Sound Noise

[ANova]

I recently bought a pair of ear enclosure type headphones primarily for my PC and notice alot of loud noise and hissing, such as when I move the mouse and when the hard drive is accessing; though there is still a noticable amount of noise even when nothing is happening. I assume this is due to the fact that I'm using onboard sound but thought I'd ask anyways.

 

[pcchen]

I recently bought a pair of ear enclosure type headphones primarily for my PC and notice alot of loud noise and hissing, such as when I move the mouse and when the hard drive is accessing; though there is still a noticable amount of noise even when nothing is happening. I assume this is due to the fact that I'm using onboard sound but thought I'd ask anyways.

My friend has a fairly nice sound card which still has this problem. It's not loud (quite hard to notice when under "normal" volume), but when connected to a headphone amp it becomes quite audible. We tested it on another friend's computer with a even better cound card, which still has such problem but it's only audible when volume is tuned to a much higher level.

On ther other hand, on my computer with a PCMCIA sound card (through a PCI to PCMCIA bridge) does not have this problem. We thought it's probably the mainboard but my computer has the same mainboard as my friend's computer. My another computer with another sound card also doesn't have such noises.

 

[Ty]

Internally produced RF?

 

[Skrying]

Yeah, I've seen onboard sound always cause this issue.

 

[Pete]

Yeah, I'd wager it's your onboard sound and a new, discrete sound card would cure that. You could go for a middle-of-the-road (medium price, not-quite-top-notch sound quality and games performance) hardware-accelerated Audigy 2 ZS, something like the Chaintech AV710 (cheap, supposedly great-sounding Wolfram DAC for two-channel sound), or pony up for a best-of-both-worlds X-Fi Xtreme Music.

Note that tho that Chaintech link mentions better performance, I was under the impression (based on a number of reviews at TR, Gamespot Tech, 3DC, etc.) that hardware-based acceleration (like on an Audigy or X-Fi) can offer 10-15% higher framerate than a software-based sound solution (onboard, Chaintech AV710, etc.).

This isn't always the case, tho, as I found out with my new Audigy 2 ZS. I tried Halo (one of several bundled games), and noticed that enabling hardware sound seriously cramped my framerate. OTOH, I see the opposite effect with Darwinia, for instance.

 

[maaoouud]

Upgrading to a high quality psu that delivers stable current without alot of ripple may help.
To know if this would (most likely) help you, open up your computer and have it running idle in windows put your head close enough to hear the fans and then start a really cpu intensive task, like prime torture test. If the fans change pitch (drop alot in speed) your
psu might be the prime cause of this, in combination with poor powersupply circuitry on the motherboard.

Also as Ty said, interference from other parts of the motherboard can also cause this.
An easy way to check if that is the problem is to try a standalone sound in the computer.
If you don't get any hissing then it's just the poor design of the motherboard, and I suggest upgrading to a good soundcard.

Unwanted noise like this can really bring down your concentration and ruin your mood without you even noticing it. I remember upgrading from my old soundblaster Live! card (really poor noise in them), right away it felt alot better to be sitting at the computer, it was like a fog that vanished from my mind.

I hope this helps solve your problem.. and that it's not too expensive

 

[ANova]

Well I've got an Antec TruePower powering three hard drives, an X850 XT, and a P4 overclocked to 3.4 GHz; the voltage fluctuates a miniscule amount, so I doubt that's the problem. I'm sure it's just poor filtering on the motherboard and lots of interference being generated from the various devices.

 

[Moloch]

I notice that also with my NF2 with onboard sound the most when I have the volume loud and have the mic input set to digitize the signal.
I find muting all the unused channals reduces interference.

 

[_xxx_]

I'm sure it's just poor filtering on the motherboard and lots of interference being generated from the various devices.

No doubt about that. If you want to get rid of (most of) that, you'll need a good sound card. But it still won't disappear completely.