Buzzing/ static noise coming out from headphones - MSI MPG Z390 EDGE AC

[sponelis]

Hi all,

Since weekend I have noticed that there is some sort of weird buzzing/static noise coming out of my headphones (like a long beeeep and crackling which changes in intensity), which was not there before. I have built this pc in November 2019. I have tested it with different headphones cord, same issue, however when i plugged my headphones into my SO's laptop, noise wasn't there anymore, therefore i believe this is not an issue with headphones, but rather with my motherboard. Also, these noises start as soon as you power on pc. The sound is mostly noticeable in quiet environment, or when gaming at night. Front jack works fine. Issue is only with the rear jack.

So far I have tried the following to fix it but nothing helped:

- Updated Realtek drivers
- Used different headphones and the noises persisted
- Disassembled pc and rebuilt it again. Resitted Io shield and checked all cable connections
- tried using ground loop isolator but it made things worse, sound went really quiet and one headphone did not work at all. It is an interesting finding as people are suggesting that it may be issues with jack ground, because if the ground was there, the isolator would have worked as intended.
- Changed power cord
- Changed power strips
- Took pc to different room to test other wall sockets in house

I am running out of options on how to fix this. Please can someone help me as this issue is driving me crazy.

PC Spec:
Motherboard: MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC
CPU: intel i7-9700k
RAM: Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz C16
GPU: 2070 Windforce 8GB
SSD1: 860 QVO 1TB
SSD2: 120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD
HDD: 2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD
PSU: Corsair 750W CS Series Modular 80 Plus Gold
Headphones: ATH-M50X

 

[Marsman]

Difficult to say what has happened to cause this, if it's something that has only just started. Would be easier if it were something that was there since you built the PC.

Looks like you have tried the usual and most obvious things.

I remember quite a few years ago, someone had pretty much the same problem when connecting to the sockets directly on the motherboard. He got noise you describe directly from the motherboard's rear audio socket, but not when using the audio connections on the front PC case. I can't remember if the problem affected all the sockets directly on the motherboard, or if it was just the green headphone/front speaker jack.

Have you tried using different audio sockets to connect your headphones? Good thing about Realtek, is that if you can access the Realtek control panel software, you can reassign any of the audio jacks. For example; you can plug headphones into the microphone socket and selection box should appear, asking what you just connected. Choose 'headphones' rather than 'microphone'.

If it is indeed some fault, I'm not sure whether that is something that will affect just the one jack, or all of them. Worth trying though, if you haven't already.

 

[Silicon Si]

In your windows audio setting make sure the mic setting is not on if you don't use a mic disable it.