Is this a situation to use one of those ferrite rings to try and cut out interference, or is there another solution to the unknown cause?

 

[mpilchfamily]

This can be caused by a loose connection or a lack of shielding on the wires. But if it happens on both your Laptop and Desktop i'd be looking at the Headset as the problem.

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

well the static isn't present on the controller headphone port for my speakers. but what could be loose? Used a bunch of headphones- on my laptop I've concluded the noise is simply interference, because using headphones with more impedance cuts it out.

 

[corkyg]

And that tends to point to poor shielding of the headphone port circuitry in the laptop. What brand is it?

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

dell e1505. I'm not so concerned about the laptop- my topic was mainly started to remedy the issue with the desktop. I didn't have the noise on the fp_audio line in my old desktop- though I only used AC'97 and not the azalia (HD) audio. I own a creative X-FI xtrememusic that worked fine in my old system... but not the new(ish) one. Trust me- I've tried nearly everything, and no changes to the system keep that damned sound card from cracking and cutting out- I currently think if I can get this cause of this fp_audio noise fixed, the soundblaster card may work.

 

[Howard]

I don't think it's poor shielding, unless he's in an extremely noisy environment. Perhaps the ground wire is loose - I know that can cause a similar problem.