Hard Drive Whine?

[Tooth]

Yesterday I completed the install of the PIE HON98-AUX in my 2004 Civic. I connected my 30GB photo to the HON98-AUX using the Nyko Stereolink. I'm not charging/powering the ipod from the car, so I grounded the HON98-AUX behind the dash using the supplied ground wire.

The sound is great.

However, at the beginning of each song I can hear the light electroinc whine of the ipod's hard drive spinning -- through the car speakers.

I checked for the whine with and without the ground wire connected and it is present regardless.

I've read other posts from people experiencing this same problem and it seems that the installation of a ground loop isolator does not fix it.

Any ideas about why this is happening or what I can do to fix it?

[GavinD]

That is pretty strange - I am going to assume you might have a bad unit.

[ru']

Does it still make the whine when the car engine is not running?

[Tooth]

The whine is present when the engine is running AND when the engine is switched off.

[ru']

Can you hear the noise when the iPod is on headphones only?

Does the adaptor use the headphone output or the docking port?

Does the noise increase when you turn up the volume of the iPod?

How loud do you have to turn your car stereo up with the iPod compared to the radio, for example?

[Tooth]

I don't hear the noise when using headphones only.

The adaptor uses the docking port to recieve the audio signal.

The noise is not affected when I turn the volume up or down on the ipod.

When I use the ipod, I turn the volume up on the car stereo to a level comparable to what I usually use to listen to the cd player. That is to say, I don't have to turn the volume to a higher level or lower lever than usual.

I posted this question on the PIE forum and one of their techs responded with the following:

"We have NOT experience this manny issues witht the PIE part number HON98-AUX. We have not had anyone have an audio issues regarding the hard drive of this unit. You may want to add a grounloop isolator, not just any. Make sure it is radio shack's part number 270-054. Or we can take a look at it and evaluated to see if we can see the problem."

[ru']

Sorry for all the dumb questions; just trying to get my head around what's happening.

Do you have a mate with an iPod you could borrow, and see if it does the same thing? That'd eliminate one aspect.

I'm not familiar with the adaptor you're using; when you say you're not charging it in-car, does it have this option? If so, have you tried it?

[Tooth]

The PIE adaptor itself does not have a port to allow in-car charging.

I might go ahead and try PIE's suggestion to install a ground loop isolator just to see what happens.

[GavinD]

Try that and if it works cool and if it does not - send it back. :p

[Phenomena]

I have the same problem as you, using the Belkin charger/input/amp cable on a 97 Nissan Altima. I use a 20GB 4th gen iPod.

[tcamp1]

I have a 30 gig Photo and the Roadtrip FM trans. and it does this too, but it doesnt bother me at all because I can only hear it when I switch songs manually and not when I let it play through. Im guessing it just gets covered up by the music. Which is fine for me!

[GavinD]

That’s why I always recommend people to get the best adapter they possibly can…