Hi,

I was not sure which forum to post this but this seemed the most appropriate.

I am having issues with electrical interference of some kind. I have a relatively cheap Pansonic hi-fi unit connected to the AC outlet in the upstairs of the house. When I switch the lights on and off from anywhere in the house it causes a pop/crackle on the hi-fi unit. I am no electrician but I think it is strange mainly because the AC outlets and the lights are on different circuits. However I have lived with it, putting it down to my cheap panasonic hi-fi not having a good filtering / isolation circuit. My reasoning for this is because my Yamaha Amp doesn't pop or crackle at all and it is plugged into the same AC circuit.

Recently though I have setup my HTPC with Vista Media Center. It is connected to my router which also has a NAS connected to it. All my music and videos are stored on my NAS. So the HTPC plays contents from my NAS via fixed wired ethernet. The HTPC is connected to my yamaha amp via digital coaxial. Now I have the problem that everytime I switch lights on / off it upsets the network connectivity between the HTPC and the NAS, thus a piece of music being played would pause in silence momentarily when lights are being switched on and off. The HTPC, Router, NAS, Yamaha Amp are all connected to the same AC circuit as the cheap panasonic hi-fi. I have isolated it to the network connectivity because when the AMP is playing the radio it is fine. When the HTPC plays direct from local disk it is OK.

Now I am thinking that there is something wrong with the electrics in the house - but I have no idea what it could be? Any thoughts or suggestions on how I can go about diagnosing the issue / problem?

Thanks in advance


Robert