Audacity Forum

One step ahead on that one. I usually use it with the external power supply plugged in. Today I tried it with that unplugged, using the USB as power supply. Both ways result in static.

anevsky wrote:One step ahead on that one. I usually use it with the external power supply plugged in. Today I tried it with that unplugged, using the USB as power supply. Both ways result in static.

Rats!

Now I really am out of ideas.

-- Bill

anevsky wrote:I'll see if I can get my wife to give up her dell laptop tomorrow to see if it works better there.

Please let us know the results of that test.
Also if you could test her computer with the Logitech USB headset.

OK, I brought in her dell and have had perfect recording so far. I'm now on my second record. It would have gone wrong before now if it were following previous patterns, so it must be something with that computer. Ugh, back to that.

It looks to me like the USB connection on the problem computer is having trouble keeping up, and so every now and then it looses synchronisation with the audio data, resulting in bad noise (scrambled data).

What's the specification of that computer?
Which version of Windows are you running?
Have you tried all of the USB ports? (if it's a full size computer there will probably be USB ports on the back as well as the front).

It's a Lenovo Thinkpad Edge 420. It apparently came in with Windows 7 on it, but our IT guys stripped it off and installed Windows XP instead (apparently communicates with our old servers more easily). The soundcard is a Conexant something-or-other (don't have it with me). The computer has three USB ports on the left (one of which is also SATA). I have tried all of them with the same result. It has one on the right that I have not tried (mouse plugged in). I could unplug the mouse and try over there, but I can't imagine it would change much. Will try tomorrow and let you know, just because it's the only thing I haven't tried.

Back to the Lenovo, back to the static. Doesn't matter which port.

anevsky wrote:It's a Lenovo Thinkpad Edge 420. It apparently came in with Windows 7 on it, but our IT guys stripped it off and installed Windows XP instead (apparently communicates with our old servers more easily).

Check on the Lenovo website that you have up to date drivers for your computer http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/default.page?
Take care to select the exact model number and download the drivers that are appropriate for your version of Windows.
Apparently the Lenovo Edge has USB 2, but if you only have generic USB1 drivers installed, that could account for the poor USB performance.