When I connect my scope to the gate and the drain of the mosfet I get parasitic noise
and ringing. When I worked on the circuit the IC wasn't using any sockets. So my question is it okay to use a IC socket to trouble shoot the problem? is that the reason I'm having trouble with noise? I'm using a high quality machined socket and it makes it a lot easier to troubleshoot the board.
Thanks in advance.

jmelect

 

It depends.

Some circuits are extremely sensitive to slight changes in parasitics, though if that's the case, then unless it is a circuit that is really pushing the limits (such as RF circuits tend to be), it's probably a poorly designed circuit.

 

Very unlikely.

I would first suspect how your oscilloscope probe is connected to the DUT (device under test), both probe tip and GND.
In extreme situations you need a special GND spring for probing.