D-Link 650+ and static on laptop speaker.

[lzp8bw]

Recently installed DI-614+ and DWL-650+ configuration. Everything works great with one small exception. The speaker on my wife's Compaq Armada 7800 laptop keeps making a 'crackling' sound when sending/receiving. I've changed the NIC drivers with no success. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Greg

[onflight1978]

Originally posted by lzp8bw
Recently installed DI-614+ and DWL-650+ configuration. Everything works great with one small exception. The speaker on my wife's Compaq Armada 7800 laptop keeps making a 'crackling' sound when sending/receiving. I've changed the NIC drivers with no success. Any suggestions?



Hey there. I had the same problem with my previous laptop. It seems the newer models don't have this problem. I questioned D-LINK Tech support on this item. The response was very lame and was told to turn my speakers down. So, basically that gave me no answer. I found out that if I used a different slot with the card it helped. Good Luck!

Brett

[dld121]

Could be the laptop doesn't have good enough shielding.

802.11 is an FCC PART 15 device...the documentation on this makes for interesting reading.

IFR issues are going to happen and you just have to put up with it...at least that is my read.

Try this just for fun...
Take a cellphone make a phone call and hold it near your laptop...

Do you hear noise on your your speakers?
If so, then maybe there is a shielding problem in the laptop.

My Thinkpad doesn't get any noise when I do this cellphone test.
I used a Nokia 6162i phone with Cingular in digital mode.


My D-Link 650+ card doesn't make any noise in my speakers.

[jeriby]

I have the same problem with a Compaq Presario 1200-XL-109

I tried with my mobile phone and I can hear the sound of the phone only if I hold it very close to the D-Link card, but nothing if I hold it anywhere else.

I have two OS on my laptop and I have the same problem with both of them. I tried to update VIA Chipset driver and VIA Audio Driver: no effect...

Very strange because if I disable the soundcard I can hear the sound anyway

[dld121]

Very strange because if I disable the soundcard I can hear the sound anyway

If you hear the sound even with the PC-sound disabled, then this noise is reaching the speakers as RFI coming in on the wires attached to the speakers. (These could be inside the laptop.)

I have a similar situation with an external speaker. If it is unplugged (from the PC, not the AC power cord) and I use a new 900mhz Digital Spread Spectrum cordless telephone near it...I will hear a HUM, it is a hi-pitched Hum/Whine. This is Radio Frequency Interfearance (RFI) coming in on the wires that are "Not Shielded" running from the PC sound card to the speaker.

I haven't tried it, but this could happen even if the power was turned off to the speakers.

When at college (1982) I lived in a dorm room that was about the same elevation as a nearby FM radio station antenna. This antenna was less that 1/4 mile away from the building. My stereo could pick up this FM station on every blank frequency on the dial, unless the other radion station was strong, you could hear the nearby station in the speakers.

One day I found that even with the stereo unplugged from the power I could hear the station very quietly in the speakers. I experimented with this and found that it only took one speaker with a wire attached to the terminals on the back to pick up this station. It was not loud, you had to put your ear right up to the speaker, but you could hear it plain as day! This was caused by the strength of the station and my being so close to the transmitter. This is RFI Radio Frequency Interfearance(sp?). If I put sheilding around my wires, or shortened my wires I could get rid of the background FM station.

So the moral of the story is, good shielding will keep out the extra noise. It sounds like the machines with the noisy speakers are a result of a poorly designed internal wireing system. This could be in the motherboard.

(Note: Twisted Pair Unsheild Cat-5 cable works without much RFI because the twisted pairs are using a ground wrapped around a transmitting wire, this ground negates the RFI from the wire carrying the data. This is a way to get the effect of sheilding without shielding.)

If you ran Ethernet over straight phone wires that were not twisted, you would hear all kinds of noise in devices nearby. And most probably in your computer speakers.

Hope this helps,
dld121