Static noise in the background when playing music

[andypearce]

Hi Guys,

Apologies if I've posted this in the wrong area, but my friend is having an issue with playing music through his computer.

It's been happening to him over the past couple of days. When he plays music there appear to be a static sounding noise in the background. This has never happened before. He has tried using different speakers and headphones and has had no luck fixing the issue. He has also tried using both the front and back headphone port on his machine and the problem has still occurred. When he plugs speakers or headphones that appear the be "faulty" on his machine into another machine or a phone for example, the static goes away.

I'm beginning to think it's something to do with his on board sound.

Any ideas you guys?

Many Thanks,

Andy

 

[nukemaster]

Please ensure that under Control Panel -> Sound -> Playback -> Speakers -> Properties -> Levels -> Mute everything that is not "Realtek HD Audio Output" or whatever is listed at the top. So mute CD Audio and any others.

See if this helps.

 

[onichikun]

Sounds like a grounding or power supply issue to me. In that case it wouldn't matter what speakers/headphones you use, since the static sound is actually a signal being added, and amplified, along with your music.

This could be due to a bad ground in the house (try a different outlet), a bad power supply, or power and signal lines being crossed that are poorly shielded in your case.

I would:
1) Try a different power outlet in your house
2) Re-organize your case wiring to make sure the power supply and any signal wires are not being criss crossed.
3) Try a different power supply -- PC powersupplies are pretty much all switching power supplies, which add a lot of transients into the output power circuits. They do add a low-pass filter to remove those transients (since they are typically in the kHz range) but failing components or bad power supply design could be an issue. You said it occurred suddenly, so it could be a failing component.

It could also be due to too much gain and a poor amplifier adding a lot of non-linearities into your sound signal as well Which could be fixed by lowering the volume output in your OS..

 

[Barhumbug]

Had the same problem with my Asus board some time ago. I guessed it was something to do with internal circuitry interference, and only way I found to cure it was by installing a PCI soundcard instead of using onboard sound.
Not sure you'll find out what is causing it without breadboarding the motherboard and swapping out fans, PSU, graphics cards, etc.

 

[nukemaster]

Its a shame they do not have better power filtering on some motherboard sound cards. It would not add too much to the cost.

 

[HardwarehelpQA]

Hi Guys,

Apologies if I've posted this in the wrong area, but my friend is having an issue with playing music through his computer.

It's been happening to him over the past couple of days. When he plays music there appear to be a static sounding noise in the background. This has never happened before. He has tried using different speakers and headphones and has had no luck fixing the issue. He has also tried using both the front and back headphone port on his machine and the problem has still occurred. When he plugs speakers or headphones that appear the be "faulty" on his machine into another machine or a phone for example, the static goes away.

I'm beginning to think it's something to do with his on board sound.

Any ideas you guys?

Many Thanks,

Andy

r

I also had this issue, but managed to fix it after some trial and error. (Im using windows 10 btw) the steps i used were:
Playback devices. Select the default device youre using

Right click and select properties

Go to advanced, then select the sample rate and bit depth that works for you.