Onboard Sound ac97 Problem

Hi, I have searched the forums for my problem and none of them seem to relate to the one I am having:

I am using the onboard sound that comes with my motherboard called ac'97 audio. The problem is that there is a constant crackling hissing, static, noise coming out of the speakers. Even when I am not playing any music, I still hear it. I can also hear a different sounding crackling and static when I move my mouse.

I can play games music and movies fine but there is always the constant crackling static and hissing sound in the background.

I have also tried plugging in another speaker and the same noises can still be heard.

I have upgraded my sound drivers to the latest and the problem still persists.

What could be wrong?

Sounds to me like your speakers are turned up too loud for when it's sitting idle. Same goes for your home stereo - turn the volume up quite loud when nothing is playing and you will still hear static.

Two sources of interference. As suggested above if you have powered speakers those are probably cranked up and your soundcard is at a lower volume? Increase the volume on the soundcard and turn down the speakers, it should help.

A wireless mouse will sometimes give you this intereference. Also your monitor will. And so will a number of other things on your circuit such as a refrigerator, flourescent lighting, space heater, and anything with a motor. Also radio transmissions can affect this, and cell phone communications too.

If you have cheap cables get better cabling such as can be bought from guitar center or similar designed for pro-audio. $3.99 radio shack cables are worthless. Crackling is specifically a suspect issue with your cables. Also clean your jacks with canned air

If you have a high interference zone you may wish to consult pro-audio reference articles on shielding and grounding. Such as can be found in prior issues of Electronic Musician magazine and the like.

Is there a way to reduce the noise when the speakers are turned up? I have a couple of movies that produces very low audio and I can only hear what they are saying when i turn up the volume. But then the static kicks in and I am forced to listen with it.



Monitor interference... that reminds me... could the fans in my computer be causing interference? I have a really bit fan inside



ty for the replies guys

normally this is caused by the CD audio cable, they are generally badly shielded and plugged right into the sound card, that act as an antenna and put white noise into your CD/AUX-IN on the motherboard, most people never use the cable anyways so just remove it and you should be fine