Please excuse the OT post, but I believe there are a few of you on here who might be able to help me. I'm having an electrical issue in my apartment and I'm not sure where to start with it. I'm in Korea, on 220V 60Hz. I have a pair of Altec Lansing powered subwoofer computer speakers, as well as a laptop (and other appliances of course, but these are the two in question). With the speakers on (no music; just powered on), all is fine. But when I plug my laptop in, the speakers develop a low frequency hum. It happens as soon as my power brick is connected. I've changed outlets, but it hasn't helped. For the record, most Korean apartments, mine included, have only 3 or 4 circuits. Mine has 3. 8 receptacles, some overhead lights, A/C, washer & stovetop, and that's about it. The other laptop has no effect on the speakers; only mine. I'm also not running most of this stuff, so it's probably not a power draw thing. Maybe a bad power brick? (At the moment I'm running only 3 lights, a rice cooker, and 2 laptops.) Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks, --Derek -- The Uglyroast 3! Coffee Roaster. ...Now 85% less ugly!http://uglyroast.atspace.com |
Are the speakers being driven by the laptop, and do you have this problem when you are on battery? What about the other laptop? Derek Bradford wrote: <Snip> -- There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. |
The speakers have their own power cord. There is hum whether or not they are connected to the laptop--it's purely a power thing. As soon as the power brick is both plugged in AND connected to my laptop, the hum begins. Simply plugging in the brick doesn't do it. There is no problem when I'm on battery. The other laptop does not cause the problem. Unfortunately the power bricks are incompatible, so I can't switch them to rule out my actual laptop. On 7/17/06, J.W.Bullfrog wrote: <Snip> -- The Uglyroast 3! Coffee Roaster. ...Now 85% less ugly!http://uglyroast.atspace.com |
There are several possibilities, but one of them is magnetic field radiation from the power brick getting into the electronics of the speaker system. I assume those electronics are located in the subwoofer box. Try changing the relative distance or orientation of the power brick and subwoofer. J.W.Bullfrog wrote: <Snip> |
I will. Hang on... On 7/17/06, David Liguori wrote: <Snip> -- The Uglyroast 3! Coffee Roaster. ...Now 85% less ugly!http://uglyroast.atspace.com |
Seems I didn't quite do my homework properly. It seems the speakers must also be plugged into the laptop (audio out), which I hadn't noticed before. Distance doesn't seem to have an impact, though. On 7/17/06, Derek Bradford wrote: <Snip> -- The Uglyroast 3! Coffee Roaster. ...Now 85% less ugly!http://uglyroast.atspace.com |
Derek Bradford wrote: <Snip> has this just started? Maybe a failure in some sorta filtering circuit somewhere in the system (not necessarily the power brick). <Snip> -- There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. |
It's been there since I moved back to Korea. Unfortunately, it's a new apartment with a new laptop. I had the speakers last year and they were fine. On 7/17/06, J.W.Bullfrog wrote: <Snip> -- The Uglyroast 3! Coffee Roaster. ...Now 85% less ugly!http://uglyroast.atspace.com |
My first guess would be a ground loop problem. If you google "ground loop" you'll find lots of references on ground loops, what causes them, how to try and fix them, etc. I don't know anything about Korean power so I can't help much. The easiest way to diagnose this in a US system is to "float" the safety ground (for instance plug three prong plugs into a three-two adapter without connecting the dangling ground cord) and see if that fixes the problem. Whether or not you want to do that long term is a safety issue I won't address. On 7/17/06, Derek Bradford wrote: <Snip> |
Great...thanks for the advice. I'll see what I can do. If you're interested, Korean plugs look like this. I actually quite like them...they've got a solid connection, are standard and non-polarized, and never get bent if you step on one.http://www.yung-li.com.tw/EN/products/plug_cat_g.htm#yp-22kCheers, --Derek On 7/17/06, Bill Cutts wrote: <Snip> -- The Uglyroast 3! Coffee Roaster. ...Now 85% less ugly!http://uglyroast.atspace.com |
I should edit my last post for clarity. One thing that makes the plugs so nice is that they sink into the receptacle all the way to the chord, not just the prongs. On 7/17/06, Derek Bradford wrote: <Snip> -- The Uglyroast 3! Coffee Roaster. ...Now 85% less ugly!http://uglyroast.atspace.com |
I like Bills' idea. Ben Bill Cutts wrote: <Snip> -- There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. |
Are the speakers connected to that computer? If so, it sounds like you have a filter problem in the power supply for the computer. The incoming AC is changed to pulsating DC and then filtered to a more pure DC normally, but if the filter circuit stops working, you get pulsating DC. This shows up in the sound output of the computer (or amplifier) and you can hear the 60hz. in the speakers. This is not too good for the computer either. The problem could be in the "brick" or inside the computer depending on where the filter circuit is located. If you have access to a good "brick" that would be the first thing I would try. It may not be necessary to replace the whole thing. A decent tech can replace the filter circuit, but if you are paying for labor it might cost more than buying a new one. Mike Chester |
Derek, Try someone like amusicdirect.com. You may need a device to defeat the ground loop. Aragon made one (still available, I think) called the Magic Box. Ground loops are very common. You may be able to defeat it by making sure everything is plugged into the same circuit. Michael J.W.Bullfrog wrote: <Snip> |
Derek, what brand is the problem laptop? I've been having a similar problem with an IBM Thinkpad when using it to record video direct to HD from the camera via firewire (using DV Rack sw). If the brick is plugged into the laptop I get huge hum in the camera audio, whether or not the camera brick is plugged in, so it's not a ground loop. I had assumed that it was line noise passing through the brick, but your experience sounds like it's possible that it is actually coming from the brick. I meant to experiment with winding the DC lead from the brick through a ferrite ring to see if that would help but since I'm producing short videos I just ran on battery instead. I'll see if I can find the info I dug up on the ferrite cores, but on this list its likely that someone else already has experience... Michael Wade |
Thanks Mike... I don't have another brick I can try, but it's a Dell, so I suppose I'll give them a call in a day or so when I have some time. Should be fun dealing with Dell Korea. For everyone else, I'll post whatever happens when it does. Cheers, --Derek On 7/18/06, Mike Chester wrote: <Snip> -- The Uglyroast 3! Coffee Roaster. ...Now 85% less ugly!http://uglyroast.atspace.com |
Man, that is one dangerous site. It's a good thing I'm not back home, or I'd have had to do some shopping. Thanks. As for the Magic Box, I hope that's not my ultimate solution... On 7/18/06, Michael Guterman wrote: <Snip> -- The Uglyroast 3! Coffee Roaster. ...Now 85% less ugly!http://uglyroast.atspace.com |
It's a Dell, Inspiron 9400/XPS. Thanks for clearing up the ferrite ring issue. I've always wondered what those were for, but never got around to finding out. By always, I'm talking a solid 10 years. Thanks! On 7/18/06, Michael Wade wrote: <Snip> -- The Uglyroast 3! Coffee Roaster. ...Now 85% less ugly!http://uglyroast.atspace.com |
After plugging both plugs into the same circuit, does it make any difference if you reverse the orientation of one of the plugs? If there is a ground loop, you want to get the ground on the same "side" of both plugs. On 7/17/06, Michael Guterman wrote: <Snip> -- =Spencer in Ann Arbor My Unitarian Jihad http://tinyurl.com/6valr)Name is: Sibling Dagger of Mild Reason What are you?http://homepage.mac.com/whump/ujname.html |
Ferrite rings have nearly zero effect at 60Hz (or they would filter the AC power out altogether!) They are meant to eliminate "common mode" radio frequency interference. Derek Bradford wrote: <Snip> |
I had a Physics teacher who was a consultant to the US Gvt. in WWII. A German Messerschmitt was downed and they found a ferrite ring in a vacuum tube in the plane. They called him in as a consultant and he figured out it's use. |
Ferrite rings also work well on data cables as the 1's and 0's passing by can in an abstract way, be seen as like a frequency on the wire. Their main purpose is to reduce and / or hopefully eliminate noise on the line that may cause either a buzz or hum on the audio or 'staticy' or 'lines' in the video. Aaron |
Micheal, your idea of "winding the DC lead from the brick through a ferrite ring" core will add some tiny inductance in the lead, that will attenuate the GHz square waves and spikes flying around digital data and control signals. The rat's nest wiring in computers makes me shudder. They never heard of lead dress or shielded conductors. The ferrite beads amount to an ECO "fix," or "workaround" for an engineering assumption gone awry. When several leads pass through a ferrite bead, the whole thing becomes an rf transformer. Plugging your devices into a common extension or branch circuit will eliminate any power ground loops. Careful- it's possible you could get over 300 volts peak between a couple of different chassis in the case of a couple of failures if the earth grounds have been disabled on the plugs. Remember, if your sub amplifiers are being fed the line level signal out of the preamp, they're getting about a 1 volt signal pretty close to their normal passband frequency. A tiny fraction of 220 volts at power frequency could send the cones out of the baskets The actual problem will be elsewhere- like the MOV/s in the power adaptor "brick" not rated for the 220 vrms (11 vpk) of Korean or Euro power... Cheers -RayO, aka Opa! Customer service from Dell... Rots of Ruck- But the ROK's LOVE coffee, so you may have some unanticipated horsepower. |
<Snip> It is so rated...fortunately. <Snip> Nice. :) -- The Uglyroast 3! Coffee Roaster. ...Now 85% less ugly!http://uglyroast.atspace.com |
There have been a couple of responses pointing out my error in terms of frequency range of ferrite ring cores... Mea Culpa. After digging up my notes and following through a little farther I found that different ferrite compounds are appropriate for different frequencies, but all in various rf bands. Seems to be mostly a ham shack kind of thing. Michael Wade |
For anyone still interested, I haven't had the time to call Dell yet...been too busy with work. However, I have noticed something else I hadn't noticed before: the hum gets louder when I open the lid/power on the screen (or, conversely, gets quieter when the screen is blank/closed). Interesting. On 7/22/06, Michael Wade wrote: <Snip> -- The Uglyroast 3! Coffee Roaster. ...Now 85% less ugly!http://uglyroast.atspace.com |
It sounds like bad DC filtering. If the power supply (brick) has a DC output, then a large capacitor in parallel with the output should remedy the prob. If the output is AC, then the power is rectified & filtered in the laptop. If the latter is true, the laptop will need surgery. McSparky At 01:25 PM 7/22/2006 +0900, you wrote: <Snip> |