5.1 surround sound humming/static

[flippykitten]

My speakers are crackling and humming to the point they are unusable. Background: They are 5.1 Altec Lansing computer speakers, a few years old. I'd had problems with them just after I got them and had packed them in a box. So now I pulled them out to see what I could do.

I pared everything down to the subwoofer (which is plugged into a power strip). And the cable that leads from the subwoofer to the right front speaker (which has the "on "button). It still made a (very) loud humming sound with static (almost like knocking at times).

I unplugged the subwoofer and right front speaker, and moved it from the den to the living room. It still had the same behavior. Can this be fixed? Or is it a bad speaker (which would mean the whole system is fubared)?

Thanks in advance,
-flippy

 

[Jesse_hz]

Maybe your cables aren't properly shielded, try replacing them with better quality ones.

 

[flippykitten]

Hmm... I don't know that I can do that. (Can I?)

The cable from the back of the woofer is sort of hardwired into the back of the right front speaker. (Which means I can't do a simple replace, I think?)

 

[mailpup]

Your speakers should be dead silent when there is no sound to play. Something is wrong internally I suspect. I doubt it would be worth fixing at a shop. I know it's too late but you should have tried to exchange or return them while they were still new (unless you got them used). I'm sorry to say, I think you're hosed.

I have an old Altec Lansing THX speaker set I got from Dell around 1998/1999. It has 4 speakers plus a subwoofer. The right front speaker has volume and other controls built into it. It recently began to hum from inside the amp/subwoofer enclosure and I just replaced it with a new Logitech 5.1 THX speaker system. You probably will have to replace yours too.

A side note: If your Altec Lansing is similar to mine, the front right speaker cable connector to the subwoofer seems to be a special proprietary connector, especially since the right front speaker has all those controls on it. All four speakers are hardwired to the back of each speaker, by the way. Therefore, I agree, you can't do a simple cable replacement. However, it may not be a cable problem anyway.

 

[flippykitten]

Thanks for the reply. I was hoping they might be fixable, because they did work for one day (when I pulled them out the second time).

It was only one day though, and then the screeching started. Oh well. It sure was nice while it lasted. Thanks again.