Two Electronics Questions!

[Shegokigo]

First, if anyone remembers, a while back I killed my dog for chewing through my wiring and usb adapter for my PC headset. Well turns out, that's not all she chewed on. My PC speaker cords and PS2 controller cords are chewed. Though luckily she only broke the plastic outer lining and didn't destroy any of the inner wiring. Problem is, I now have some exposed wiring. What to do? At first I thought of buying that black electrical tape, but I was warned against it as I could accidently "tape some cords together that don't belong" and thus ruin the wiring in the process. Any truth to this? Any other ideas that might fix this problem?

Second, I use a Creative Extreme Audio X-Fi soundcard. The drivers are fully up-to-date etc. Problem is, whenever I connect a headset to them through the MIC and IN cables, I get a buzzing noise that's just annoying as hell. Hence why I've been buying USB headsets. Now I hear that using USB completely bypasses the soundcard making it just a lump of useless metal whenever I put my headset on and I'm getting sub-quality sound. Wth?

 

[CynicismKills]

If the internal wires are still intact, I don't see why you can't tape them. As far as I know it'd be the same as the insulation.

 

[Denbrought]

If the inner wiring coating is also ripped open (and may touch each other if you just taped them together), I'd just take a 'cutter, extirpate the chewed zone and then rewire the two ends together wire by wire with the electrical tape. Some more on the outside binding them all together and you're set.

Over last weekend I had to repair a mouse, speakers, internet cable and other assorted crap from a friend's house with scissors and scotch tape... Damn untrained cats and cheap friends. ~_~

 

[PatrThom]

I've done Den's method too many times to count, and in too many places. So long as you isolate all the conductors and don't have to worry about shielding, it works fine.

The buzzing in your headset sounds like a ground loop problem. There are many ways to fix this...isolators, better grounding, etc. The reason you get less interference when using USB is that the sound is not generated (ie, converted from digital to analog) inside the machine, and so it is not affected by interference from other components.

--Patrick

 

[strawman]

she only broke the plastic outer lining and didn't destroy any of the inner wiring. Problem is, I now have some exposed wiring. What to do? At first I thought of buying that black electrical tape, but I was warned against it as I could accidently "tape some cords together that don't belong" and thus ruin the wiring in the process. Any truth to this? Any other ideas that might fix this problem?

There's two layers of insulation. The outer layer is the cable insulation - it covers all the wires. Each wire has another layer of insulation to make sure they don't short to each other.

If the outer layer is messed up, but all you see inside are colored wires, then the cable insulation is damaged, but not the wire insulation. In this case you can wrap electrical(black) tape around the whole cable in the damaged area and forget about it.

If you see that individual wires are damaged and you can see the copper inside the wire insulation, then you'll need to first wrap tape around the individual wires that are damaged so they don't touch each other, and then tape around the whole cable.

All you have to do is make sure copper doesn't touch copper, and you're ok.

Second, I use a Creative Extreme Audio X-Fi soundcard. The drivers are fully up-to-date etc. Problem is, whenever I connect a headset to them through the MIC and IN cables, I get a buzzing noise that's just annoying as *. Hence why I've been buying USB headsets. Now I hear that using USB completely bypasses the soundcard making it just a lump of useless metal whenever I put my headset on and I'm getting sub-quality sound. Wth?

Yes, USB headsets have their own (cheap) sound cards inside them. They aren't terrible, but they aren't anywhere close to the creative card.

Try a new headset with your sound card and see if the buzzing is still there. If it is, I'd send the card back (probably bad output capacitors) or get a new sound card.

-Adam

 

[Mr_Chaz]

First, if anyone remembers, a while back I killed my dog for chewing through my wiring and usb adapter for my PC headset. Well turns out, that's not all she chewed on. My PC speaker cords and PS2 controller cords are chewed. Though luckily she only broke the plastic outer lining and didn't destroy any of the inner wiring. Problem is, I now have some exposed wiring. What to do? At first I thought of buying that black electrical tape, but I was warned against it as I could accidently "tape some cords together that don't belong" and thus ruin the wiring in the process. Any truth to this? Any other ideas that might fix this problem?

Second, I use a Creative Extreme Audio X-Fi soundcard. The drivers are fully up-to-date etc. Problem is, whenever I connect a headset to them through the MIC and IN cables, I get a buzzing noise that's just annoying as hell. Hence why I've been buying USB headsets. Now I hear that using USB completely bypasses the soundcard making it just a lump of useless metal whenever I put my headset on and I'm getting sub-quality sound. Wth?

Which line is the buzzing on, your headset speakers or the microphone? I assume it's your end since it's bugging you, but it might help to narrow it down.

 

[Mr_Chaz]

I agree that it does sound like a grounding problem, and it seems other people with the X-Fi have had similar problems. Try touching the metal plate on the back of the graphics card, or partially unplugging the headset cables (one then the other then both), does the pitch or volume of the hum change when you do any of those?

Also, does the hum exist even when the microphone isn't plugged in?