How do I check that my motherboard is properly grounded? I am getting unwanted sounds in audio recorded via my USB audio interface, especially from sources connected to external devices with their own power cords (e.g. my bass amp), and I am trying to see whether some problem with grounding of the motherboard or other components is to blame. I have been trying to bridge various places on my case to ground with a voltmeter, but I can’t find anywhere on the case that isn’t painted, and in any case I’m not knowledgeable enough to know whether the case being grounded would automatically mean that the motherboard was grounded too. On the other hand I don’t want to ignorantly poke my voltmeter in the wrong place and damage the computer. Can anyone tell me what I am supposed to do? Thanks in advance.
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For others reading this, it is ground or grounding in the USA and earth or earthed I believe in the UK but they are the same.
You could carefully look for pinched wires, power wires running taught near audio wires or circuits, for the source of the ‘noise’. You could turn off or unplug other devices as a test. You could temporarily unplug a case fan to see if it is causing the noise. You could try another power supply in the computer since it is possible that a cheap power supply is feeding the noise on one or more of its voltage busses.
You have to be a little bit crazy to keep you from going insane.