> Because my school is about to force me to buy the Dell Latitude notebook, I
> called Dell Tech support to ask them about the issues that someone raised
> with noise interfering with recognition while the unit is plugged into
> wall...
>
> The gentleman I talked to set that this sounded like it was the power
> SOURCE; that is, the source in the wall! He suggested that a UPS
> (uninterrupted power supply), or at least a good surge protector (but he
> said a surge protector alone might not be enough) would fix the problem...
>
> So, is anyone (with any type of notebook) having the noise-while-plugged-in
> problem using a UPS and/or a good surge protector still having problems?
As people have previously statedTechnical support is feeding you a line of
fertilizer. When you get noise on your audio channel with the power supply
plugged in, it is usually the fault ( usually of the design) of the power
supply. I had this happened to me on a gateway laptop. The manufacturer
change power supplies but it did not help much.
The way I solve the problem was by grounding the chassis of my laptop to the
ground pin on the outlet. THIS IS A VERY RISKY THING TO DO IF YOU DON'T
UNDERSTAND POWER SYSTEMS! I had a ritual where I would verify every time that
the socket was wired correctly before I plugged in my machine. Fortunately,
most industrial sites are very strict about following electrical codes and have
good grounds but I have encountered modular furniture where the grounds
failed. I believe I wrote up the description of how to ground your laptop and
should be in the archives somewhere. If not, I'll write it up again.
--- eric
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