Static Audio

[Zephos]

For ages I have had this problem, every now and then the audio will stutter for a split second and then will turn static. After a few minutes the sound will stutter again and go back to normal.

I have tried everything bar throwing my tower out the window or taking it a psychiatrist in order to fix it, but to no avail.

List of solutions I have tried:

- Uninstalling nforce drivers (the motherboard drivers with the audio included) and reinstalling. Several thousand times.

- Bashing my speakers, thinking they were the problem. After plugging in the headphones and hearing the same thing, realising that it's something else.

- Separating the speaker cables (and other cords) away to avoid interference.

- Taking the contents of my tower apart and cleaning all the dust inside, taking care to get every last particle.

- Adjusting audio acceleration from full to basic.

- Bashing the tower.

- Muting practically everything in control panel except the essential outbounds.

- Other tiny attempts at fixing it >_>

There's a few things I think it could be:

- The computer is overheating, which is unlikely since it can happen as soon as I start up the computer on a frosty morning.

- The computer is a piece of shit and I can't fix it without a total upgrade. Likely because the tower nearly blew up in a storm not so long ago from a power surge.

- Outside interference. Likely, because I'm nearly situated under a TV antenna and also because it seems to go on and off kind of like someone was flicking a switch. As well as this, we got new wireless phones, so maybe they are screwing it up as well. I also get a weird buzzing noise from the speakers when the computer is turned off. But only sometimes. To counter this, I did have these problems before I was under the antenna and we got the phones, but I'm certain they aren't helping.

- The best case scenario being that I need to find audio drivers for the onboard sound on my ancient Asus A7N8X-X motherboard. Alas I can only find the ones that came with the disc (nforce2-400 or something) and I'm not sure if I can install later nforce drivers without it monkey screwing up.


I don't really care for a solution because I'm always asking for help here and I feel I'm pushing it. Just thought I'd at least rant about it.

/endrant

 

[VirusType2]

I guess you have onboard sound?

I'd say it's driver related, since it works sometimes.

A bad wire can often do this, but you say it's not the wiring... I had a microphone that would make lots of static anytime you moved the wire to it. I bought a new microphone and the problem is gone.

Just to be anal, I'd open the audio control panel and untick the microphone box, and other things that you probably don't use like midi.


Also, if it is onboard, I think it's quite possible that it gets static when your CPU is overwhelmed (like 100% cycles), since the onboard sound is processed by your CPU.


If you have checked all the wires that plug into your computer, and checked for any new drivers, and tried the other things I suggested and it still does it, then I'd suggest you just get an audio card. If you have XP, you can get a soundcard that has it's own audio processor for as little as $15 US.

You can also make sure you have the patches for the games that do it.

It is also possible that it is video card driver related.

 

[Zephos]

I think you're right about the CPU, because it is only 2ghz and it would make sense considering the static really acts up in steam games (where the processor is shown red under minimal requirements) and when I'm multitasking (obviously a huge load on the cpu).

I'll take your advice on getting a sound card, if they are indeed that cheap

Thanks for the help!

 

[VirusType2]

I think you're right about the CPU, because it is only 2ghz and it would make sense considering the static really acts up in steam games (where the processor is shown red under minimal requirements) and when I'm multitasking (obviously a huge load on the cpu).

I'll take your advice on getting a sound card, if they are indeed that cheap

Thanks for the help!

welcome.

I'm pretty sure www.newegg.com has audio cards starting at $10 US, though you might want something better. I don't know if newegg sells to Australia, so you might have to go somewhere else.

Should work fine, but read the reviews before buying.