Xonar dg buzz sound from gpu

[Mini Franki]

Hi,

My xonar dg begin to make a buzz sound while im using a bit my gpu. What i mean, when the pc is on idle, no buzz. But when im gaming, scrolling, etc... that make a buzz sound. The problem is new since 1 week maybe. Before, my sound was perfect!

I tried to swap psi slot and desactivated my onboard sound card and no difference!

Thx

 

[the nerd 389]

The issue is likely due to a failing power filter cap.

The PCIe bus experiences pretty massive power fluctuations when you load up a modern GPU. If the design doesn't account for that, the filtering caps will take the brunt of the abuse. When they go, the fluctuations are allowed to reach the audio circuitry where lesser designs will pass them on to the audio output.

Moral of the story: don't use a PCIe card in a PC that also has a reasonably modern high-end GPU if you can help it. If you have to, though, make sure it's a very well designed and isolated model.

In your case, you can attempt to repair it, or you can RMA the sound card. If you want to repair it, there are things you can do to make the card more resilient to the issue.

 

[Mini Franki]

My sound card is on PCI, not PCI-E

Someone already did a fix for that? Where i can find it?

thx

 

[the nerd 389]

The PCI slot also shares it's power rail with PCIe slots.

The fix is to pull out a soldering iron and replace the filter capacitors with better ones. It's not a "buy this to solve the problem" sort of thing.

 

[Mini Franki]

The PCI slot also shares it's power rail with PCIe slots.

The fix is to pull out a soldering iron and replace the filter capacitors with better ones. It's not a "buy this to solve the problem" sort of thing.

Maybe i can do it if i dont need to much tool. Im not bad at all for do thing by myself

The strange thing is, i had this issue with my onboard card before, that gone when i putted my new xonar dg. And now its back but a lot more loud. This is not tolerable

So its a sound card problem? Ill ask to asus just for see

 

[Mini Franki]

Another thing, the buzz play in all speaker when im on surround mode(z-906) but when im on 3D(make surround with stereo source), that only buzz on front speaker

 

[the nerd 389]

I'm putting together the parts list now. Can you pull the card out and count the number of each of the following types of capacitors:

- 22uF 16V,
- 47uF 16V,
- any others.

Specifically, you will need to replace CE3 through CE18. That's a total of 16 capacitors.

I also note that CE1 and CE2 are both missing on that model in all of the press photos. If you have those on your card, they will need to go as well.

The capacitors on there average about $0.09-0.12 each. The ones you'll be replacing them with run $0.50-2.00 each.

 

[Mini Franki]

All capacitor except the middle one?

 

[the nerd 389]

The middle one is CE10. It's not labelled, but no other capacitor has that label, so it must be CE10.

 

[Mini Franki]

So, what better quality capacitor you suggest to me to buy for replacement?

 

[the nerd 389]

Okay, it looks like these are the capacitors, please verify that this is correct:

3.3 uF, 50V: CE3 through CE8
22 uF, 16V: CE9, CE11, CE12, and CE15
47 uF, 16V: CE10, CE13, and CE14
100 uF, 16V: CE16 through CE18

For the new capacitors, the options are Nichicon, Chemi-Con, and Panasonic in that order. Nichicon is generally the highest quality of the three. I'll put together links for you once we've got the inventory. I'm used to getting around the sites that sell these parts, and it's easy to end up with a part you didn't want.

 

[Mini Franki]

ce4 seem to be 47 uf 16v no?

All the rest is right

 

[the nerd 389]

I can't see the rating on that one, and it's in a large group of 3.3 uF. Does it say 47 uF?

 

[the nerd 389]

The 3.3 uF capactors (x5 or 6) should be replaced with these:
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Nichicon/ULD1H3R3MDD1TD/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtZ1n0r9vR22cXWQnLnjDinADUjqWZk5hU3UcVBqmNKWQ%3d%3d

The 22 uF caps (x4):
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Nichicon/RNS1D220MDS1/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvwFf0viD3Y3bX4d3aoY2YaJprnRHlYMNw%3d

The 47 uF caps (x3 or 4):
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Nichicon/RNS1D470MDN1KX/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvwFf0viD3Y3W6kP7y9juC39nntST3VvlU%3d

The 100 uF caps (x3):
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Nichicon/RNS1D101MDN1PH/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvwFf0viD3Y3Z4SkSMGcSFNz6Dy3ve8NSk%3d

You may need to place electrical tape under those to ensure they don't short anything out. Other than that, they're worlds better than the ones that are on there. They're even designed to handle the fairly massive voltage swings that they'll be subjected to.

 

[Mini Franki]

I confirm, its a 47 uf

 

[Mini Franki]

I dont understand what you mean about electric tape and short. Sorry that will be the 1st time but i feel good to do it. That will not blow in my face? All my stock i have is for solding speaker wire or electronic like that, that will be ok?

 

[the nerd 389]

You're better off with thinner solder, but what you have can be made to work.

When I mention electrical tape, I'm simply referring to the fact that all of the Nichicon caps I link to have metal cases. The ones that are on there now have a plastic, non-conductive sheath. You may need to use electrical tape to prevent the cases from touching each other or nearby circuitry. This shouldn't be an issue, but that's what to do if it is.

 

[Mini Franki]

Perfect, thx for the tips. Ill buy a thinner solder for help to be easier

But what i dont understand, its why before, the actual capacitors did the job and now not...

 

[the nerd 389]

The lower quality caps are not designed to handle the kind of ripple that a nearby GPU subjects them to.

As a result, they eventually fail, and when that happens, they essentially turn into resistors. Instead of smoothing out the signal, they end up not having any effect at all. Before the caps fail, they do a decent job of smoothing things out.

When the card is new with working caps, the filters do their job well. When the caps die, the filters basically cease to function at all.

 

[Mini Franki]

Wow thx for all the informations! Now i know a lot more about capacitor. No one seem to be bulged from what i see. But ill give it a try! Its seem to be a common issue about several sound card. Not a lot of sound card seem to have durable capacitor no?

 

[the nerd 389]

Many sound cards do have decent caps. The problem is that ever since about 5 years ago, GPUs have started using some variation of dynamic clock boosting.

This ends up drawing very large spikes of power for very short periods. Capacitors, by design, will absorb these spikes. Unfortunately, the GPU's spikes are so massive that they'll take out some capacitors that are designed to survive that kind of abuse.

No cap is immune to that sort of damage, but some are more resilient than others. You are correct, though, that almost all PCI/PCIe sound cards will have this issue eventually. These days, the only way to circumvent the issue is to not put the audio hardware on the same power rail as the GPU. That normally means USB or FireWire.

 

[Mini Franki]

Ill post soon, a picture of the card before and after for people who are interested

Thx a lot buddy and very appreciated, fast help

 

[the nerd 389]

No problem. Those caps are usually reserved for extremely high-stress components, so I'm curious to see how well they perform on that card. I'm also curious about how difficult this procedure is for someone with relatively little experience with a soldering iron. So far, I've only seen people make this kind of modification with dedicated equipment.

It should be perfectly doable with a basic iron, but no one has really attempted it before to my knowledge.

 

[Mini Franki]

Ill try to check if i can get it in a store here, in montreal. For get it faster then shipping from mouser

 

[the nerd 389]

Make sure you get those exact part numbers. One letter difference can be a totally different design.