Sometime back in July I got a new Dell laptop plus a matching Dell monitor of pretty decent specification. Needless to say I was very excited! First up, I remove and throw away the 500GB 7200RPM drive (hehe, not really) and replaced it with a WD Black SSD. This SSD was gifted with a fresh new license of Windows 10 Professional. With Windows configured and my usual software installed, all is going very well now, until later that afternoon I connect my craptastic JVC headphones to the 3.5mm socket. It sounds fine; what you'd expect from a laptop DAC. Fast forward approix. 10 min, and a funny crackle sound has started to develop. Naturally this annoyed me :nono:. Quickly, I connected it to my phone and listened... but the crackle was not there. This meant the laptop was the source of my trouble.
Jumping ahead by a few months 'till today, and I somehow got an idea that it could be a ground loop. Normally this would not be the case, as the ground from the laptop charger must not be connected to earth. With that said, I took my multimeter and checked between the earth on the monitor's IEC socket and the ground on the 3.5mm headphone socket on the laptop for continuity (with both connected via an HDMI cable and a USB cable for the built in hub). Success, I think, as I see zero resistance between the two points. :facepalm:
Thankfully the fix was as easy as drinking water. I got an extra cable which has an attached 3 pin plug with a female IEC connector. I cut off the mold injected IEC plug and replace it with the last mechanical one I had lying around. Success, again! Now the crackle is completely gone.
I was rather surprised that it not only worked, but that I also didn't blow up something... as is all too common here :sh1tstirrer:
This thread here helped me understand some of the details of how grounding works.
Jumping ahead by a few months 'till today, and I somehow got an idea that it could be a ground loop. Normally this would not be the case, as the ground from the laptop charger must not be connected to earth. With that said, I took my multimeter and checked between the earth on the monitor's IEC socket and the ground on the 3.5mm headphone socket on the laptop for continuity (with both connected via an HDMI cable and a USB cable for the built in hub). Success, I think, as I see zero resistance between the two points. :facepalm:
Thankfully the fix was as easy as drinking water. I got an extra cable which has an attached 3 pin plug with a female IEC connector. I cut off the mold injected IEC plug and replace it with the last mechanical one I had lying around. Success, again! Now the crackle is completely gone.
I was rather surprised that it not only worked, but that I also didn't blow up something... as is all too common here :sh1tstirrer:
This thread here helped me understand some of the details of how grounding works.
