Amp picking up Laptop power supply noise - any suggestions

KinchTheBlade

Hi All
I have a dell latitude which I hook into my amp for playing music that I haven't yet burned etc.
I have tried maybe a dozen power supplies (from all the other dell laptops in the office). Each one I've tested gets picked up by the amp so that I can hear various hums, disk spinning and general interference crap on the amp, especially at low at low volume.
Unfortunately my original power supply which was perfectly quiet (so I know its not cables etc etc) is now banjaxed because the connector to the laptop has worn out and doesn't work anymore. Finally, its definitely the power supply because if I run on batteries only its nice and quiet

Can anybody suggest any gizmos to fix this problem (if what I've written makes any sense)?

Thanks for any comments

Kinch

Furp

Are you plugging the power supply into a spererate socket gang as the amp sometimes if you try to sperate which circuit the power comes from it can stop the interference.

The only other thing i can think of is getting a really good socket gang with all surge protecter etc on it but im not sure if this will make a difference.

How about getting a brand new power supply from Dell?

KinchTheBlade

Hi all
May be this is the thing and maybe its not

Having read this ,it seems the magic word is ground loop

http://www.epanorama.net/documents/groundloop/home_solving.html

Hot footing it off to maplins with my hot little keyword I found this:

*******************

Ground Loop Isolator See Prices Below

Shark

View this product's FAQs

Bigger Picture

A low level filter to isolate the ground between the car stereo and amplifier, to prevent car ignition noise and earth-loop hums.
· Remove unwanted noise from your audio system
· Simple installation
· Very effective
Specification
Distortion: >0.001%
Frequency response: 40Hz-32Hz
Input/Output impedance: 10k Ohms

********************************************

The game is afoot

Kinch

KinchTheBlade

Did it work?
yes it did.


Cashback!!

Chalk

that looks like it might be the thing im looking for aswell
any idea of the price?

Chalk

ok, hoping someone can shed some further light on this
got one of them isolator things and have solved the problem of the mysterious buzzing noise
but,
i seem to have passed it on to the tv
if the s-video on the laptop is connected to the tv while the tv is connected to the amp i get the same buzzing noise but from the tv
this goes away if i disconnect the s-video lead

it gets worse
inow if im watching a dvd on the tv-out of the laptop i get a white flicker
not noticeable generally , but i can see it , which is all that matters

any ideas?

the isolators are onlt 13 euro so i wouldnt mind buying a few more to lock out all the items on the amp but im more concerned about the flicker on the tv.
as far as ican see the isolators are only abvailable for audio leads.