Search form

[LL1997]

Hello!

I have a Scarlett 6i6 hooked up to my Lenovo Laptop running the latest version of Windows 10. I bought the interface about 2 years ago and at that time it was running perfectly fine.
Now for about half a year I have the problem that it sometimes randomly produces a kind of popping noise. About the same type of noise as if you change the Sample Rate in the Mixcontrol program (at least for me).
Mostly this happens when the PC is running idle and there is no playback whatsoever. But it happens while listening to or mixing audio as well. Just not as often. Most times there a few pops about every 20s for a few minutes and then none for like an hour to a few sometimes.
I've reinstalled windows twice since this started happening and tried all sorts of Power Options without any success.
Unfortunately I don't have a different PC or Mac at hand to test right now but I'm hoping to do this in the next couple of days.
Does someone have experience with this or can point me in any direction? Could it be hardware related? For about the same time I'm having problems with really sub-par HDD speeds, even after changing the disk. Maybe motherboard/controller or something similar?

Thanks in advance!

Lauritz

[blinddrew]

What else is plugged into your system? If you're just running two devices that both run on external power supplies you may not have a ground in your system.

[LL1997]

Just the laptop, the interface, wireless mouse and keyboard and a license USB stick.
Interface and PC do indeed have separate power supplies, so I'll check if unplugging the PC will change anything.
Didn't think of this yet, as I always thought you would have a constant hum if there was any sort of grounding issue, but I'll look into it.
Thanks!

[Martin Walker]

Tiny but only occasional random pops can also be caused by digital clocking issues, either due to incorrect (or missing) clock signals, or even sub-standard digital cables.


Martin

[blinddrew]

Just the laptop, the interface, wireless mouse and keyboard and a license USB stick.
Interface and PC do indeed have separate power supplies, so I'll check if unplugging the PC will change anything.
Didn't think of this yet, as I always thought you would have a constant hum if there was any sort of grounding issue, but I'll look into it.
Thanks!

If you had a ground loop that might be the case, but it sounds like you have no ground at all in your system - that can cause all manner of little pops and crackles at random times.