Ringing In Stereo Speakers - Onboard Sound? [SOLVED]

Maheriano · Last edited by Maheriano on Sun Oct 30, 2005 12:59 am; edited 1 time in total

I have a high pitch in my stereo speakers. I have a Y cable going from my sound out to my AUX in on my receiver, and it's only present when I have AUX selected for the sound component on my receiver. Also, it gets louder as I turn up the volume on the receiver, but is totally independant of the volume on XMMS. I was told this could be due to the fact that I'm using onboard sound and it could be picking up the sounds from other components being so close to it. Would buying this sound card fix this?

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=12624&vpn=AV-710&manufacture=CHAINTECH%20COMPUTER

I don't do any gaming, I'm a developer.
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ahubu · Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 5:53 pm Post subject:

There are multiple components in your system that can interfere with your soundcard. In my case, my wireless card interferes (buzzing sounds), my TV-card (pinaccle) does when it is too close to my soundcard (sblive 5.1).

I don't think buying a pci soundcard will eliminate all interference. It might reduce it though. Be sure to plug it far away as possible from signal emitting devices (other pci cards basically).

See if muting your microphone helps (even if there is no mike connected) (use aumix, or gnome-alsa-mixer depending what you use)

Finally if it is really really important to you, it might help to buy an external soundcard (usb).

For me, the buzz is not so loud and moving the wireless away from the soundcard (and more specifically, NOT letting the wireless antenna touch the audio cable) helped a great bunch.

On a sblive, it also helps to keep both master and wave volume at approx. 75% of their maximum. This may also be the case with your onboard audio.

Hope this helps,
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Maheriano · Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:22 pm Post subject:

ahubu · Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 8:02 pm Post subject:

Well, you could also search for some reviews of your particular motherboard and see if there are similar complaints by the reviewers. From my own experience I can say that when I got my first onboard sound (it was on a gigabyte socket-A motherboard, ZXE, IIRC), the sound was so horrible that I ran to the store the next day and bought a sblive 5.1 (which I still have). So I also think it depends on how old this motherboard is (the earlier soundchips were known to be horrible).

I heard that the soundstorm-chip which is onboard a couple of motherboards is very good.

I'm not telling you to buy a new soundcard

but I think you'll hear the difference anyway. But that of course depends on what you have right now.
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Anne // Light travels faster than sound. That's why people appear bright until
you hear them speak. -Unknown

Maheriano · Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2005 4:28 pm Post subject:

I bought a PCI card and installed it. The sound is lower but it's still there. Could it be something to do with the wire? Do I need a shielded cable or something? That's real wierd.
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aldino · n00b Joined: 25 Oct 2005 Posts: 1

The ringing that you get may independent of your soundcard; it sounds like it must be an artifact of your amplifier setup. You should try eliminating any repeated loops of wire, esp those carrying a signal or current, shield them, etc. if they exist. The effect is known as "ground looping" or ?something like that? I gather its intereference from the magnetic field the loops generate...forget my college physics... faradays law?

Do you notice the same problem with a pair of headphones pluged directly into your computers output jack? Does your action on the computer affect the noise at all? ie moving the mouse, spinning the hdd, and, as in my case most noticeably, seem to change with network traffic (I can totally hear my DLing..not cool!) If yes, then it is probably EMI from internal components.

If that is the unfornate case I have had the problem for some time, and have found no real solution. HDD could cause it as well, move those away. I had the problem with an onboard AC97, so moving stuff wasnt really an option. But heres the wierd thing-- i had purchased a PCI card, and installed it under both Linux and Windows (dual boot). Obviously the drivers are slightly different, but both are CMEDIA chipset drivers. While the problem was virtually gone in windows, it was still extant in linux. Since linux has become my primary OS, i returned that crappy card.

I don't know what it was about the windows drivers or os that was able to eliminate the background noise...

Anyone had this ANNOYING!!! problem or recommendation on a non-usb linux sound-card solution? As for the quality of the artifactual sound in question, mine is more of a static-sounding periodic buzz, not particularly high pitched tho. Its terrible!

Maheriano · Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2005 9:38 pm Post subject: Re: Noise

Maheriano · Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 12:58 am Post subject:

Figured it out, there was a secondary ringing from a bad ground in the receiver. No more ringing now.
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