electrical interference

Hi! I'm getting interference on my tv whenever I have my laptop plugged into the same outlet. I can't move the laptop since it feeds into the tv thru a vga to composite video converter. my tv system is all coax and composite connections (I have -gasp- 3 vcrs - I live remote enough that my county actually still has analog over air tv signals).

any suggestions on eliminating that interference other than the obvious (upgrade from my ghetto gear - which I'm working on saving up towards)? It's not as bad as vacuum cleaner interference, but still a significant loss in quality.

Thanks!
core

Some questions:
* Does the interference go away if you:
- unplug the laptop from the power supply?
- unplug the power supply from the mains?
- turn off the laptop with everything, mentioned above, still plugged in?
- disconnect the composite video cable from the TV?
- unplug the VGA to composite converter from the mains (assuming there is such a connection)?
- do some other similar experiment that I haven't thought of?
* If the interference remains with the laptop power supply unplugged from the mains and your laptop running on it's battery, does it change/go-away if you move the laptop away from the TV?

See where I'm going, here?

interference does go away when I unplug the laptop from the power supply. all the tv gear is hooked into a power strip from one output of the outlet, and the laptop is plugged directly into the other output of the outlet.

does that mean that I have a shielding problem on the vcr/tv side or is there a way to limit noise from the laptop power supply side?

Fred,

if I understand correctly you are using the TV as a monitor for the laptop?

And are you saying that the interference goes away if you power the laptop from a different AC outlet?

Does the interference go away if you unplug the VGA to NTSC video converter from the TV?

Dave,

Thanks for response, but problem solved. Last nite I took a home a back up power supply from work and no interference was present. I guess my third party amazon power supply was as cheap as the price!

thanks again everyone.