I'm running a Lat top through a Philips sound processor (external sound card type device) and then running to my Preamp with a 8 foot long Microphone type 3 conductor cable that is split right before the preamp into to lines with RCA's on the ends. Bith input and out put same way.

And I hear the HD running I hear all kinds of clicks and noises out of the Laptop. Digital and Optical is not an option. Is there any other way to clean this up. NO ground loop humm it's not that. The lap top is plugged into my Monster Power Center so at least that isn't a problem.

I reminds me of an auto radio picking up the alternator and plug wires.

I can sure live without the Laptop as a server it just would have been neat to have 5-6 hours of music without messing with anything. Like a digital R2R

I was planing on getting an extenal HD and DVD/CD burner to go with this but if it's going to make this much Noise it's not worth the effort. I'm going to try it running on Battery to see if it is because of the new PowerCenter which has caused all kinds of fun with the main system.

How close to your sound processor is your computer? Also keep in mind that the power brick the laptop plugs into can cause horrible noise on your audio lines. I would try moving the sound processor as far away from the laptop and power supply and see what your results are

Sounds like the same problem as I had; 'circuitry' type noises coming through the speakers. You need a Radio Shack Ground Loop Isolator. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062214&cp=&kw=isolator&parentPage=search
Solved my problem first time, was cheap, and did not cause any sound deterioration. Good luck :)

I had the same problem with mine till I found out that if I mute the Microphone the noise stops just bring up the Vol control panel and check the mute box for the Mic.

Ron

muting the cd input may also help this problem. the audio cable on the internal cd-rom picks up alot of noise.

It's easy to do that sound control panel thing, and I did something similar when connecting this monster to my sx-636, lotsa background noise until I found just the one source that my audio was coming from and muted all the rest... voila.. MUCH cleaner audio...

can the laptop run on batteries for a few minutes to test? that would eliminate a lot of questions.

I have a few of those ground loop isolators around, and they're gold for troubleshooting, first I solve the problem, I then get the required number for the application and keep my test ones available.

After that, the laptop's sound card could be deficient.

I have a 50' run to plug my PC in my bedroom into my stereo in the living room. When I first did it I had massive ground loop issues and nothing worked to get rid of it. Basically the 50' RCA's were giant antennas picking up all sorts of crap.

My solution was to plug into the digital out on my sound card and then use an adapter at the stereo end that turns the digital into analog and then two short RCA's go from that into my pre amp. Problem solved.

Perhaps you could do something similar at one end or the other?

Thor where did you find such an adapter?

There is no mic on my laptop so that was a bust.

I do know where the Muting is for the CD input I haven't tried that but then I also haven't tried anything since solving all the main racks ground loop problems today either.

The optical to analog thing seams real interesting