Micophone Static - Please help

jamso · 19 Jun 2014 at 17:27

Hi I am having a really bad problem that I just can't seem to fix
On my desktop I keep getting bad microphone static and really quiet microphone volume.

I've tried 3 different headsets (Astro,Turtle and Senheiser) and they all have the same problem. The recording is quiet at 100% mic volume, or I can use boost and get even more horrible static.

I've tried the front and rear microphone/headphone jacks and both have the same problem.
If I use these headsets on my laptop the recording is great, no static and loud, so the headphones are fine.

My microphone is at 100% in windows (No boost cause the static is horrible with that on)
I have the realtec driver installed, but I still have a device in device manager called HD Audio controller that says high definition audio-controller not enough resources (error 12)
Not sure if this is causing the issue? I have the realtec audio drivers installed so not sure why I have this in device manager

PC specs are as follow
I7 4770
AMD R9 290
16GB RAM
Gigabyte z87-d3hp

Would a dedicated sound card help the static issue?
Not sure if it's related but if I switch from speakers to headset my audio goes really low and bad quality until I restart. Again not sure why this is happening.
Please help. I've been trying to fix this for 4 weeks and really struggling.

jamso · 19 Jun 2014 at 22:44

bump please help I'm stuck

Psycho Sonny · 19 Jun 2014 at 22:47

you need a cheap dedicated sound card like the asus xonar DG, it's electrical interference from the motherboard.

jamso · 19 Jun 2014 at 22:53

Psycho Sonny said:
you need a cheap dedicated sound card like the asus xonar DG, it's electrical interference from the motherboard.

Is creative sound blaster Z a good pick?
I really need to get this working so I can buy a good sound card if it will help.

Is there a way to find out for sure if it is electrical interference? Why does a laptop not cause this? Also would fixing this HD audio controller driver message that says not enough resources help any?

Psycho Sonny · 19 Jun 2014 at 23:07

asus xonar DG is all you need, your wasting money by buying anything more expensive.

your laptop doesn't exhibit this because it's well shielded most likely. pc has a lot more powerful parts running inside it, bigger ones too, etc.

spend the £20 and be happy instead of stressing

jamso · 19 Jun 2014 at 23:14

Psycho Sonny said:
asus xonar DG is all you need, your wasting money by buying anything more expensive.

your laptop doesn't exhibit this because it's well shielded most likely. pc has a lot more powerful parts running inside it, bigger ones too, etc.

spend the £20 and be happy instead of stressing

What about my driver issue ? Do I need to fix that first or once I have a sound card does it not matter?
I have a cheap 10£ usb sound card by a friend to test at the weekend. Should this see an improvement if its electrical noise ?
I want to spend 100£ max on sound card. Might be waste like u say but I want to get good one even if not going make much difference over 20£ one. For just under 100£ which would you suggest ?

Psycho Sonny · 19 Jun 2014 at 23:17

jamso said:
What about my driver issue ? Do I need to fix that first or once I have a sound card does it not matter?
I have a cheap 10£ usb sound card by a friend to test at the weekend. Should this see an improvement if its electrical noise ?
I want to spend 100£ max on sound card. Might be waste like u say but I want to get good one even if not going make much difference over 20£ one. For just under 100£ which would you suggest ?

I would suggest you get a Xonar DG then bank transfer £80 to me if your desperate to throw money away

you don't know anything about sound cards so there is no point in spending more than £20 unless you own high impedance headphones. if you don't know what that means then you don't need a £100 sound card.

as for the driver issue - go into bios before you install the card and disable on board sound and anything else you dont use on the motherboard.

jamso · 19 Jun 2014 at 23:30

Okok get the point lol
Just creative says crystal voice technology..

Should I see a slight improvement with this usb sound card too ?

Psycho Sonny · 19 Jun 2014 at 23:35

jamso said:
Okok get the point lol
Just creative says crystal voice technology..

Should I see a slight improvement with this usb sound card too ?

depends on what it is.

forget creative crystal voice technology that is marketing guff. basically never believe anything you see in an advert or what a salesman tells you.

make sure you disable on board in bios before using any other sound card. otherwise your going to run into even more issues.

if you do buy the asus xonar dg, then google asus unified drivers. the asus drivers are crap.

Cookeh · 20 Jun 2014 at 01:08

1) Soundblaster Z is a good card, better than the DG, perhaps not £50 better though. EDIT: The Z has been compared against the Arcam rDAC on bit-tech and seemed to fare rather well indeed, its sound quality is fairly unquestionable for the money.
2) Creatives CMSS-3D software is better for gaming than the Xonars Dolby Gaming software. Creatives variant on Dolby (which I believe is on the Z) is also better than the Asus equivalent.
3) The Asus drivers work perfectly fine, the aftermarket drivers just do it better.
4) Crystal Voice Technology is marketing guff by name only, it can actually induce some better noise cancellation - but the name is utterly retarded.

Psycho Sonny said:
you don't know anything about sound cards so there is no point in spending more than £20 unless you own high impedance headphones. if you don't know what that means then you don't need a £100 sound card.

I dont know what this is about, OP is asking questions so clearly wants to learn, making a statement like that is entirely uninformative and useless as a result. It's also largely untrue, even low impedance headphones can be bettered from a higher end soundcard as they generally have improvements to the DAC (as well as the headphone amp, which is where I believe your point is coming from). As to whether the Z is worth it over the DG, that depends on exactly what headsets you have and what you use them for. DG is generally considered more than good enough for most of the cheaper headsets, which would make the Z obsolete, if, however you are talking about the higher end Astros and Senns, then the Z would be the better choice.

With regards to the HD Audio issue, are you sure you have HD Audio plugged into your mobo from your front panel and not the AC97 cable (admittedly few 'modern' cases still have the latter), although this shouldn't be causing the interference.

With regards to other soundcard do's and don'ts, be sure to plug the HD Audio cable from the Front Audio Panel into the soundcard, but also bear in mind the FA Panel will always be inferior in sound quality to the ports on the soundcard due to interference and the great cable distance travelled (the latter's contribution is minor, admittedly).