Really, really annoying popping sound in speakers synchronous to USB mouse failing

[Ama-zake]

Around a few weeks after I installed the air filter in my room I've been getting a wierd pop crackle pop crackle sound from my speakers not much different from a bowl of Rice Crispies on a slower scale. At the same time, my MX518 mouse has started to not work and hang occasionally.

I pieced the speaker crackling and the USB mouse failure together and found that some particularly big pops disable the mouse for around a second, the mouse works fine for around five seconds, then another big pop disables the mouse.

Is this just due to low humidity and cold weather, my HEPA filter / Ionizer or is my trusty combo of three year old computer, two year old mouse and speakers from the early 2000's failing on me?

[JWJ]

The pop is the speaker itself turning on/off (resetting to zero quickly causes that sound). Sounds like your USB hub is having some issues.

[Shadaez]

I thought my USB hub was breaking as well, but one of my usb cables had a short in it if it was moved, causing it to reset. Does unplugging anything fix it? If you think it's the air filter, unplug it and see if it continues.