Output to my amp is not clean

[Mariusmssj]

Hey guys,

I am really sorry if I posting this in the wrong section. I hope Computer sound cards fall under digital source of sound subject.

I got a Creative sound card and it's next to my graphics card and it seems like it's receiving a lot of noise from it. Just recently got myself a Lepai T2020A+ amp BUT when not playing anything I am getting a lot of noise coming out, hissing, crackling and high pitched noise, it gets much worse when I turn the sound up.

If I unplug the 3.5mm audio cable form my PC the noise stops, and plugging it in to my phone does not produce such noise at all. So I can assume it's not the amps fault.

To test further I tried to play a game and I got bunch of horrible sounds so I think my graphics card it creating a lot of noise that my sound card is picking up. What's the best way to battle this issue?

Thank you

[sofaspud]

Easiest thing to start with is to move a card to a different slot.

[Mariusmssj]

Originally Posted by sofaspud

Easiest thing to start with is to move a card to a different slot.

Ok I'll try to do that once I get home. I got few ferrite beads laying around do they actually work in helping to suppress the noise?

[sofaspud]

They can, but I would guess your problem is more serious than what could be fixed that way. I may very well be wrong about that; EMI/RFI is complicated stuff even for experts, which puts me at the "Golly, gee" level.

[DF96]

Ferrite beads will reduce RF interference. They will have no direct effect on audio signals, but RF can affect audio indirectly. Poor grounding is probably more likely.

[Mariusmssj]

Originally Posted by sofaspud

They can, but I would guess your problem is more serious than what could be fixed that way. I may very well be wrong about that; EMI/RFI is complicated stuff even for experts, which puts me at the "Golly, gee" level.

Looking at asus forum I found this:

| The PCIe x16_2 slot shares bandwidth with PCIe x1_1 slot, PCIe x1_2 slot | I think i will send the motherboard to shop , im already sick of these problems created.

So I am not sure if it's the same case for my motharboard as my PCIe x16 GPU and PCIe x1 Sound card are sharing same bus

Originally Posted by DF96

Ferrite beads will reduce RF interference. They will have no direct effect on audio signals, but RF can affect audio indirectly. Poor grounding is probably more likely.

How would I check if it's poor grounding?

[Mariusmssj]

- Placed the sound card to another slot, NO help
- Changed Graphics card with anther one, NO help

I think it's my motherboard, because when I play games I got this coil whine like sound. At first I thought it was graphics card but after testing with few of them i got same results. I also tried different PSU's but no luck.

[bobodioulasso]

Many complaints about Intel Sandy Bridge platforms when using PCI audiocards.
There is no native PCI controller. PCI is emulated from PCI express.

[Mariusmssj]

Well just to make sure I tested the system with a Laptop and my Dads PC all worked fine no noise.

I tried the on board sound chip on my PC but still noise

BUT what's really interesting is that I plunged the audio cable into front audio jack and i'm getting the white noise still but no crackling, the funny thing is that front audio jack is not plugged in anywhere :S

So to finally test this I touched the random bolt on my case and bam same noise as coming from the sound card. I am confused why the case is making same noise and my sound card????

What could this mean?

[Mariusmssj]

I'm actually starting to think it's a grounding issue