Need help: Cell phone interference

Locust76

So, as the subject line suggests, I need help in my struggle against that damnable buzzing in my computer speakers from GSM cell phones. It wasn't a problem before I got my iPhone, but something about the phone and the way it sits in the dock makes it so that I can't have the thing anywhere near my computer without insanely loud buzzing. Laying it flat on the desk helps a little, but the radio is still ultra powerful and causes massive interference. That's clearly lame because that means I can't use my computer to charge or sync without turning off my speakers (only turning them off helps, turning them down has no effect).

So I have to figure out a way to shield my 7.1 system without Farraday cages, new speakers or whatever the hell everybody else on other crappy forums snidely suggest. I am wondering if ferrite clamps or rings would do the trick? Also, the speaker wires have male RCA plugs on one end and exposed + and- on the other and are VERY thin. Could I replace them with thicker RCA cables and just snip one plug off? Do RCA cables have + and - wires on the inside?

The speakers I have are the Creative Inspire T7700's, if that helps.

embrik

I'd suggest shielding your phone from your speakers, but that would likely cause the cellphone to have no reception. Turning airplane mode on (radio off) on the iPhone would also cause the buzzing to stop. However, you'd then miss calls. Can you just get a standard charger for it that you keep somewhere else and only hook it to the computer when you need to sync?

It's really too bad that they didn't include Bluetooth syncing to the iPhone, that'd solve this one easily. Ooh, does anyone make a sync cradle that uses Bluetooth? Or how about a USB extension cable so that you can move it farther away from the computer?

Locust76

I've thought of a USB extender cable, but this room is like a varitable gauntlet of speakers and amplifiers; move too close in any one direction and you're right up against another amp or another set of speakers.

I think I could probably manage to use a different cradle to charge it. I run 64 bit windows vista, so I can't sync my shit anyways because Apple (in an extremely ironic move) chose not to support users of a minority operating system (you'd think they'd be sympathetic after all these years), therefore iTunes doesn't have 64 bit iPhone drivers.

In the meantime, I've since discovered that proximity to the speakers or their wires is not the problem: The problem is the subwoofer/amplifier. I've put the phone flat (phlat) on the desk on a pad of aluminum foil, which seems to have deadened the interference significantly, but putting the cradle on that same pad still makes tons of interference. Must be the way the waves radiate off the phone or somethin...

Organichu

Wait, doesn't the iPhone not have the ability to be used as a mass media storage device? So how do you place music/video on your iPhone if you can't sync it?

note: I've never owned an iPhone or even an iPod so I guess I'm ignorant.

Locust76

You need to run iTunes to load media on it. Supposedly "Disk Mode" is coming, which allows you to use the iPhone as a storage device, but you'll still need iTunes to load usable media.

Anyone have any interference-busting experience? Since I know that the phone interacts strangely with the sub under the desk, maybe I can put layers of tin foil on the bottom of the desk to shield the signal? Would it be a wire inside the sub or perhaps the spaghetti of wires coming out of the thing need shielding?