I recently bought a new PC and it came with a Sound Blaster Z 5.1 sound card installed, I had the exact same sound card in my last PC and never experienced any major issues with it so I knew they were quality sound cards.
However, I'm experiencing an issue with the new PC where, if I plug my headphones in with both the audio out and microphone cable inserted, I hear a constant static buzz, with a louder buzz at regular intervals.
This happens regardless of the windows volume, even with the volume muted, but does get louder as I turn the volume dial up on my headphones.
Up until now I've been working around this by setting the windows volume to 100% and turning my headphones volume down until it's not noticeable, but I'm concerned that it is(and I'm pretty sure it is) still messing up my sound quality.
Some things I've noticed while trying to diagnose the issue:
1) The buzzing gets louder when I'm watching a video, so I'm assuming that GPU usage has an effect.
2) The problem is solved if I unplug the microphone cable
3) The problem isn't present with the onboard RealTek soundcard (even with both cables plugged in)
4) I get the same effect (albeit louder) if I leave the audio out cable in but unplug the microphone cable and touch it against the metal of the soundcard, and it's even louder if I touch it against the metal higher up on the back panel
5) The sound is still present in the BIOS options screen, so I think that rules it out being Windows issue
6) Disabling the SBZ in the windows device manager doesn't stop the noise, but interestingly re-enabling does stop it for about a second
I'm not much of an audiophile or an electrician, but it sounds like connecting both cables is completing a circuit with the motherboard, and is getting interference running through it?
I really don't know. The motherboard is an ASUS Strix X99, the GPU is an EVGA GTX 1080 and the PSU is a Corsair Gold 650W.
I still have me old Sound Blaster Z in the old PC but I don't really like messing around with stuff, and wanted to hear some opinions first.
Thanks
However, I'm experiencing an issue with the new PC where, if I plug my headphones in with both the audio out and microphone cable inserted, I hear a constant static buzz, with a louder buzz at regular intervals.
This happens regardless of the windows volume, even with the volume muted, but does get louder as I turn the volume dial up on my headphones.
Up until now I've been working around this by setting the windows volume to 100% and turning my headphones volume down until it's not noticeable, but I'm concerned that it is(and I'm pretty sure it is) still messing up my sound quality.
Some things I've noticed while trying to diagnose the issue:
1) The buzzing gets louder when I'm watching a video, so I'm assuming that GPU usage has an effect.
2) The problem is solved if I unplug the microphone cable
3) The problem isn't present with the onboard RealTek soundcard (even with both cables plugged in)
4) I get the same effect (albeit louder) if I leave the audio out cable in but unplug the microphone cable and touch it against the metal of the soundcard, and it's even louder if I touch it against the metal higher up on the back panel
5) The sound is still present in the BIOS options screen, so I think that rules it out being Windows issue
6) Disabling the SBZ in the windows device manager doesn't stop the noise, but interestingly re-enabling does stop it for about a second
I'm not much of an audiophile or an electrician, but it sounds like connecting both cables is completing a circuit with the motherboard, and is getting interference running through it?
I really don't know. The motherboard is an ASUS Strix X99, the GPU is an EVGA GTX 1080 and the PSU is a Corsair Gold 650W.
I still have me old Sound Blaster Z in the old PC but I don't really like messing around with stuff, and wanted to hear some opinions first.
Thanks
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