humming noise from laptop

[Markm]

Well I finally got everything hooked up, I have a yamaha 16 channel powered mixer, I gather I plug my laptop into the 8 through 16 channels, but I get this humming sound, is this normal.

[Bigdog]

Humming noise is never normal.

You have a ground loop.

Disconnect the power from the laptop and run on the battery only. See if the noise stops.

If it does the mixer and the power for the laptop are conflicting because of the ground. A ground loop eliminator will fix it.

[Markm]

what is a ground loop eliminater, hardware or software

[DanG2006]

what is a ground loop eliminater, hardware or software

There are two ways aroung that. A ground loop isolater is gonna run some bucks while a cheaper way might be to get a three prong to two prong adapter and eliminte the ground (really not reckomended).
If it still persists after running to battery it's not a ground issue and you need to look into an external sound card which can run you either cheaply or more expensive. I had the same issue and replaced my onboard sound with a behringer u-control 202. Solved my problem with a $30 piece of equipment.

[Bigdog]

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2062214

I use this for the audio.

If you have a hum noise when you hook up the TVs you need one for the video/coax.

[mwadeson]

I use the same one as bigdog. It does help but i have found that if you run all sound components on one circuit lights on another and computer on another i know not always possible but if you can it makes a big difference

[Bigdog]

Usually I'm lucky to find one outlet to use within the area I'm setting up in.

[mwadeson]

as am i but one in awhile sun shines on a dogs a$$