Had an extremely loud high pitched noise coming from my headphones yesterday, it's gone now after rebooting, but what does it

[jeroentorchmaster]

I was watching some shows on my PC yesterday, and when I was done with the final episode out of nowhere an extremely loud high pitched noise started coming from my headphones. I panicked and unplugged them, then tried plugging them in again and it resumed immediately, it was basically a constant extremely loud noise. So, I turned off my PC, which went normally, although for some reason my monitor turned off a few seconds earlier than my PC, which is normally the other way around. This morning I turned it on again and my headphones behaved normally again. However, I'm still really scared the sound may happen again so I'd like to know what it was. Any ideas?

Also, is there some way to add a limiter or something to my PC or headphones, so extremely loud sound gets muted or lowered as a safety measure?

 

[LORDPrometheus]

That sounds like an audio driver crash. yes that can actually happen. I would try updating it if possible

 

[jeroentorchmaster]

How do I update the audio drivers? I have an Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card.

 

[LORDPrometheus]

Go to Control Panel -> Device Manager Then scroll down to your sound card click properties and click check for driver update. if that fails go to the Asus website and see if they have a driver download

 

[jeroentorchmaster]

Hm, I tried to update using Device Manager, but it told me I already have the best drivers installed. So I tried to look for drivers on Google, but I can only find them for the STX II. Any other suggestions?