Hum or Hiss from Computer

[TKath]

Hello All,
I have a laptop dedicated to recording and everything sounds great, but I am having a difficult time running a regular Dell Dimension desktop into a Mackie 1202 mixer. I run the 1/8" connection from either the soundcard or the speaker ouput and everything is fine with my AKG 240S headphones. Sounds great. But, when I try either output into the Mackie mixer I get a serious hum. I tried grounding the computer to the mixer to a common ground without success. Also, I just hooked the new Bose QuietComfort 3 noise cancelling headphones and got two cans of serious hiss.

I assume something here has to do with the fact that the mixer and the Bose headphones have some sort of power.

Does anyone have any idea what problem I am running into?

Thank you.

[Rimmer]

Originally posted by TKath
Hello All,
I have a laptop dedicated to recording and everything sounds great, but I am having a difficult time running a regular Dell Dimension desktop into a Mackie 1202 mixer. I run the 1/8" connection from either the soundcard or the speaker ouput and everything is fine with my AKG 240S headphones. Sounds great. But, when I try either output into the Mackie mixer I get a serious hum. I tried grounding the computer to the mixer to a common ground without success. Also, I just hooked the new Bose QuietComfort 3 noise cancelling headphones and got two cans of serious hiss.

I assume something here has to do with the fact that the mixer and the Bose headphones have some sort of power.

Does anyone have any idea what problem I am running into?

Thank you.

You should get a dedicated sound card for your machine. It's hit and miss using built in audio chips..

Rimmer

[dewdman42]

I've got the same issue. I actually really want to use the onboard soundcard as it sounds just great enough for live use and the ASIO4ALL driver gives me really low latency on this thing with low CPU usage. I alreay tried a MOTU traveler and let's just say I'm not a big fan of firewire soundcards at this point. Anyway, I'd much prefer a self contained system.

I would like to know if its simply a matter of using a thicker cable with a miniplug on the end...or perhaps there is some kind of impedence issue since the headphone jack on the laptop is designed for headphones..not for line level...

??