Gigabeat F: High Frequency noise

[afruff23]

I am not sure if this is a design flaw inherent in the Gigabeat F or my unit has a defect. In my car, I have a mini-USB charger hooked up to my lighter. My Gigabeat F is attached to my car stereo via the AUX input. When I charge the Gigabeat and play music at the same time, a high frequency noise can be heard which is very irritating. I noticed that the loudness of the sound was correlated to how much I was pushing the gas pedal (pushing the gas pedal=louder noise). Anybody got an idea how to fix this?

[saratoga]

When I charge the Gigabeat and play music at the same time, a high frequency noise can be heard which is very irritating. I noticed that the loudness of the sound was correlated to how much I was pushing the gas pedal (pushing the gas pedal=louder noise). Anybody got an idea how to fix this?

Thats your alternator.   You're apparently using either an unregulated or insufficiently regulated power supply and its coupling voltage spikes from your engine into your Mp3 player.  You should not do this if you want your mp3 player to continue working.

[afruff23]

Thats your alternator.   You're apparently using either an unregulated or insufficiently regulated power supply and its coupling voltage spikes from your engine into your Mp3 player.  You should not do this if you want your mp3 player to continue working.

1. So it's my car? Any idea what I should do to get it fixed (I'm not going to do it myself)? Is this http://ccs.exl.info/noise.html useful?
2. I should not charge anything off of my car's lighter in that case? I noticed that my phone has to be freshly booted in order to charge off my lighter. My GPS charges no matter what though.
3. I should not charge my MP3 player off my car or I shouldn't charge it and play music at the same time.

[Multiplex]

I think what saratoga is saying is that the mini USB charger is not very good.

A good one would isolate the noise and provide protection to your player, if it is such a poor design that it can't stop the noise then I would not risk an expensive player on it - I don't know about the Gigabeat but you'll see plenty of stories of fried players round here.

You GPS is presumably designed to operate in a car and hopefully is designed to cope with all the nastiness that car electrics might throw at it.

[saratoga]

1. So it's my car?

No, its the power supply, like I said above.  Buy one thats properly regulated (they cost maybe $10 in the US) and you'll be fine.