High-pitched whining in the MPC outputs?

I bought a second-hand 0.5K just a week ago, and so far I've loved it, but just yesterday there started to be an odd whining in the headphone and amp outputs (like the humming of a computer, as it gets a lot louder when it's saving or loading), and a clicking when I scroll the data wheel (like an iPod). Changing the master volume or rec input does nothing to affect the volume of this.

What might be causing this? Could I have damaged it by taking it around in my schoolbag? I keep it in the box packed in foam when I'm carrying it so I think it should be okay but I'm unsure.

EDIT: Doing a quick search, people say grounding issues have caused this in the 3000, but considering it's running off batteries I'm not sure what to think.

Batteries are low, recharge them.

Oh, okay. Seems an odd thing for it to be doing but it sounds reasonable, as it's nearly hit the low battery warning. Thank you.

solarion wrote:Oh, okay. Seems an odd thing for it to be doing but it sounds reasonable, as it's nearly hit the low battery warning. Thank you.

The 5-hunny is kind of rough that way... you only get about 3Volts worth of usable power. When your fully charged/new batteries you start at 8V. By the time about 6V rolls around you get the whine (it's more/less prevalent depending on the quailty of the batteries used) and at close to 5V the machine just blanks out.

She's a power-hungry little girl for sure.

I use Duracel batteries, got the warning set on 5V or something and never noticed this... I can easily get 5 hours out of them before the warning kicks in. Also turning of the display light works wonders on saving batterypower

I bought myself 12 - 2700 mAh Ni-Mh's. They're about $10 a pack of two, but you get 300 charges, saving money in the long run.

Lithium batteries are expensive but will keep the 500 powered for about a month or more, depending on your preference of use.