PC itunes to home theater-loud humming

[mom]

My son has a JVC boombox that is connected to his Dell Dimension 4550, that he uses to listen to his itunes library while at home.
I bought a home theater system for him and hooked up his xbox 360, and t.v. and wanted to also hook up his PC to it too.

The H.T. has a USB and a 3.5 jack on the front of the unit for hooking up a digital camera or MP3 player.

When I plug his computer from the sound card (there is only an analog connection) to the MP3 jack on the H.T., all I get is a loud hum through the H.T. When I plug his ipod into the MP3 jack, all is good--no hum and plays music fine. Also when using the ipod dock, all is good. But when I connect the MP3 jack cord into the computer ANYWHERE, the humming starts, and no music.

I have tried going directly from the sound card jack on the back of the computer, tried the headphone jack on the front of the computer, tried going from the sound card jack with a cord with R/C adaptor on the other end and plugged that into the AUX2 on the H.T., but still can't get anything else but the humming noise. The computer is old--probably from about 2002 or 2003.

The new H.T. is a Philips 1000 watt, inexpensive (all I could afford), that has an upconverting DVD, ipod dock, and FM radio. Any help for this problem? Otherwise, he will have to also keep his JVC boombox in his room, to be able to easily pick and choose songs from the itunes library. Thanks!!

 

[jinjuku]

My first step would be to take the iPod ear buds and plug them into the output on the computer.

Let us know if it hums on the head phones also.

What is the exact model of the H.T.I.B?

 

[jinjuku]

I assume that you are plugging into the middle 1/8th inch stereo connector on the back of the computer. There are a total of three. The middle, light green, connector is the line out.

 

[mom]

HTIB is a Philips HTS3372D/F7.
I haven't tried the ipod earphones, but I did try his headset that he used to use for online chatting, and it worked fine. And yes, I plugged into the line- out plug-(light green). It really is weird--it works fine like it is, going to his JVC boombox. He's been using that for 3 years now. I was just trying to "upgrade" him to some better sound!

 

[jinjuku]

HTIB is a Philips HTS3372D/F7.
I haven't tried the ipod earphones, but I did try his headset that he used to use for online chatting, and it worked fine. And yes, I plugged into the line- out plug-(light green). It really is weird--it works fine like it is, going to his JVC boombox. He's been using that for 3 years now. I was just trying to "upgrade" him to some better sound!

I almost sounds like the cable simply isn't pushed in far enough.

Start a song on the computer and while playing plug into the HTIB. See if at any point you have one of the channels light up and start playing music.

 

[mom]

Thanks for the suggestions. Cables were all the way plugged in. Right now I'm waiting on a ground loop isolator from Amazon, to see if that might take care of the problem. It won't get here for a couple of weeks.

 

[mom]

Ground Loop Isolator Fixed the Problem!

The Ground Loop Isolator Fixed the Problem! After FINALLY receiving the isolator from Amazon, hooked everything up, and it is working just fine!
Thanks to all for your help!

 

[Adam]

The Ground Loop Isolator Fixed the Problem! After FINALLY receiving the isolator from Amazon, hooked everything up, and it is working just fine!
Thanks to all for your help!

Glad that it's working for you! Thanks for letting us know how things ended up.