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Problem: Popping and crackling when Laptop is plugged in.

post #1 of 9
4/2/11 at 6:04pm
Thread Starter 

Hi guys,

 

I had a question. I have my Stagedac connected to my laptop PC which has all of a sudden began to have problems when the computer is plugged in. Basically there will be pops and crackles all over the music whenever I do anything on the computer (surf the web, play a video, etc.).

 

The blue LED lights on my DAC that are normally luminating the "44" and "kHz" lights on my DAC also flicker whenever this happens.

 

When on battery power, unplugged, this problem disappears. So I've tried unplugging different things that are connected to my power strip but the problem seems to persist.

 

Weird thing is that this happened somewhat recently, but didn't occur before. Any thoughts?

 

Thanks!

 

 

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post #2 of 9
4/2/11 at 9:52pm

Interference from the computer's internals, I think.

Have you tried using the DAC without anything else plugged into your laptop other than the power supply?

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post #3 of 9
4/3/11 at 3:52am
use dpc checker http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml and see whether you get any red or yellow spikes when the pops are there and none where on battery (although it's usually the other way around).
Also, disable all the power saving features and try again.
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post #4 of 9
4/3/11 at 11:28am
Thread Starter 

Interesting, I downloaded that program and there was more latency when on the battery, but I don't hear any pops and crackles when on battery while still hearing much more when it's plugged in. So the pops and crackles don't actually correlate with the latency.

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post #5 of 9
4/3/11 at 12:03pm

Try plugging in other outlets.

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post #6 of 9
4/4/11 at 8:41pm
I actually have the same problem; I get regular spikes in latency up to 1500 microseconds, and every once in a while I get a spike all the way to 16000 microseconds. The audio cracks when it hits >12000 microseconds. Any solutions?
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post #7 of 9
4/4/11 at 9:15pm

Can you adjust buffer size or latency in your Sound settings or in your media player?

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post #8 of 9
4/4/11 at 10:23pm
Increasing the sample rate and bit-depth seems to have fixed it. Im at 24-bit/196k sample rate now. compared to the 16-bit/96k sample rate i was at before. Thanks for the help!
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post #9 of 9
4/6/11 at 8:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by epocs View Post

Interesting, I downloaded that program and there was more latency when on the battery, but I don't hear any pops and crackles when on battery while still hearing much more when it's plugged in. So the pops and crackles don't actually correlate with the latency.


Try disable the power saving features (os + bios) and check again. That might be a clearer indication whether you need to try another adapter, power point,etc Or just reconfigure the power saving features if they're for some reason messed up.
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