Speakers emit static after listening to music for a while

[galeyd]

I have a Dell Dimension E521, Windows Vista Service Pack 2, Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+ 2.00 GHz, 1.00 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE.  When I bought this PC I upgraded the speakers to a Dell Wireless Speaker System Model #: WL6000, I think the system is about 4 years old.  I'm asking for some help with my speakers.  When I listen to music (Windows Media Player) my speakers emit a static, and it's continuous once it starts, it usually starts after the player has been on for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour.  When it gets really bad, I can turn the music off and the speakers still emit that loud static sound.  The longer the player is on the worse the static is.  When I tested it with headphones the static is not there, and when I unplug the headphones the static is again present.  The only way to get rid of it is to turn off the speakers for a while and/or restarting the PC.  The louder the music is the worse the static is, I can turn the volume down and it is better but I can't get any distance out of the low volume.  This has only been a problem the last 3 or 4 months.  My PC is in my bedroom, so I play the music on a higher volume to hear it in other parts of the house.  I don't play on max volume, there is still room to go louder.  I was thinking of a new speaker system, but if it's internal I would be wasting money and still have the problem.  I appreciate any input and if I don't have all the info please ask I can see what else I can find out about my PC to aid you.  Help, please!!! 

[truenorth]

There are a number of tests that you can perform before you spend any money. 1st take the current speakers and try them on another computer and see the result. Next using a pair of wired speakers attach them to your current computer via the speaker port on your computer. See if the result is an improved performance. I suspect in the final analysis it is going to be a deterioration in the wireless speakers. But do the 2 tests 1st. good luck,truenorth
P.S. How do your wireless speakers connect to your current computer--USB port? If so try changing the port for the transmitter particularly if it is currently in a front port--put it in a rear one.

[galeyd]

http://www.amazon.com/Dell-WL6000-Surround-Wireless-Speakers/dp/B000JD3D9I   <exactly what I have (and interesting the reviews left on it! just saw that), I'll try moving speakers around, we have another PC exactly the same as mine in the house that I can attach these speakers too, will take more time than I have at the moment, maybe tonight.  No USB port just the usual speaker plug on the back of the tower.  Thank you for your input.  I suspect the speakers because the headphones had no static but I'll try your testing later tonight.  Thanks for the input!!!

[quaxo]

I usually try not to make generalizations, but I believe it to be your speakers. A lot of people with the WL6000 speakers have reported crackling after 10-20 minutes of usage, usually out of either the front left and right or the front center. Seems to creep up after a year or two of use. A simple search of "WL6000 crackling" brings up tons of results.

Usually, it seems to be affect only one "channel": Front L/R, Rear L/R, or Center/Subwoofer. In most cases, the center speaker shares the cable with the subwoofer, but the crackling sound may be out of the subwoofer's range so it isn't heard coming from the sub, only the center speaker.

I wasn't able to find a solution to cure this crackling problem with those speakers. If they're out of warranty, you're likely left with just a few choices: tolerate it, get new wireless speakers, change to wired speakers, or change to wired/wireless headphones.

[galeyd]

truenorth I think that your advice was great and I was ready to put this thing to the test until I goggled the term "WL6000 crackling" as quaxo had and found all the posts that these speakers have generated.  Seems mine lasted a fairly decent length of time compared to some of the others.  I'm setting my sights on new speakers and will run these on really low volume  until I can find what I want.  So:  Thank You truenorth and Thank You quaxo, I really appreciated your quick and very knowledgeable responses!  Also a BIG thanks to this site, I'm no dummy on the PC but I am far from expert.  It's awesome to be able to use a forum such as this in trying to help ourselves.  As far as I'm concerned my question has been answered and you can close or delete this thread.  Thank you again!!!

[truenorth]

I am sure that quaxo appreciates your kind words--i know i do. I believe you have chosen a good solution. If i might suggest to help avoid this type of issue in the future do as much research on a product as you can before the purchase to minimize potential problems. Having said that we recently purchased a particular Brother printer (inkjet) that had i researched it (BEFORE) would have seen innumerable problems with the magenta ink cartridge that is NOT repairable. truenorth

[TheLoneWonderer]

Hi, im new to this forum but i have been having the same problem with my dell wl6000. i had picked them up from a thrift shop and the crackling had already started, i took it upon myself to figure out what was wrong. i disassembled the powered sub-woofer and removed the wireless card (i hadn't gotten the rear speaker anyways) and the noise/static/crackling had stopped. It turns out the wireless chip was being interfered by other signals around the house. Since then they have worked fine, the quality is good and has a pretty loud max volume. hope this helps people 

[noob5000000]

Hi, im new to this forum but i have been having the same problem with my dell wl6000. i had picked them up from a thrift shop and the crackling had already started, i took it upon myself to figure out what was wrong. i disassembled the powered sub-woofer and removed the wireless card (i hadn't gotten the rear speaker anyways) and the noise/static/crackling had stopped. It turns out the wireless chip was being interfered by other signals around the house. Since then they have worked fine, the quality is good and has a pretty loud max volume. hope this helps people 

I know this is an old topic, but I have the same speaker system and was having the same problem. I'm happy to report that removing the wireless module seems to have fixed my problem as well. I never used the rear speaker so it's not much of a loss to me.

For anyone wanting to tackle this, first unplug the power cable and all other cables and let the woofer box sit for a while (disclaimer: I'm not an electronics expert but I do know that capacitors and the like can be dangerous. I made sure to leave the system unplugged for about an hour before starting work and took care not to touch anything else inside the unit. I'd advise you to read up on electronics safety yourself before doing anything.).

- Pull the bass adjustment knob straight up and off, remove the four screws underneath it.

- Lift the silver trim piece up and sort of bend it a little bit to disengage the front retaining pegs and remove the trim piece entirely.

- Find the 5 screws around the black plastic top piece and remove it. The wire connected to the bass adjustment module won't allow it to be completely removed, just let it hang off to the side. Be careful not to strain the wire.

- Remove the 4 screws holding the subwoofer and pull it up and out. The wires are soldered on, just set the woofer off to the side, being careful not to strain the wires.

- Look into the box through the woofer hole. The wireless module is a small (~2.5" x 1.25") green PCB with a shiny metal rectangular part and some bar code stickers on top of it. It'll be sitting horizontally above the main board. Mine was held down with a zip tie which crumbled as soon as I tried to cut it.

- Simply lift the wireless module straight up, its pins will come out of the connector on the board.

- Reassemble and enjoy your newly-functional front and side speakers and subwoofer.

[Geek-9pm]

These are diagnostic steps.
Try substitution.
Replace the loudspeakers fully with something else.
Stop using a wireless interface until you isolate the problem.

Use headphones alone. Do you still get noise using  only standard headphones?
If so, he issue is inside your computer. The sound card is going bad.

[patio]

The Topic is over 5 years old folks....

[rogertoz]

Thanks to noob5000000 I followed instructions and removed the wireless chip/pcboard in my Dell WL6000. I no longer hear static.
Granted I cannot use the wireless back speaker anymore but I got rid of it a year ago because it was emitting static all the time.
Note the chip is hard to reach and the connector is located in the back of the chip towards the back of th box. I had to remove the back panel to reach it from the top  as the plastic cone sits right over it. The back panel has multiple screws. All need to be removed before you can wiggle it and get the cone out of the way to access the chip from the top of the box.

[PleaseandThankyou]

I registered just to say Yes Thanks to noob5000000. I've been hunting this problem for over a year and up until recently used to get about 30 minutes of good speaker time before escalating static would force me to switch to phones. Yesterday it was all static, all the time. I got internet strikeout all that time searching until today and typing in the model number that I came across the 'billions' of similar posts on the issue.

This did the trick. 25 minutes and following instructions and now I have a great 'all but rear channel' system again. BTW, I easily reused this system from my old 2007 desktop and connected up to my current 2013 Dell desktop with only stereo channels.

Thanks again there noob-. Ancient thread but perfect fix.