I sometime connect my laptop to the receiver using an rca/3.5mm jack (connected to cd input on the receiver and the headphone jack on the laptop) and there is always really bad static noise coming from the speakers when not playing any audio. it also affects the sound of whatever audio I am playing on the laptop(music/movie.

Any ideas? Thanks

I had that problem with my old Gateway laptop. I unplugged it and ran off the battery and things improved. My HP doesn't seem to have the problem. Not sure if there is a fix when running off the AC line. Maybe try another input on the Denon.

I agree, I think your problem is your onboard sound card. I would recommend picking up and outboard soundcard, the quality differences are huge. I realized this when I was checking my onboard cards with REW and then purchased an outboard card and checked it, the stock boards had terrible readings, mostly just 70hz up to about 3000hz. the Creative Labs external card I bought has a flat response from 0 to 25000hz.

thanks guys i'll try it out

If possible get an external sound card which has a TOS-link connector, that way you can make a digital connection to the receiver--that'll transmit no noise.

Maj, another option for bypassing the noisy internal computer electronics and taking the clean digital output from the USB port is to use a device such as the Xitel MP3 Streamer (about $40),formerly called the HiFi Link. It converts the output to analog and feeds it into unused inputs on the receiver. I've used the HiFi Link for several years with good results to listen to streaming internet music stations.