[SOLVED] Bizzare audio problems with PC

[ppg20]

Hello,

I've had my new PC for about a year. I've experienced some weird issues with front panel audio jacks and speakers that when put together are concerning me.

My PC and hardware:
x570 asus tuf motherboard
meshify c case
M-audio bx4 speakers
Asus tuf h3 headset.

To start from the beginning. Few monhs ago I've tried to plug my Audio technica monitor headphones into the PC's front panel. It caused the PC to restart and the problem was easily recreatable. Since then I tried to use the motherboard output jack when using headphones. But after some time I tried the front panel again and no problems.

I've bought the speaker set and there were no problems until recently, when one of the speakers stopped working. There was loud crackling in the right speaker after it was turned on and then no sound after that. No audio from right channel. While trying to troubleshoot it I used the switch on the speaker that switches left/right position - and then the left speaker stopped working. So basically, I was able to choose which speaker was working and which wasn't with the left/right switch. I tried to use another cable to connect the speakers (3.5 jack to 3.5 jack) which instantly fixed the problem. But immedietely I went back to the old cable and it worked too, suprisingly. I've been using the old cable since then with no problems.

The last problem is with the mentioned headset. It comes with a Y splitter cable that is connected to the headset's cable. One jack for mic, the other for headphones. I've been using it plugged in the front panel in a game and sometimes listening to Youtube at the same time. At some random moment while I had the game opened, was probably alt+tabed out to Chrome and went to plug the headset back in - the mic stopped working. At that moment if I remember correctly there was no system message about a device being connected that popps up in Win 10. I've changed the Y splitter for a new one and the mic worked fine again - so I've tried the old one and everything was working even with the old cable - again. It took few days and the same problem happened again. The mic is not working. This time I have two Y splitter cables to play with and try all the available combinations and it's a mess. Depending which jack I use either the mic is not working, or there's no sound in headphones, or the mic is working but low volume and poor quality, or the headphones work but not the mic. And it is not even consistent which jack works with what.

This is all extremely confusing to me. I have no idea how to pinpoint what is causing these problems and I'm afraid there could be some underlining issue, maybe with static electricity or something? Like the cables that I mentioned being shocked somehow from the PC case which casuses them to not workd and then recover? Or the audio devices being shocked and somehow recovering when the cable is changed (but the old cable suddenly works fine too)? Is something like that even possible.? The PC is the only constant component in this. Mind you, these problems happened and are happening with multitude of audio hardware and cable combinations just to somehow dissapear again. Hopefully the mic on the headset will start working again. Thank you for your ideas.

 

[hang-the-9]

Sounds like you have an issue with the physical jack. And using the splitter cables, that can be an issue with the cable. PC rebooted when you connected something to the front jack, power short, speakers connected to the jack, had an issue then fiddled with the cables and started working, something loose in the jack. Headset working at times but not working other times, again a loose jack or something internally is not in great condition so it's loosing connection.

Keep everything connected to the motherboard ports, are there issues then? Without unplugging and replugging things all the time. Plug it in, leave it in, does it work?