laptop in car for audio - buzzing sound??

[mbentley]

okay, i have a slight problem. see, what i did was i bought a power inverter for my car so i could run my laptop in my car. i also bought a ip-bus to rca cable adapter for my pioneer radio. i got it all hooked up fine, but as soon as i plug my laptop into the power outlet (or any outlet for that matter) i get a buzzing sound coming over my speakers. i have tried many combinations (rca cables w/o power, power from outside my car, etc..) and i only get it when the laptop is on and the rca cables are plugged in. one thing that i was trying to figure out was what caused the dreaded buzzing that drowns out the music. the way i have the audio hooked up to my laptop is like this: ip-bus adapter to rca, rca to a headphone jack adapter, adapter to my laptop. any thoughts?

[pik4chu]

might try posting in the general hardware section since it sees more activity?

[Pinky]

Probably a power conditioning issue, or too much load on the alternator/electrical system. Those are my 2 guesses.

[Newbie_Doo]

Try grounding the chassis of the laptop to the car. You most likely have an induced ground-loop that is travelling over the RCA cable shielding to the input on the stereo. Running a seperate ground path from the laptop (or inverter) to the car chassis should solve the problem.

N_D

[mbentley]

Originally posted by Newbie_Doo
Try grounding the chassis of the laptop to the car. You most likely have an induced ground-loop that is travelling over the RCA cable shielding to the input on the stereo. Running a seperate ground path from the laptop (or inverter) to the car chassis should solve the problem.

N_D

thanks for all the suggestions. i thought about grounding for the laptop since it isn't grounded... will try that tomorrow when it isn't so flippin cold outside :D

[mbentley]

well i decided to wake up this morning and try it and it now works great :) sound quality is excelent :) thanks nd

[Newbie_Doo]

Awesome. Glad I could help. In another life I sold high-end car audio systems and this was a common problem. Easy enough to fix.