USB Drive causes static

Favs · 10-03-2009, 04:34 PM

Yeah we have 240V AC single phase and 415V AC three phase, both 50hz.

LIEK OMG who has that?

ThetaSigma · 10-04-2009, 02:59 AM

I KNOW. wtf.

snapcrusher · 10-30-2009, 05:40 AM

I have the same problem with an enclosure called ByteCC that I bought. It has a 40GB WD disk in it.
I also bought a generic component cable, so I'm wondering if that is part of the problem.
Has anybody actually isolated this to their enclosure versus the video cable yet?

I don't want to just go buying enclosures hoping it fixes the problem.

The aluminum foil does sound silly to me, I don't see how that could make any difference at all - anyone care to expand on that a bit?

Favs · 10-30-2009, 02:27 PM

It just acts as a sheild.

When I fit off a T.V outlet in a house and I strip the coaxial cable back theres a foil like substance surrounding the cable to help prevent interference.

snapcrusher · 10-30-2009, 11:19 PM

Yeah, I've seen that too when I stripped coaxe.
But do the same principles apply to component cables?
Anyway, just for anyone out there who's keeping track, i actually tried the aluminum foil (my 4 yr old got a big kick out of it!) -- Didn't improve things at all.
Has anybody else got a suggestion?..
I found someone with a similar setup to loan me their USB HD AND component cable to see if either one make a difference.
I'll let you know what the result is.

Cheers

Favs · 10-31-2009, 02:45 PM

Maybe the foil only works with the coaxial cable because I used to work with a guy who suggested it to me.

Stomp_442 · 10-31-2009, 05:02 PM

Coax is not the problem, it's the HDD/enclosure. Have you tried grounding the HDD? Also, a good quality shielded USB cable may help too.

one that looks like this

EDIT - when one of them hard drives is installed in a computer it is pretty well grounded, but installing it into an enclosure may take away some of that grounding, a good fix is to use a hard drive that is made to sit next to your computer, not inside of it. Using a cheap hard drive enclosure, you may never get rid of the problem.

You may also want to try using an electrical outlet that is on a different circut than your tv and wii.

gscout6160 · 10-31-2009, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geant90

Hello, wii hacks, i've been a member without posting for a while, and now i fianlly do with the cry for help or an explenation. My wii as soon as i plug in a USB harddrive that i readied from USB loader, causes onscreen static, im guessing bandwidth usage or something. When in the Wii Home Menu when you plug it in, it starts doing it, and when i remove it stops, the static increases with data transfer why im asuming its bandwidth of hte bus or something idk,i dont have another USB harddrive but i will try my thumb drive as soon as i get it haves any one else haves this problem? I searched and no 1 has expierence this, mayby its just the HD encosure im using, some generic one i bought at a computer show?

I had a similar problem for a long time; it's since been solved, but I'm still not sure what the exact cause was.

I had though it was maybe the USB drive as well, then I noticed the static increased when my refrigerator motor's activity increased, but remained even when the refrigerator calmed down.

In 480i, the static came in the form of wavy vertical lines.
In 480p, it was few bands of horizontal purple static that would scroll from the bottom to the top of the screen, and cause the entire screen to flicker to black, sometimes so often, it'd render a game unplayable.

I bought an isolation A/C box for the television/USB drive, and that helped the problem in 480i, but didn't completely eliminate it. I finally got rid of the static completely by switching to 480p.

So, I don't know if you're having the exact same problem I did, but I'd recommend getting a power strip that provides A/C isolation (a cheap power strip won't cut it)

Also, get a component cable, and set your Wii to run in 480p, if possible.

It might not be your refrigerator like it was in my case, but it does sound like electrical interference.

On a side note, before I got the isolation box, I also tried using an S-Video cable, but encountered more interference than when I simply used the composite cable that came with the Wii.