Bad ground or something....

[striker85]

I've been having this problem for a while, but it suddenly got very worse and really intolerable. I have a Turtle Beach Catalina (8 Channel analog, SPDIF, Digital 5.1, etc.) I use the 5.1 analog outputs (the mic jacks). So I have them all going to my Dolby 5.1 home audio reciever (front, rear, center/sub). For a while there has been a really annoying, albeit quiet until now, hum/crackle/buzzing noise. At first I could only hear it through my sub (which is a bass guitar amp that I rigged a cable for to use it with my reciever). Then I started hearing it through my front speakers. THEN, I started hearing it through all of them and it got louder. Just a few days ago it started buzzing REAL loud. I removed the cable that I used for my sub and it seemed to go away. But then it came back. I unplugged all the cables from my computer. When I touch the cable on my computer case or anywhere metal on my computer it buzzes real loud. This makes me think it is a bad ground somewhere between my computer and the wall socket. But then when I leave all the cables unplugged, the speakers have some buzz from the receiver. So, what could it be? I'm about to tear the wall socket apart to see what is going on with the ground.

P.S. I have all my stuff running through a couple of surge protectors. But I have 1 protector on each wall socket and my computer is on one and my receiver is on the other. I've also tried using a small 2.1 powered speaker set to completely eliminate the receiver and it doesn't buzz but it still has a kind of surging in volume (high, then cuts low for a second or two and comes back).


So, what the dilly?

[denz_1]

Try connecting them to the same socket
I have a problem like that aswell :s doesnt go away

[grumperfish]

You could pick up a couple ground loop isolators from Radioshack for ~$10/each, and that should help somewhat, unless the problem is the receiver itself.

[striker85]

How would I go about testing to isolate the faulty component?

[bchur83]

Does your receiver have an optical input? That is what I had to resort to with my setup. Obviously optics can't transmit electricity, so that isolates the ground loop. Otherwise, run some speaker wire from the receiver ground to your PC and make a good contact between them. That will also lower the chance of the receiver trying to ground through the audio cables.