Crackly crinkly sound problem

[gill tunnel]

When I play sound through my new external sound card (fire box) I hear crackling sounds. This goes for all sounds including sounds in audacity and mp3s played on windows media player. I have tried disabling my wireless card and my built in sound card using device manager but it does not help.
My computer did not come with a fire wire port so I use an express card: “2 port FireWire express card, EC13942, Startech”. The fire box plugs into this port.

When I play sound through my built in sound card it sounds fine.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.



System specs:

Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop
Microsoft Windows XP Home edition version 5.1.2600, Service Pack 3
Processor : “AMD Athlon™ 64x2 Dual-Core Processor TK-55” its version is: “x86 Family 15 Model 104 Stepping 1”. Its speedL 1800MHz
2 GB of RAM
100GB of hard disk space
firewire: Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
computer did not come with firewire port so I use an express card: “2 port FireWire expresscard, EC13942, Startech”
sound card: PreSonus Fire box

[kozikowski]

If I had to guess about it, I would say you had too many adapters strung together. The computer may be able to supply just enough battery to run the Express Card correctly and then not much left over.

The FireBox doesn't plug into the wall socket for power, does it? So it's trying to get all of its operating battery voltage from the Express Card. Clicking, cracking and popping is normal when the computer can't supply enough power for everything.

The Ideal install is to plug a FireBox into a Mac or PC with built-in FireWire. Next best is to put an internal FireWire card into a Deskside PC. Those get their juice directly from the motherboard battery buses. Plenty to go around. Way down the list is trying to do it on a PC Laptop with multiple adapters.

The Mac laptops would work, too. Most of them have built-in FireWire.

I don't know any way out of what you're doing.

Koz