[Help] Static from speaker

[ballooneater]

Hello,  everyone!  First post here on Acidmods and I need a bit of help.

I have been following the "Sound Mod" tutorial word for word and seem to have hit a snag.  Whenever I turn on the PSP, a static noise (like white noise on the radio) is emitted from my left speaker.  The problem does not lie in the speaker itself because the right speaker functions perfectly in the left speaker's terminal.  In other words, switching the position of the two speakers has no effect; the one on the left outputs static no matter what.

From what I know of electronics, the problem could be that a capacitor is fried or dead.  If anyone knows what capacitor could be causing the trouble, it would be nice to point that out.

Thanks for your help.

[tmandt]

first of all WELCOME TO AM! and try removing the speaker and putting it back in

[ballooneater]

I've done that a few times, switched the left and right speakers, and even tried shorting out some of the connections.  Occasionally, the speaker dies, but it always goes back to emitting white noise as soon as the PSP is turned on. 

[VoX]

Looks like one the of the Speakers is shorting, look for any solder or metal around the speakers terminal. This is what is causing it

[ballooneater]

The only solder that is apparent on my motherboard is on the +5V and GND solder points that are used for the sound mod.  Is it possible that these points may be interfering with the speaker? 

I've tested these points with my multimeter and there is almost no connection between the +5V and GND.

[gr8npwrfl]

Ok you just installed the mod and now you have problems.

The PSP does not use a dc coupled amplifier so no caps

Does the mod work properly first.

We need to divide the problem in half.

So remove the input to the sound mod from the left side speaker You can leave the right side and power and ground hooked up.

See if this clears up the problem.

If the problem goes away there is something wrong in your mod and we can work on that.

If the problem still persists then we have to look for a solder short in the left side speaker circuit. If you see no problems there then you will need to trace the circuit back to the driver chip.

Let me know

[ballooneater]

Here are the variations I've tried:

Nothing (no mod, no speakers, no solder on board):  no sound (obviously)

Only right speaker in left terminal: static noise

Only left speaker in left terminal: static noise

Only right speaker in right terminal: normal sound

Only left speaker in right terminal: normal sound

Both right and left speakers in their respective terminals: static from left speaker, normal sound from right

Speakers in opposite terminals: static from left speaker, normal sound from right

Sound mod on right speaker: works fine

Sound mod on left speaker: worked, but then stopped


In addition to the static noise, I've felt the speaker and it seems to be obscenely hot even after just a few seconds of use. 

It is possible that there is some solder residue on the copper-colored ground area below the +5V/GND solder points on the motherboard, but I doubt that this is the cause of the problem.

When I first attempted this mod, I accidentally switched the +5V and the +speaker wires, so I may have blown something in the motherboard.

As always, advice is much appreciated

[crashman2k7]

there probaly some current going into ur terminal for the speaker , remember if u have any kinda voltage on speaker it will give u distorted sound!

[ballooneater]

Any idea where this could be coming from?

Would a connection between the +5V and GND do this?  I measured the resistance between the two at around 500ohms, so this could be a problem.