• Registered: 2011-12-29
  • Posts: 4

Topic: Buzzing and Humming when opening a window in Win7 64 bit and FF400

Hello People,

i have a strange behaviour with my used Fireface 400.
When i'm on my Desktop i have a very quiet nearly not noticeable humming on my Speakers.
But when i open a Window, say "My Music" Folder the Buzzing gets noticeable louder. And when i open Ableton the Buzzing gets louder, too.
So the only time i have a quiet Place is when no window is open, means when i do nothing.
The other thing is when a window is open and i move the window around the buzzing gets sometimes louder and quieter depending on where the window is at the moment.When i make the window smaller the buzzing gets quieter, too.
So now i' m working on a 24" Benq Monitor and the window is maybe a third of
the size, when i switch to fullscreen the buzzing gets louder.
My Specs are:

Windows 7 64 bit
i3-540 3,06 Ghz Clarkdale ( the one with a Graphic Chip inside)
4 Gigabyte Ram
LaCie Firewire PCI Card
FF400 goes firstly into a GS1 from Allen&Heath and then via RCA to XLR into the Monitors.

Like i said it's a used FF400 and what i noticed is that i have a Jentec JTA0410D-C Power Supply with it.Could it be the Power Supply.
Before the Fireface i had a Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP and there was no Humming or Buzzing!

The last thing:
When i go to System/Sounds/Playback= no Buzzing
When i go to System/Sounds/Record   = heavy buzzing.


i don't get it

Regards,Riukii

  • From: Minnesota
  • Registered: 2011-12-30
  • Posts: 3

Re: Buzzing and Humming when opening a window in Win7 64 bit and FF400

Sounds like a power supply problem.  Try and plug the supply into another power outlet across the room or on another circut and see if that changes the pattern.  Move the supply as far as you can from the other equipment and see if that changes anything.  If you alter the pattern of the buzzing by making changes associated with the power supply then the supply is likely the problem.

  • Registered: 2011-12-29
  • Posts: 4

Re: Buzzing and Humming when opening a window in Win7 64 bit and FF400

High,
thanks for the answer.
I took Power from another room and definitely a different Power circuit, to my ears it got even worse.
When i switch to Bus Power the hell breaks loose.I have humming, buzzing everytime i move the mouse, and my Display starts to flicker.
Could it be my Power Supply from the PC?

I will try now to take a different PCI Slot for the FirewireCard.

  • From: Minnesota
  • Registered: 2011-12-30
  • Posts: 3

Re: Buzzing and Humming when opening a window in Win7 64 bit and FF400

@riukii
Whatever is casuing the buzzing and humming is either traveling on the power supply line or is being radiated through the air ( like a radio transmitter). if you turn on a portable radio near your setup does it have interference too?

Another thought is that there is an open connection on one of the cables. Disconnect and reconnect everything one time to make sure the problem isn't a connection.

  • Registered: 2011-12-29
  • Posts: 4

Re: Buzzing and Humming when opening a window in Win7 64 bit and FF400

Hello Again,

After some testing i think i have two causes.
The first thing is that i had a faulty Display Cable.I bought a new one and the humming when opening a window was gone!
The second thing is buzzing coming from the Firewire Card or Cable.
I switched the PCI Port for the Firewirecard and it's the same.
In case anyone is interested it's this Card:

http://www.dabs.com/products/lacie-fw40 … -6KQY.html

it has a TI-Chip

I don't have a second FirewireCable to test but i will try to lent me one from my friends.
So half of the Problem is solved.
I will try now the suggestion that you gave me...

  • From: Minnesota
  • Registered: 2011-12-30
  • Posts: 3

Re: Buzzing and Humming when opening a window in Win7 64 bit and FF400

@riukii

What happend?  Did you fix the problem?  Let us know what it was since this sounds like it could be a common problem and others may benefit from the solution.

7 Reply by Monomix (edited by Monomix 2012-03-22 08:50:29)

  • From: Zürich
  • Registered: 2012-03-21
  • Posts: 4

Re: Buzzing and Humming when opening a window in Win7 64 bit and FF400

I had a similar problem with my Fireface 400. There was a permanent background crackling, and an additional buzz dependent on other activity, with a few different causes:

- Mouse movement
- Keyboard activity
- Screen content (the brighter, the more buzz, the worst being a fully white screen such as a maximised Explorer window).
- Hard disk seek activity

To make things a little more infuriating, there were times when the noise was simply gone, seemingly without reason. I tried a number of things (switching power supply anyway, changing cables, changing mouse and keyboard, general violence) before realising, absolutely by chance when my foot brushed up against it, what the problem was: the Firewire cable connection. Jiggling the connector in the PCI card cut out the interference completely. The best thing about this was that it happened as I was writing a post here to ask for ideas on how to solve the problem!

It's a shot in the dark, but it's worth checking that the Firewire cable is properly connected so that the EMI shielding is working, otherwise it's just acting as an antenna for all the electromagnetic junk spat out by the components of your PC.