Nameless Voice on 24/3/2009 at 14:16
I'm not at home right now so I can't test any of this at the minute, but I don't think the noise would be audible in the BIOS, since neither the graphic card or the CPU are being used much there.
I'll try a task with high CPU utilisation and then one with high GPU utilisation and see which one makes the noise.
I do have another graphics card that I can borrow to try, though it's not as good as my 8800GT.
I wonder if getting one of those fancy discreet sound cards with better shielding would help with the problem? I'm frankly surprised that no one here has tried to sell me the idea of buying an X-FI yet, since most of the tech support crowd here are usually trying to get everyone to buy those.
baeuchlein on 24/3/2009 at 16:39
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
I don't think the noise would be audible in the BIOS, since neither the graphic card or the CPU are being used much there.
Hmmm... I had not thought about that. Sounds convincing.
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
I'll try a task with high CPU utilisation and then one with high GPU utilisation and see which one makes the noise.
Let's hope it's one of these tasks, and
exactly one. If none of them creates the buzzing noise, or if
both create it, things will really get complicated.
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
I do have another graphics card that I can borrow to try, though it's not as good as my 8800GT.
It may be the worst graphics card in the world, as long as you can insert it into the computer and play a HD video or game like you did before. If the buzzing noise is still present with the other card, then the graphics card alone does not create the audio distortions. If the noise vanishes, however, then the 8800GT is somehow involved.
What you can
do in either case is another question - and furthermore,
if the 8800GT turns out to be the villain in this case, the question remains: Why did it not create the noise from the beginning? Or
did it create the noise, but you were unable to hear it (and if so, why)?
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
I wonder if getting one of those fancy discreet sound cards with better shielding would help with the problem? I'm frankly surprised that no one here has tried to sell me the idea of buying an X-FI yet, since most of the tech support crowd here are usually trying to get everyone to buy those.
Well, my best sound card for modern computers is a Sound Blaster PCI card from 2002; since then, only two onboard sound chips were added to my armada of sound cards. So I don't know much about modern cards like this X-FI thing. By the way, better shielding would only help if poor shielding is actually the reason for that buzzing noise. We still do not know that for sure, I'm afraid...
On the other hand, with the reason for the noise still hidden somewhere among your hardware, I would not recommend buying anything more expensive than a cheap audio cable. That's why I thought of using any graphics card that is already present, no matter how old it might be. And if the piece of hardware causing the trouble is anything else, I would look for a replacement you don't have to buy, too. Like this other sound card you mentioned - a very cheap way of verifying whether your onboard sound chip is the reason for all that buzzing. Imagine you had bought another sound card and only later found out that the graphics card or the CPU (or whatever) caused the noise.:mad:
The hardware industry may cast greedy looks into the direction of my money, but they'll only get it if
I decide it's worth it. It's still
my money after all.:cheeky:
And hardware can do weird things. For example, the cooling fan on my Radeon graphics card turns slower if the Athlon CPU enters one of its low-power states - even if there's just a bit of text displayed on screen, meaning the graphics card is rather bored than doing any real work. So, there's some obscure connection between the CPU and the card's fan.:weird: Really weird!
I wonder what bikerdude would say about this noise problem, though. My hardware knowledge has become dated in the past years, his seems to be much more accurate.
Nameless Voice on 24/3/2009 at 17:55
Quote Posted by baeuchlein
Let's hope it's one of these tasks, and
exactly one. If none of them creates the buzzing noise, or if
both create it, things will really get complicated.
I ran two copies of a prime number generator stress test, so as to use both cores. I didn't hear the noise.
I can't really think of a GPU-only test to run.
Quote Posted by baeuchlein
What you can
do in either case is another question - and furthermore,
if the 8800GT turns out to be the villain in this case, the question remains: Why did it not create the noise from the beginning? Or
did it create the noise, but you were unable to hear it (and if so, why)?
I can answer that one quite easily: I only got these really good headphones recently, and perhaps it took me a week or two before I really became aware of the sound. I can't really hear it on anything except these headphones - nothing else that I have has good enough sound quality to hear it.
The strange thing is that I first became aware of the noise after I bought a longer cable for the headphones. It was just a cheap cable, so it's possible that it's not shielded properly and is causing the noise, but I get the noise on the original short cable, too.
I think that the noise just hadn't really registered in my brain yet before then.
Quote Posted by baeuchlein
By the way, better shielding would only help if poor shielding is actually the reason for that buzzing noise. We still do not know that for sure, I'm afraid...
That's assuming that the interference is being transmitted inside the computer and reaching the sound card, and that better shielding might be able to block out the interference. I have no idea if this is true.
An interesting thing is that I get noise on the headphones when they're plugged into the front jack of the computer with the short lead... even though that jack is currently not set to anything (and I get no audio output on it)!
The noise is louder on that front jack than it is on the rear jacks.
I haven't tried swapping the graphics card out just yet.
baeuchlein on 25/3/2009 at 17:47
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
I ran two copies of a prime number generator stress test, so as to use both cores. I didn't hear the noise.
Looks like the CPU is innocent. RAM and the rest of the mainboard are unlikely to be the cause either. So far, so good.
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
I can't really think of a GPU-only test to run.
Once again I did not think about that before. (Bad habit of mine: Babbling before thinking...:tsktsk:) It's almost impossible to give the GPU lots of stuff to do without using the CPU. Usually, the CPU has to prepare and sometimes send the data to the graphics card before the card's GPU can do anything. I think there were one or two test programs from ATI and NVidia which gave the GPU reasons for getting hot and
perhaps did not do much with the CPU - but only the programmers would know that exactly. Looks like we won't find a "GPU-only task" anywhere.
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
I haven't tried swapping the graphics card out just yet.
I think that's next on the ToDo list.;)
Concerning all that "cable receives interference" stuff: If any of the cables involved (the one from the computer to the headphones, the one from inside the computer to the front jack, and whatever relevant cable may lurk there as well) is acting like an antenna and receives interference, moving the cable around while it's plugged in and you can hear the buzzing noise could yield another bit of information.
If, for example, a cable from the front jack to the headphones received interference, moving this cable around while listening to the noise could result in some audible changes in the noise. That would show that it's indeed this cable which receives the interference. Unfortunately, the same test is not possible with the connections on the mainboard, the graphics card or the sound card. And since you can hear this buzzing even if you use the rear jacks of the onboard sound chip, it's unlikely that any of the cables is the sole cause for this noise.
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
I only got these really good headphones recently, and perhaps it took me a week or two before I really became aware of the sound. I can't really hear it on anything except these headphones - nothing else that I have has good enough sound quality to hear it.
Okay, so there's no recent change, and it's likely that the noise was there from the beginning of time itself.;) Too bad, if it had been the other way around, we could have ruled out several possible causes.
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
That's assuming that the interference is being transmitted inside the computer and reaching the sound card, and that better shielding might be able to block out the interference. I have no idea if this is true.
Unfortunately, I can't think of a way to check out easily whether there's interference transmitted inside or not. Furthermore, there are several ways in which interference could be transmitted from, for example, the graphics card to the sound card. Some ways need an electric connection between the source of the interference and the receiver (the sound card), some involve a wireless transmission - and these transmissions could in theory be received on any radio; in reality, however, PCs tend to transmit electric noise on several frequencies, and whether that would be a problem for the sound card is another question. (Sigh) If only things were more simple...
Let's see whether changing the graphics card eliminates the noise. If it does, we're a step closer to any kind of solution. If it does not... there will be more head scratching, I fear.:sweat:
Riphey on 16/5/2009 at 21:53
Hey, i hope this is not too late.
I have an Asus P6T, that comes with Realtek HD onboard, and i was having the same annoying buzz sound problem.
Some days ago, a friend of mine lend me his PCI Sound Blaster X-Fi (Xtreme Audio) for testing purposes and the problem disappeared.
I thought the only solution i had was to get a PCI Sound card but, a few minutes ago while i was searching on this thread for an answer, i went to check the Master Volume (Output) for the options i had hidden, cause i thought maybe one of those was the one causing the problem, there i found one called PC Beep, i muted that one and the buzz was gone completely.
So I'm buzz free now, and i hope this can help you guys too.
Cheers!
Nameless Voice on 16/5/2009 at 22:25
Unfortunately, I don't have PC Beep (or PC Speaker) option in my master volume control. I assume you're talking about the Windows "Master Volume" control?
Riphey on 16/5/2009 at 23:01
Oh :erg: mine was hidden, i had to go into options > properties to activate it.
I found this image it shows the PC beep control
Inline Image:
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/4264/21809582ps2.jpgMaybe this can help, although I'm not sure if its the same
Turning off win XP master volume beep sound.
Here's the quickest way I found to disable it:
1. Go to My Computer
2. right click for Properties
3. tab Hardware
4. button Device Manager
5. menu View
6. set check box Show Hidden Devices
7. navigate to Non-Plug and Play drivers
8. open Beep
9. tab Drivers
10. button Stop
11. combo Disabled
12. button OK
13. Congratulations!
Inline Image:
http://ahtik.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/beep.pngMuzman on 16/5/2009 at 23:41
You may curse my skim reading after this but; plugging the 'phones into something else entirely (Ipod, stereo, TV) to see what noise there is has been tried right?
Nameless Voice on 17/5/2009 at 00:42
Riphey:I've already tried that, the Beep is disabled in computer management already, to no effect.
Quote Posted by Muzman
You may curse my skim reading after this but; plugging the 'phones into something else entirely (Ipod, stereo, TV) to see what noise there is has been tried right?
Amazingly, I just noticed that my MP3 player makes an even more annoying sound. It's always there, though, just much louder and therefore easier to hear with amplified headphones.
Muzman on 17/5/2009 at 02:16
You say this stuff is still there, only not as bad, when the noise cancelling is turned off (including pulling the batteries)?
Some of this I hope is just better headphones making things more obvious. I can hear the various processing contortions of my PC fans and video card as well if I crank things all the way up (same sort of on-board chip and video card). But my headphones are run by my mixer from the PC line out. If I was to play a normal song at this volume I'd probably break something. At normal volume this interference is barely audible and certainly not a problem.
The thing that springs to mnd is the noise cancelling (or something) is faulty somehow and perhaps picking up the noise and trying to cancel that instead of external sounds.
Rampant speculation of course.
Looking at the manual, these things a pretty boofy and hard to drive; 260ohms. Your PC headphone out is probably in the 20-32ish area (can't be arsed looking it up at the mo, sorry). Same with the MP3 player, I'd wager. Try and find something with an industry rated 300ohm headphone jack and see what it sounds like then.
