Welcome guest. Before posting on our computer help forum, you must register. Click here it's easy and free.

Author Topic: Audio Interference  (Read 8098 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

CraxorAdam

    Topic Starter


    Starter

    • Experience: Experienced
    • OS: Windows 10
    Audio Interference
    « on: December 24, 2019, 06:14:22 AM »
    Hello, so I have a weird issue, and I tried looking it up and I can't find anything on it.  This has done this with two computers now.  If I have a 3.5 mm device plugged into them, for some reason I get audio interference, I'm pretty sure it is a radio station I am hearing.  I have no audio playing on the computer during this time.  I am unsure what this interference is and how I would fix this.  Thank you!

    Geek-9pm


      Mastermind
    • Geek After Dark
    • Thanked: 1026
      • Gekk9pm bnlog
    • Certifications: List
    • Computer: Specs
    • Experience: Expert
    • OS: Windows 10
    Re: Audio Interference
    « Reply #1 on: December 24, 2019, 07:42:02 AM »
    Maybe I can help.
    Make a short recording of the interference ans post it here in MP3 or WAV format so others hear what you hear.

    CraxorAdam

      Topic Starter


      Starter

      • Experience: Experienced
      • OS: Windows 10
      Re: Audio Interference
      « Reply #2 on: December 26, 2019, 07:53:10 AM »
      I'm not sure how well a microphone will be able to pick it up, I can try once I get a chance later tonight.
      Basically the best way to describe it is like a really quiet radio.  It definitely sounds like a radio station, it has the static and it's very very quiet.

      Geek-9pm


        Mastermind
      • Geek After Dark
      • Thanked: 1026
        • Gekk9pm bnlog
      • Certifications: List
      • Computer: Specs
      • Experience: Expert
      • OS: Windows 10
      Re: Audio Interference
      « Reply #3 on: December 26, 2019, 03:55:30 PM »
      Okay, based on the limited amount of information you've given I have to make some assumptions. I will assume you are using a laptop computer running Windows 10 and you have the ordinary things hooked up to it.
      Sometimes radio stations do cause interference with audio systems. Most often this is when the radio station is quite powerful and located near to your house. But there there are even exceptions to this rule. Most often the interference comes from a.m. radio stations. The FM radio stations seldom produce any noticeable interference on audio system. However, television stations can cause interference because the old standard for television broadcast is amplitude modulation for the video signal. But in most parts of the United States television now has gone digital and that should not be an issue.
      The key point is whether not you can recognize audio sounds that sounded like either music or somebody talking. That would most surely be sounds from an AM radio station. Another scenario would be when somebody is using a single sideband transmitter in your area. Most of the night is from either an amateur or a citizens band transmitter. That kind of interference sounds like a voice but it is not understandable.
      In either case, it is not the fault of the radio station but brother a flaw with the audio equipment. Some audio equipment has report shielding and in some cases the shield on the cable might be broken and you don't even notice it except for the interference from a radio station and possibly a little bit of noise pickup from something else.
      Another type of interference comes from electrical appliances that send noise down the power line. But this type of noise is clearly a noise and not like human speech.
      Television sets can generate a type of noise that can get into your audio system, but this is rather rare because the amount of power level used is not that high and the television usually has filters built into it to keep noise from traveling outside of the TV set on to the house wiring.
      Here are some things you can try with either a laptop or desktop. Try and see if the noise is being carried by some type of peripheral, such as, a keyboard.
      Also, try and see if you can isolate which input on your computer is giving you the noise. Tried to adjust the level of each device that feeds into your audio system of your computer. You may find that it is not coming from any specific device.
      If all else fails, you might consider using a different audio adapter for your computer. That is cheaper than going to a computer shop and asking them to figure out the problem you can get a small audio adapter that fits into your USB port and it has an output for headphones and an input for a microphone. I have used one of these and they work fine.
      By the way, do try listening to your audio with just headphones and not a loudspeaker? In some cases it may be the external loudspeaker that is actually causing the interference. I mean to say that the input to the loudspeakers has some difficulty with the shielding and the noises coming in through either the input wire or through the coupling with the power line. Some portable loudspeakers can run on batteries, and if so, that of the one way to eliminate the power adapter as being the source of the noise.
      Since you have not given enough specific information about your computer, I've had to generalize the different kinds of noise that you could have, especially noise that would come from A.M. radio transmitter nearby.

      I hope this is of some help to you.

      End of dictation.

      CraxorAdam

        Topic Starter


        Starter

        • Experience: Experienced
        • OS: Windows 10
        Re: Audio Interference
        « Reply #4 on: December 28, 2019, 01:20:46 PM »
        Thank you and I apologize for the lack of information.  It definitely is music I hear.  I  am actually using a desktop computer, but I do have the regular things hooked up to it.  I have tried this on two different desktop computers with two different speakers and two different audio cables and I am producing the same result.  So my best guess would be an AM radio station from your description.  It is fine when I use a USB headset with the computer (which is why it's not the biggest of deal) but if I have headphones or speakers connected to either computer via 3.5 mm, it'll produce the same faint music result in the background.  Computer wise, I am running is https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Pavilion-Gaming-Desktop-Tower-Intel-Core-i5-9400F-NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-1660Ti-8GB-RAM-256GB-SSD-690-0073w/902037635?fbclid=IwAR0hA-3LTiJoJT9r4s6qo6qLgomIRDezMo113TdnsW55jJQpO2JaLTQnL18.  I also am running a dell touch screen computer (not sure the model) but this computer does it as well.  The speakers I am using are https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002HWRZ2K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1.  I also have another pair of altec lansing, but those also get the interference as well.  Would it potentially help if I replaced the surge protector that my computer is plugged into?

        Geek-9pm


          Mastermind
        • Geek After Dark
        • Thanked: 1026
          • Gekk9pm bnlog
        • Certifications: List
        • Computer: Specs
        • Experience: Expert
        • OS: Windows 10
        Re: Audio Interference
        « Reply #5 on: December 28, 2019, 07:40:17 PM »
        The specific topic is:
        Radio Frequency Interference with Audio equipment
        Here is a helpful link
        http://www.arrl.org/radio-frequency-interference-rfi
        This is a general coverage of a topic that has many parts.  Yea, the material is for radio amateurs, it is much easier to read that articles by engineers. In fact, ARRL has more info about radio interference.

        Go to the link an look at some of the topics. The scroll down and find two links by K9YC. He has info specif to Audio system issues. A radio transmitter will interfere with nearby audio equipment.
        http://audiosystemsgroup.com/RFI-Ham.pdf

        The problem is also with AM radio stations. Often they are located in areas where a very strong ground wave goes out.  When I worked in Santa Clara, we had some issue with KGO getting into some test tools  that were no well shilled  The station is 50,000 ewatts ats and located on the other side of the San Francisco Bay. The salt water provides and very good surface for the ground wave.

        Basically, the solution is to used more shielding and EMI stuff. Typical surge protectors little or no  EMI filters. Also called RFI filters.

        What is RFI filter?
        This article discusses the RFI filter (RFI stands for radio frequency interference) and EMI filter (electromagnetic interference filter)–aka RF interference filter. EMI, or RFI, is a type of electric or electronic emission that can degrade, impair or prevent electrical circuit performance.

        https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/automation-electronics/RFI-EMI-Filters/

        I think the ARRL articles are more easy  to understand. :D

        If the articles are too much to grasp,n comeback I I will try to help you some more.  I was both a radio engineer and a active Ham operator for many years. And I worked as a volunteer in portable pubic address audio equipment setup and operation. So I have seen a ting or two.  :)
        « Last Edit: December 28, 2019, 07:57:48 PM by Geek-9pm »

        Salmon Trout

        • Guest
        Re: Audio Interference
        « Reply #6 on: December 29, 2019, 04:53:21 AM »
        Years ago I read of an old lady who went to a hospital in the UK saying she could 'hear voices', and they were becoming intolerable. The doctors were considering psychiatric evaluation. One of them thought to ask 'What do the voices say?'. She said 'Well, a man is reading the news right now' (it was just past being exactly on the hour). It turned out she had a metal filling in a tooth, and it was rectifying the 200 kHz signal from a 500 kilowatt BBC AM transmitter 5 miles away. The ground wave covers most of the UK and some of the nearer parts of continental Europe. The tiny sound was resonating in her oral cavity. The doctors could put their ears to her opened mouth and hear the broadcasts. Near a transmitter people sometimes hear such sounds from metal structures, wire fences, etc, mainly where a poorly conducting metal to metal joint is rectifying the signal. Sometimes an arc can be seen if it is dark at the time. I would consider: grounding, shielding, and maybe touch lightly jack plugs, etc, with fine emery cloth. Also signals can be fed back into the input of an amplifier by speaker wires acting as antennas.

        Geek-9pm


          Mastermind
        • Geek After Dark
        • Thanked: 1026
          • Gekk9pm bnlog
        • Certifications: List
        • Computer: Specs
        • Experience: Expert
        • OS: Windows 10
        Re: Audio Interference
        « Reply #7 on: December 29, 2019, 05:14:21 AM »
        Salmon Trout is not telling a false story. This has been documented and you can search for it.

        Metal dental filling in tooth gets radio broadcast
        https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/3638/is-it-possible-to-pick-up-radio-signals-from-dental-fillings

        https://www.portablepress.com/blog/2018/08/can-dental-work-pick-up-radio-broadcasts/

        Here is denial:
        https://mythbusters.fandom.com/wiki/Tooth_Fillings_Radio_Myth

        There are many more sources about this story.

        Salmon Trout

        • Guest
        Re: Audio Interference
        « Reply #8 on: December 29, 2019, 06:34:46 AM »
        You heard stories of farmers near the transmitter (at Droitwich) rigging coils in their barns, connected to fluorescent tubes, to get free lighting. It was built in 1934 and is still operating. There are fewer than 10 of the transmitter vacuum tube type left in the world,  and the BBC does not intend to have any more made.

        Lisa_maree



          Mentor
        • My first real computer
        • Thanked: 162
          • Yes
        • Experience: Expert
        • OS: Windows 10
        Re: Audio Interference
        « Reply #9 on: December 29, 2019, 12:30:06 PM »
        Hi Adam

        Sorry to say these are really cheap speakers. Looking at the Amplifier circuit diagram  and the power supply design  I can understand how you would have this problem. You would be better to get a different pair with the option( if they had the same problem you could return them). There is really nothing you can do with poor designed items.

        Other speakers are around the same price like these ones  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CQOV3YO/ref=psdc_689637011_t4_B010OYASRG
        Which have more options.
        You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”
        ― John Bunyan