A fellow SONAR user and good music friend has been having trouble with "speaker chatter." Sometimes it's loud, sometimes it's not, but it's always there. He's tried everything we can think of to solve the problem but so far nothing had worked. His computer it relatively new and far exceeds all the specs needed to run SONAR.
 
Tonight I took my Windows laptop with Platinum and also Producer X2 to his house. He opened his SONAR on his computer and the chatter was still there. Then, we hooked up my laptop to his interface, speakers, etc. and there was not a trace of chatter.  We recorded a little, listed to it, and could not hear any chatter at any time. Then, we unhooked the USB from my laptop and went back into his computer and the chatter started immediately. Several other tests did the same thing.
 
So now we know it's not the software, we know it's not the interface, and we know it is not the speakers. It's his computer. We've made a step forward in eliminating the rest of the DAW but we don't know how to find the specific cause in his computer. We thought that it might be a bad USB port or connection, but it chatters on all USB ports on his computer. We thought that it might be the power supply but he is very reluctant to buy a new one with no advance clue if that will solve it or not.
 
I'm sure that many of the experienced DAW users here have experienced the same thing, so I'm hoping we can get some more ideas on what to check and how to check it without just going out and buying computer parts to try.
 
We'd love to hear all ideas, experiences, and suggestions you have because he have run out of solutions that we can actually try without replacing computer parts.
 
Thanks in advance

DS

Define speaker chatter please?
 
Also as much about his system as you know.  

I found this description he gave of his computer:
x3 studio, with Windows 7 Ultimate, Focusrite 6i6, Asus Puter with AMD FX (tm)-6300 Six-Core Processor, 3.50GHZ, 8 GB RAM, 64 Bit OS.  (I wonder if the 8 gb of Ram is not big enough to match everything else. My laptop has 16 gb, but all my other specs are less than what his machine has.  I think mine just has a 2.5 or 2.6 processor. I'm using Windows 10 and he is using Windows 7. I don't know if that would matter or not with X3 Studio.)
 
I guess the "chatter" could best be described as what sounds like some kind of electrical interference. I used to hear something similar on an old computer that wasn't even a DAW, but the explanation was that it was interference from CB radio transmissions of passing cars or maybe police radio transmissions.
 
It sounds a lot like static, but it can be faint or it can be very noticeable...it varies. It's not a hum like I've sometimes heard from fluorescent lights or other electrical interference. It sounds like a static-y chatter. We always called noise like that chatter, but maybe that's not a common term. It's not a buzz, not a hum, it's not a uniform sound like that. The volume and intensity varies.  Maybe one way to describe it is what I'd expect Morse code to sound like if it was speeded up a lot. Tonight it wasn't too bad, but at other times it's very annoying. Sometimes it's so bad it makes trying to record or even do playback too irritating to even try.
 
Someone suggested a USB filter, but as I mentioned above, every USB port does it. When we unplug from his computer the noise stops. We can unplug from his computer and plug the USB into my Focusrite 2i2 and it works fine...no noise. Someone said it was electrical interference that the Yamaha 50 speakers were picking up, which didn't make sense, and we ruled that out tonight. It's not SONAR. We ruled that out because we ran my Platinum through his interface and mine also to his speakers and there was no static or noise. We know it's not the speakers, interfaces, the USB cables, or SONAR. We've eliminated everything down to his computer. We could randomly try a lot of stuff, but he's going to have to buy any new parts and naturally he doesn't want to do that until we can narrow it down to some specific component of his computer.
 
This clue may be important, or it may not be, but he is also having some unpredictable drop-outs. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. I wondered if it might have something to do with CPU usage and if the two were related, or coming from the same source.
 
Other than recording a sample of the static-chatter, this is about as well as I can describe it. We've been working with it off and on for over a week and the best we've done is narrow it down to the computer itself.
 
Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Thanks!
DS

If what you say about the noise is true it maybe just that radio interference due to a badly shielded system board.  Be sure that both the mother board and the chassis (case) is well grounded.  Also look for ground loops in the connection cables to the external components. If the speakers are powered check them too.
 
Reroute the internal wiring within the case if at all possible. Be sure all connection are solid with the internal wiring. A loose connection can allow interference. Try moving the computer to a different location.
 
This maybe more than you want to do but you could look for cold solder joints on the mother board.
 
It could be an internal component that is causing the interference and the wiring is picking it up. If you hear voices in the noise its probably coming from a radio station and not from a component.   

Can you try this...

Plug some headphones in to the offending computer - do you still hear the chatter/static?

Can you use some other speakers?

This could help identify whether it is the speakers or computer

You mention about plugging the USB from his PC to yours - what do you mean by this, what are you swapping over?

Another thing to try is to disable ALL plugins (I think your press the E key) - some plugins that are not registered emit a chatter/static sound so it is possible he has one on his system that you don't have on yours

No voices. No noise when using headphones. He's moved the computer all over the place and it still does it. We've checked the speakers. He brought them to my house and we hooked them to what I call my Jim Roseberry Platinum DAW and the speakers were fine. When I took my laptop to his house and hooked his speakers up to the Focusrite with my laptop, the speakers were fine.
 
The USB you asked about...We had a USB coming from his computer and one coming from my laptop. Alternately, we used a Focusrite 2i2 and a 6i6. We didn't have to be recording or playing anything. When the USB cable from my laptop was plugged into the Focusrite it was quiet. When we unplugged my laptop USB cable and took the USB cable from his machine and plugged it into the same port on the same Focusrite the static-chatter started immediately.
 
The plugin tip sounds like something we can do and need to do. We'll definitely check this, and thanks for the tip on how to disable all plugins.
 
We can probably check for loose wires, but neither one of us is knowledgeable enough to start working with or testing the motherboard. If he has to try that I think he should take it back to the guy who built it. This is a special build DAW. This is not a desktop tower from Best Buy or New Egg or some other computer place with a tower ready to go out of the box. It was all put together locally and very well could have a loose wire or a deficiency in shielding or grounding.
 
This thread is definitely helping. It sure would be a blessing if this turns out to be something simple like a loose wire or a plugin issue.
 
Is there any common and inexpensive way or electrical hardware to try some kind of special grounding?
 
Thanks! And if you think of anything else please post!
DS

I had issues with constant low level noise on a previous laptop due to earthing problems combined with hdd activity. The only way to get rid of the noise was to unearth the power supply, which is never good!

 
Are you running balanced outputs to your monitors/monitor amp? Do you have a DI with an earth lift switch that you could put between the interface outputs and the monitors to try?
 
THOUGH THIS IS CERTAINLY NOT RECCOMENED AS A LONG TERM SOLUTION ,  if you have a mains earth lift adapter you could try it briefly to at least check whether this is causing the problem.

Just throwing this out there - is he using a wireless mouse/keyboard?

Just a thought, based on the fact that he is having drop outs as well..

Does he have a wireless card fitted? Fry disabling it.

Try increasing his buffers.

I don't think the earth lift is something we need to do now, and I know very little about it.
 
He uses a wired mouse and I brought along my wired mouse and keyboard just to see what would happen, and none of this seems to matter.
 
Could the power unit be causing this?

Thanks!
DS