buzzing headphones fixed by touching metal back?
I've found a few references to this, but none seem to occur when the ipod is by itself (
not in the dock). This will be long, I apologize, but I want to be thorough. I've had 2, 3, 4, and now 5G iPods, and this seems to be peculiar to the 5G (mine is a 30GB).
When I sit at my desk at work, I listen to the iPod through the white Apple headphones, with the iPod on the desk in front of me. Occasionally, I will place it in the dock to charge as I continue to listen with headphones. Volume is turned down to about 15-20%, just enough to drown out computer hum and passersby. Music sounds good and clear, no problem there.
Every once and a while, as I lean back from my computer to stretch or think, I get a buzzing sound in my phones. I thought it was a short in the cord, but by accident I figured out that if I touch the metal part of the iPod's case, the buzzing stopped. Every time this buzzing occurs, I can now touch the case to "short" it out, and continue listening. If the buzzing is particularly bad, when I touch the case, I can feel a noticeable static shock in my fingertip.
I figure that there is something similar to a ground loop being created here by the static buildup of me shifting around in my seat. This occurs fairly regularly when the iPod is flat on the desk in its factory gray slip case, and it seems to be more frequent when it's in the dock, connected to an outlet. There has been no buzzing I'm aware of when I play the ipod through the line-out from the dock.
Is this a fault in my iPod or its headphone jack not being properly grounded to its case? Is this an issue with all 5Gs, or only the few I've seen on these forums? Statically discharging myself on the ipod can't be good for it.
Nik
When I sit at my desk at work, I listen to the iPod through the white Apple headphones, with the iPod on the desk in front of me. Occasionally, I will place it in the dock to charge as I continue to listen with headphones. Volume is turned down to about 15-20%, just enough to drown out computer hum and passersby. Music sounds good and clear, no problem there.
Every once and a while, as I lean back from my computer to stretch or think, I get a buzzing sound in my phones. I thought it was a short in the cord, but by accident I figured out that if I touch the metal part of the iPod's case, the buzzing stopped. Every time this buzzing occurs, I can now touch the case to "short" it out, and continue listening. If the buzzing is particularly bad, when I touch the case, I can feel a noticeable static shock in my fingertip.
I figure that there is something similar to a ground loop being created here by the static buildup of me shifting around in my seat. This occurs fairly regularly when the iPod is flat on the desk in its factory gray slip case, and it seems to be more frequent when it's in the dock, connected to an outlet. There has been no buzzing I'm aware of when I play the ipod through the line-out from the dock.
Is this a fault in my iPod or its headphone jack not being properly grounded to its case? Is this an issue with all 5Gs, or only the few I've seen on these forums? Statically discharging myself on the ipod can't be good for it.
Nik
Windows XP
