My laptop blows

Spawn2031

Spawn2031

Inspired
So I almost always run my laptop connected to my Axe which then always runs direct into our board. Whenever it's all running I get some lovely unwanted digital sounding BS in the line when everything is supposed to be silent. Unplug my laptop's power supply and it goes away. I have my laptop plugged into my furman along with everything else that's in my rig so I am guessing that means this wonderful sound is being generated by the oversized transformer in the power cable for this thing and not being picked up in the power lines of the house.

Anyone have a solution for something like this? It's not earth shattering but sometimes it is louder than others and it can get quite annoying.
 
Does it go away when you move your guitar away from the computer?

I get that issue, but only when my guitar is in very close proximity to my laptop... Like, less than 3 feet
 
unix-guy said:
Does it go away when you move your guitar away from the computer?

I get that issue, but only when my guitar is in very close proximity to my laptop... Like, less than 3 feet
Click to expand...

It's much worse when I have my guitar next to it, yeah. My wireless unit seems to either make it worse or it's picking it up and amplifying it but the sound is there even when my guitar is unplugged from my rig.
 
If you could find a suitable extension cable for the power supply (extension for the DC plug end that is) then you could move the transformer as far away as possible from you and guitar.

Or try wrapping the transformer in copper foil or even kitchen foil for quick test (copper probably best but if the interference lessens with kitchen foil then you could invest in some copper insulating foil).
 
I will try wrapping it in foil as a test. I can't move the transformer very far because the cord from the transformer to the laptop isn't very long and the plug going in is a multi pin that I've never seen before on any other laptop or power cord, so not much of a way to get the transformer further away.

A friend of mine suggested that I might have competing grounds going on and in order to test that I should find an unused IEC cable and snap the ground pin off of it and use that instead of the IEC portion of my laptop charger. I'm going to give that a shot too...
 
Laptops and mixers always seem to generate lots of fun that is not. A drummer of an old band of mine always had the same problem playing backing tracks, I had the same problem when I hooked up my laptop to a mixer recently with a new PSU, and the zumba instructor today had the same problem hooking her iPad up into the sound system. It would appear that shoddy PSU's tend to be very susceptible to this problem.

I solved the problem with my laptop running into a mixer. Instead of plugging the PSU directly into a grounded power outlet I put a DIY adapter in between that disconnects the ground wire. Just the blue and brown wires as it wires. BAM! Weird digital BS gone.
 
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