Annoying audio issue. Possible interference with sound card.

K

Kanaric

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 19, 2005
Messages
325
Bought a Auzentech Forte card recently and am running a crossfire setup so I only have really one choice in how to install my pci cards.

It seems whenever my main video card goes under a high load I get annoying buzzing audio interference. This also happens when I scroll on something that has a white background in programs like internet explorer.

Anyone have any way for me to fix this issue?

edit: Sound card is in a pci-e slot immediately above the video card. I read about possibly using this ERS paper, how would I apply it? Is this stuff conductive? Any other suggestions?
 
Last edited:
Improvise a Faraday shield? It's sort of dicey though, you have to be careful not to short anything. Switching to an external solution would be better if you can return the Forte.
 
Well, you could take one of the video cards out first to make sure that's the culprit and that there isn't something wrong w/the Forte...
 
I have disabled the neighboring video card card and then ran the same programs that were causing these sound issues and they went away. I know its the video card that is causing this.

The video card that is at the bottom of the motherboard had no effect even under full load.

I dont want to get rid of this sound card, the sound is absolutely awesome beyond all expectations with the headphones I have. Easily the best i've ever heard on a pc in terms of playing music. Plus it acts as surround sound in games and I can hear people behind me as if these headphones are 5.1. I guess I can deal with it, just hoping that I can find a solution to this one annoyance.
 
Options:

(1) Live with the problem
(2) Improvised shield
(3) New motherboard
(4) New card

There's no magic software setting on the video card that says "please stop screwing up my sound card" or anything. It will keep doing this unless you make a hardware level change.

Hmm, you could possibly also improve the grounding of one or more of the cards involved. But that can get a bit advanced, and it would be a partial solution at best.
 
An improvised shield should be fairly easy to test, just be very careful and watch what you're doing closely.
 
Actually, start by taking some folded-over aluminum foil (bigger than the card, obviously) and holding it between the two cards. Be careful not to let it touch anything. If this is your problem, you should be able to hear marked changes with and without it there.
 
I have the HiFi Prodigy and same buzzing problem. Given that I have a bunch of sata cables running from my mobo out to my external mixed in with the cables to my speakers, they buzz like crazy whenever my externals are running or when I'm doing something intensive. Haven't thought of the faraday solution but the Prodigy comes with a shield on it already!!! Any suggestions as to why?
 
Noise could be introduced through the wires instead of through radiated power. A shield only blocks (well, reflects) electromagnetic fields, it won't do shit if it's on the power or data lines.
 
it seems that if I use the 2nd card on the bottom of the board it does this noise too when the load is high. Any thoughts?
 
I am have a similar problem. After reading various posts I'm starting to wonder if it is noise on the PCI-e bus. And that is why only certain sound cards are having the problems.
 
Have you tried muting the front panel inputs? (probably already done)
 
I dont know if yall are having similar problems, and this might be a big "duh" for most of you, but I was experiencing similar interference when I was trying to use my front headphone jack on my comp. At first I thought my card was screwing up, but when I noticed the back jack sounded fine, I realized that the wire to my front headphone jack is shielded very poorly. It would make clicks when I scrolled using the mouse wheel and weird stuff like that.

You guys probably aren't using the front audio jacks, and I'm sure it varies from case to case, but I just thought that was worth mentioning. I have a forte.
 
same problem here, if you want to see something funny.. run rthdribl and note that as the fps decrease, the buzzing gets lower frequency. it's probably a video card issue, but it may be a pci-e issue. I have a second slower nvidia card for cuda further away. it still causes the problem, but only very slightly. I'm thinking of calling up auzentech and maybe complaining
 
OK, before I say "same problem here," I'd like to ask if you're noticing the interference on your onboard audio as well.

I have Gigabyte EX58-UD4P board with onboard Realtek audio and was noticing static / line noise. Mouse movements, network traffic, HD activity all seemed to increase the noise even when audio was Muted!!!

I bought and installed the Forte 7.1, disabled onboard audio and I'm sorry to say the interference / line noise is still there, although maybe a fraction reduced. Curious to hear what you're noticing.
 
I'm having exactly the same problem with my forte: annoying noise from the headphone jack on the back of the card whenever my gpu (gtx 260) isn't idling. I tried my realtek onboard audio (Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P) and it was pin drop silent at any gpu load. Use of the front panel output for both audio solutions was the nightmare I expected, with a noticeable whine at any volume.

I ran rthdribl and noticed the same thing, serbiaNem. It was kinda fun to play around with the whine frequencies. :)

I have an xtrememusic from an older build that produced no whine with a 9600gt. I will install it tonight and see if it's a pci-e issue, because my forte gives me the same noise in the pci-e x8 slot furthest from the gpu as it does in the pci-e x1 slot between the gpu and the cpu....
 
The noise that all of you are experiencing is radio frequencies that are being emitted from a device in your computer or from another external device. The other possibility is that your sound card is designed poorly to properly address the RF. So putting foil around your sound cards will not solve your problem. I actually would advice not doing that because you could short the sound card and destroy your card. I am sorry to say but most computer components in your computer are not designed well to prevent interferences. The other solution is get a sound card that is RF immune or buy an external sound device such as a DAC.

You can continue to try to swap out your PS, put tin foil around your components, move the card to another slot, and swap out cards. You might minimize the noise but you won't get rid of the problem completely.
 
Here's an update, for what it's worth:

I uninstalled the forte and its drivers, installed the xtrememusic and its drivers, and now have noise-free sound at all volumes and gpu loads. I don't think the problem is related to the sound cards themselves (as neither have shielding like the titanium) but possibly the bus type. As I stated earlier, I originally had the forte in the pci-e x8 slot furthest from the graphics card when I noticed the noise. The xtrememusic is in the pci slot below that. I don't think the level of interference would drop completely over that short of a distance.

I guess the last thing I can do is put the gtx 260 in the pci-e x8 slot and the forte in a slot closer to the cpu.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top