Electrical Noise Through Headphones

[Subrevird]

Hey there!

So I've recently moved houses and after plugging my PC in I've encountered a problem where I hear some kind of electrical noise or interference through my headset. The pitch of the noise changes as I do things on my computer, it's very quiet at desktop and then if I move a window around or scroll it intensifies. When I'm gaming it becomes very noisy, and although I'm able to drown it out with music it's not a great solution. The pitch changes it seems based on either CPU or GPU usage.


My headset is the Razer Kraken Pro which uses two jacks. The headset was previously plugged into the back panel of my computer and worked fine with no such interference. I do remember having this particular problem when I first bought the headset over a year ago however. I have no idea how I fixed it, or what the problem was, but it went away. Since then I used the same setup for a year and it has been fine. The problem has returned and I'm not sure what I could do about it. I found that uninstalling my graphics drivers completely removes the noise from the headset.

 

[amigafan]

Where is your headset plugged in now? On the back or on the front?

 

[plywrlw]

Yeah noise from the front jacks is not uncommon, if the headset is plugged into the front, move it to the back

 

[Subrevird]

It's plugged into the back. Plugged into the front it's obviously worse, but I've never used the front panel.

 

[plywrlw]

Are you using motherboard sound? Are there any cables near the audio components of your motherboard? If so, tidy them out of the way with cable ties if possible. Its probably just some EMI interference from something in your case

 

[amigafan]

Could be that during moving (and obviously unplugging) the computer, previous BIOS settings got lost. Try disabling unneeded components in BIOS (such as SuperIO/Parallel port etc. and changing any other "promising" settings to reduce RF noise from chips).

Position of the headset cable could also play a role here. Try positioning the cable differently and keeping as much cable as possible away from the PC case.

 

[Subrevird]

Could be that during moving (and obviously unplugging) the computer, previous BIOS settings got lost. Try disabling unneeded components in BIOS (such as SuperIO/Parallel port etc. and changing any other "promising" settings to reduce RF noise from chips).

Position of the headset cable could also play a role here. Try positioning the cable differently and keeping as much cable as possible away from the PC case.

I don't think it's a matter of the headset cable, much more likely to be interference as plywrlw suggests. I just don't know exactly how to troubleshoot it.

 

[plywrlw]

On this thread it turned out to be a wireless mouse causing the issue

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/333057-28-sound-interference-computer-working

 

[Subrevird]

On this thread it turned out to be a wireless mouse causing the issue

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/333057-28-sound-interference-computer-working

Not using any wireless peripherals, but I do suspect something about the arrangement of wires would be what's up

 

[Subrevird]

Update: The issue seems to be 100% GPU related, uninstalling the drivers stops the noise as does removing the GPU.

So... what are my options? I'm thinking maybe I should just buy a new USB headset.

The two I have available both use jacks and the moment they touch the socket the awful noise begins. I even tried the iPod earphones that most Apple products ship with and I heard the same noise.

 

[plywrlw]

Why not get a sound card you can get external ones or USB ones then you can use all your existing hardware

 

[Subrevird]

I could, but I assumed they'd be more costly. Would you have a recommendation for USB sound cards?

 

[plywrlw]

Bargain basement

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=29-102-036

Bit more feature packed...


http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=29-102-035