Question Constant static in PC audio

[Exposure_]

Today, I woke up and hopped on my computer to find that my audio had become distorted with static. The static crackling and buzzing is present most when there are loud sounds, however it is still present and clearly audible when no audio is playing. It also seems like whenever there is a heavier work load on the pc the static becomes louder and more present. I tried checking to see if it was my headphones, unplugged them and tried a different pair, same problem. tried a duplicate headset with an alternative cable, did not change. This led me to believe it was my sound card. So i took it and my gpu out and cleaned them along with all the pci slots, then i changed the pci slot that my sound card was in. No luck. The sound card I have is the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy PCIe RX 7.1 . It was working fine up to this point. There is also the thought that it could be EMI (Electromagnetic interference), hence me changing the pci slot of the sound card. I then made sure that the line-in was turned off in the sound control panel, as well as I checked to ensure that the default audio that comes with the motherboard I have was turned off in the BIOS as well as the drivers for it were uninstalled, which they were. All my tests led me to believe it must be a sound card issue, but It leaves me uneasy, because yesterday it was working perfectly fine and had been for over 4 months. Any insight and or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

New Inferences -

• The static is only present in the right earcup. None in the left.
• Plugged the headphones into multiple different devices, no static was present on the other devices.
• Static Persists after disabling audio device
• Static now is only present as background noise, It no longer directly affects the audio from programs and such. I do not know why it changed.
• Static is now minimal background noise, however heavy bass results in audio cutting out for some reason.

Specs for Reference

CPU - Intel i5 4460 3.2 GHz Quad-Core

Motherboard - ASRock - H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150

RAM - Kingston - HyperX Fury Black 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR3-1866 Memory

Storage - Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Video Card - EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB SSC GAMING ACX 2.0+

Power Supply - OCZ - ModXStream Pro 600 W 80+ Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

Sound Card - Creative Sound Blaster Audigy PCIe RX 7.1

Headphones - ASTRO Gaming A40 TR PC Gaming Headset - Black

 

[RARRAF]

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[Exposure_]

is this separate from malwarebytes itself? ran a full scan on regular malwarebytes and it came up dry.

 

[Bearmann]

Have you tried turning on the on board audio and removing the soudcard and see what happens?

 

[Exposure_]

Have you tried turning on the on board audio and removing the soudcard and see what happens?

I have, it did not persist, i figure its gotta either be the sound card itself or emi affecting the card. As of now, the static is even more minimal, and is only audible when the computer is under an intensive load.

 

[jsmithepa]

Always take signal from PC DIGITALLY, let your external box(es) convert to analog where is susceptible to EMI but now some distance away from ur noisy PC.