This problem is starting to get very weird. Whenever I have the computer on, and I just plug one end of the audio cable in to the computer and leave the other end dangling there, the scanner goes static, squelch at max. When I unplug it, it goes back to normal. I don't see how plugging something into a computer and not having anything to do with the operation of the scanner changes what results I get. I can't wait until I get this new scanner, it will rule out quite a bit.