Speakers Buzzing/Squeeking From Gaming

Rowan88 · 23 Dec 2017 at 11:56

Hi,

I just reformatted my PC and for some reason when I load up a game you hear a sort of dull squeaking noise coming from the speakers which changes pitch when I move the mouse. It only makes the noise during games and I didn't have this before the reformat.

Is there some settings I have missed to fix this?

The game is War of Mordor. I tried GTA V and I dont hear the issue.

Thanks

rids57 · 23 Dec 2017 at 17:51

it's electromagnetic interference caused by your graphics card and the likely reason it's happening with War of Mordor and not GTA V is that your GPU is being pushed harder.

Marsman · 23 Dec 2017 at 22:07

I assume the OP is referring to Shadow of War, which is the newer of the Middle Earth games? If it is, that could make sense as being a new game, will likely will be more demanding and push the GPU harder than GTA5.

Assuming it's the newer Middle Earth game; OP, did you not play that prior to reformatting?

Any other games where you hear this interference, or is it just that game in particular?

Rowan88 · 24 Dec 2017 at 11:08

Yeah its the newer one, and before I reformatted I had been playing the game for a few hours and it didn't make this noise. You hear the horrible noise right from the main menu of the game.

At first I thought it could have been the overclock on the GPU but even after removing the overclock it still done it.

I tested GTAV, Divinity OS2, South Park TFBW, The Evil Within 2 and none of them seem to be making the noise that I can tell (well not as obvious as Shadow of War).

I ran GTA benchmark and if you turn the audio right down you can hear a slight noise but not as bad as Shadow of War.

The only thing I can remember changing is my power surge for a longer one, so I guess I could test the speakers into the old power brick and see if the problem persists.

Rowan88 · 24 Dec 2017 at 12:52

I am on main menu of Divinity OS 2 and when I ALT TAB out the screen flickers and the colours change before going back to desktop. I then hear a sort of clicking from the speakers, like a car idle but obviously not as loud. So it must have something to do with the GPU right enough.

No settings or anything im missing I should have done when reformatting?

Marsman · 24 Dec 2017 at 13:02

Is that something to do with the audio cutting out though, when switching to desktop?

If it's interference, it should still be present if you mute the game audio.

Rowan88 · 24 Dec 2017 at 13:18

Yes when I turn Game Master volume down you still hear interference although the noise is different from game to game then disappears when on desktop. I managed to sort the ALT TAB colour change by changing my monitor refresh from 60hz to 59hz.

Like I said I will try using the old power strip to rule that out but it just seemed weird as it happened from reformatting, assuming it was settings.

Rowan88 · 27 Dec 2017 at 14:22

I found out today that if I set my FPS limit to 60 on the game (Shadow of War) the buzzing noise stops.

What would be the cause of this and can it be fixed? The soundcard I use is my PODxt Live which is an external device only connected to the PC via USB.

EsaT · 27 Dec 2017 at 14:58

Rowan88 said:
I found out today that if I set my FPS limit to 60 on the game (Shadow of War) the buzzing noise stops.

What would be the cause of this and can it be fixed? The soundcard I use is my PODxt Live which is an external device only connected to the PC via USB.

FPS being capped instead of unlimited lowers load of CPU and GPU lowering power consumption.
Also different FPS could likely cause power draw with different pulse frequency which could then happen at some frequency where interference spreads more easily.

Despite of external "DAC" etc hype USB device isn't really any more safe from interference than internal card and needs proper design already to clean power and avoid other EMI.
Whose risk exists for as long as there's galvanic aka electric connection.
Hence things called as "USB isolators".

neil_g · 27 Dec 2017 at 16:06

Optical DAC solved my interference issues.

Got a cheap SMSL SD793-II used the motherboard optical and hooked my speakers to the RCA out on the DAC. Not a bad little headphone amp either.

NirK · 27 Dec 2017 at 19:03

Maybe the speakers are excited about playing the game.

But seriously I think it can be a problem with grounding of your PC if you can hear the mouse through the speakers, or could be that your mobo sound is picking up EMI and you would want to get an external DAC instead of using mobo DAC.

I had this once on Xonar STX using coaxial, when using optical or external DAC there was no buzzing from speakers.

Rowan88 · 19 Jan 2018 at 11:23

When you say use an external DAC, is that not what I am doing. The PODxt Live is connected via USB and has its own built in sound card.

As far as the noise I noticed when I turn on VSync and limit FPS to the 60FPS the noise near enough goes away.

I even tried removing the GPU overclock to see if it made a difference which it did not.

smogsy · 19 Jan 2018 at 21:22

Rowan88 said:
When you say use an external DAC, is that not what I am doing. The PODxt Live is connected via USB and has its own built in sound card.

As far as the noise I noticed when I turn on VSync and limit FPS to the 60FPS the noise near enough goes away.

I even tried removing the GPU overclock to see if it made a difference which it did not.

noise leakage/interference can also inter with usb & pass through too.

some motherboards have a USB dac port /which has better isolation so try that. Alternatively use Optical if possible Less likely to get noise over Optical

example Gigabyte gaming 7 has a one (in yellow)
https://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/the_ultimate_x370_showdown,4.html

you may even find the usbs on the front of case stop the problem as the Header could be further away from the GPU

Rowan88 · 20 Jan 2018 at 09:50

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z87-D3HP-rev-1x#ov

That is my motherboard.

Now this is the weird thing. If I put it into the top 2 USB (USB2) then it works fine but has the interferance.
If I put it into the middle 4 USB I just get an error about I/O Error.
If I put it into the bottom 2 USB which claims ESD protection it recognises the PODxt Live but when I try to change the volume on windows it makes this horrible echo noise.

And on the top USB same again, USB2 ports work fine, USB3 make this horrible echo noise.

Also the PODxt Live doesn't have optical on its I/O:
https://c1.zzounds.com/media/fit,20...ive_rear-36dfa2db52d3c3f517fc4084029fb8fc.jpg

rids57 · 20 Jan 2018 at 15:41

Many USB DACs don't support USB 3 even though it's supposed to be backwards compatible. My external DVD writer isn't even recognised on a USB 3 port, yet runs fine on a USB 2 port.

Rowan88 · 31 Mar 2018 at 16:16

Sorry to bring up an old topic but I suppose then this buzzing during gaming, the only way I can fix this is either:

1) Buy a USB Isolator? (plug that into my motherboard then plug in the USB cable from PODxt Live?
2) Buy a different GPU (a more up to date one)

What I did find was:

LEVEL on POD : MAX
VOLUME on Speakers: 1/4
VOLUME on Windows: 1/2

It did help the issue a bit