Interference - GPU or soundcard?

mushtafa · 21 May 2015 at 21:28

Right, had some interference from my speakers ever since I updated the PC. I added the sound card & GPU at the same time.

I've added a link to a short video below showing the sound. All I have to do is move the mouse and I get noise. Loading up the GPU makes it worse.

http://vid57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/mushtafa/VIDEO0005_zpsaj2uywwx.mp4

Originally I had the Xonar above the GPU, but I've now moved it to the lowest slot of the mobo. I've disconnected the front ports.

Your thoughts? - I'm thinking sound card.

mushtafa · 21 May 2015 at 21:30

Soundcard not in signature - will edit it now.

Card is an Asus Xonar DGX

russell664 · 21 May 2015 at 23:16

I get it slightly with my Sound Blaster Z.

The reason for this is most likely EMI. when you moved it to the lower PCI slot, was it any better/worse?

I have two GPUs, and when the sound card was close to them both it was really bad, when moved underneath, it was still there, but much better than before.

mushtafa · 22 May 2015 at 07:31

Having it at the bottom made no difference. In that video, the cards are as far away as possible.

Tealc · 22 May 2015 at 08:28

Does it still happen off motherboard sound?

mushtafa · 22 May 2015 at 10:03

No interference from the mobo sound. I'm still thinking its the soundcard at fault.

arknor · 22 May 2015 at 11:10

do you have a modem or any wires from a modem near your speakers or their wires

weird_dave · 22 May 2015 at 11:19

have you changed the cable routing much? Is the sound output cable near your mouse cable (USB?)?

mushtafa · 22 May 2015 at 11:57

No modem near.

All the cables are behind the case, so close to each other. Would that affect it? It sounds to me like the interference is before the amp on the sound card if that makes sense?
I'll move the cables about tonight and see if it makes a difference.
I don't think I've got the noise on optical out. Need to confirm tonight though.

mushtafa · 22 May 2015 at 19:09

Been doing some Googling, found a post of mine from the forum! It obviously fixed itself and I forgot about it! haha

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18598207

arknor · 22 May 2015 at 19:32

I get very bad interference when using headphones.

are you using headphone mode enabling the onboard headphone amp?

When I had one of those cards you could physically hear it switch to the amp

mushtafa · 22 May 2015 at 19:52

I get the noise no matter which setting I use. It's certainly louder with the amp switched on in headphone mode though.

Bailey helped me out in the CS section, but it's now out of warranty. Not sure which one to buy next?

russell664 · 22 May 2015 at 20:15

A USB sound card could be a viable option.

Cat_J · 22 May 2015 at 20:50

I have no issue with my sound blaster Z sitting under 2 overclocked 680s

I did get the retail shielded version but that's not facing the cards.

mushtafa · 22 May 2015 at 21:56

Was thinking about a Sound Blaster this time. Wasn't too happy with the Asus software

Cat_J · 23 May 2015 at 09:42

I had an Asus Xonar D2X, I never really liked it after it replaced my X-Fi, the quality wasn't as good and the software was rubbish compared to the X-Fi control panel in XP, unfortunately they dropped support for it and never updated for win 7.

To me it never seemed much better than onboard (not enough to justify the cost,) whereas my X-Fi was night and day compared to onboard.

I guess onboard sound has got better as I didn't find the sound blaster Z to make quite the difference the X-Fi did but I still feel its worth it, and scout mode in games like CSS is great.

weird_dave · 23 May 2015 at 10:48

mushtafa said:
No modem near.

All the cables are behind the case, so close to each other. Would that affect it? It sounds to me like the interference is before the amp on the sound card if that makes sense?
I'll move the cables about tonight and see if it makes a difference.
I don't think I've got the noise on optical out. Need to confirm tonight though.

It can make a huge difference. Some USB cable emit a lot of noise even though they are supposed to be shielded. If your output cable is rubbish then it'll pick up loads of noise from the other cables.

Now that I'm home I can view your video (blocked from work, grrr). When the car section of the vid is on, is that noise supposed to be the game? It sounds awful, my first guess would be that the ground connection is broken. Given that you've tried the mobo sound and it was ok, I'd be looking at the socket on the sound card. does the card let you use other sockets as the main output?