electrical noise Electrical noise in headphones after new GPU install

[Noah0302]

EDIT: Restarting the PC in safe mode without audio enabled results in electrical noise when moving the mouse. I guess the new GPU has resulted in additional electrical noise within the system so that the onboard soundcard can no longer block it out as it could with the previous GPU. But that is just a guess!

 

Hi,

 

I recently build a PC with an MSI B450 Carbon AC and Ryzen 2700.

Ive been using it for about a month without a single issue and was really happy about it. I did not have any audio issues back then.

Two weeks ago I installed an RX 5700XT Red Devil as the new GPU and have not used my headphones since, because I have a quite good audio system which is connected via USB and his its own soundcard.

Today I had to use my headphones again and a USB mic because of a Discord conference.

Plugging the headphones into the mainboard, I instantly noticed the static sound and was quite pissed about it.

As I joined the Discord call the others said that my microphone also has a static noise. After that I tested it in Audacity and yes, a loud as fuck electrical noise, probably the same as in my headphones, is audible.

 

Keep in mind, the only thing I changed compared to when it worked was a new GPU!

 

I already reinstalled the realtek audio drivers 2 times directly from the MSI website.

That was when I noticed that the static stops as soon as the driver is uninstalled and prompts me to restart my PC.

After the inital post and before windows is loaded fully, no static is heard in the headphones.

Only after the Windows login screen is visible the static starts to play.

Thats why Im guessing that the audio drivers are to blame for it, but Im not so sure about it.

 

Has anyone else had this issue? All fixed I found online have not helped to far.

[SpookyCitrus]

Could be a driver issue, use DDU then fresh install the 5700xt drivers using adrenalin 2020.

[Chen G]

This is why it is generally advised to use external audio, it's extremely noise in PC cases.

I have a fairly high end audio card with shielding, and it still picks up noise from my GPU, which changes depending on graphics load.

[Noah0302]

1 minute ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Could be a driver issue, use DDU then fresh install the 5700xt drivers using adrenalin 2020.

I did just that after I installed the GPU, however the 2020 edition is quite buggy for me so I have the 2019 version installed currently

[SpookyCitrus]

2 minutes ago, Noah0302 said:

I did just that after I installed the GPU, however the 2020 edition is quite buggy for me so I have the 2019 version installed currently

It wont hurt to do it again, especially if the sound issue is recent and you have had the card installed for awhile. The 5700xt has had some driver issues, best to use the 2020 version to be safe unless it's buggyness is a big issue. Also make sure you have the latest version of DDU and it's set to remove all drivers and all files including audio and misc.

[Noah0302]

2 minutes ago, Chen G said:

This is why it is generally advised to use external audio, it's extremely noise in PC cases.

I have a fairly high end audio card with shielding, and it still picks up noise from my GPU, which changes depending on graphics load.

On my main PC I have a Fiio K3  and really am happy with it.

 

I know this is the way to go, but the thing that confuses me is that only swapping the GPU caused the issue to appear

[Noah0302]

1 minute ago, SpookyCitrus said:

It wont hurt to do it again, especially if the sound issue is recent and you have had the card installed for awhile. The 5700xt has had some driver issues, best to use the 2020 version to be safe unless it's buggyness is a big issue. Also make sure you have the latest version of DDU and it's set to remove all drivers and all files including audio and misc.

Thank you for the reply!

 

I will do that again if nothing else helps, since with the 2020 edition the fan profile was bricked and locked to 1000+ RPM.

That is a huge issue for this particulas PC, since it is right beside me when gaming or watching movies on the couch and I specifically built it for absolute silence.

[homeap5]

Try to set sound as 44100 16bit just to be sure if too high sample rate not making that distortion. Depends on audio equipment it may be noticeable or not (distortions produced by audio device that can't handle higher frequenties and reproduce them as lower distortions).

[Chen G]

28 minutes ago, Noah0302 said:

On my main PC I have a Fiio K3  and really am happy with it.

 

I know this is the way to go, but the thing that confuses me is that only swapping the GPU caused the issue to appear

GPUs draw power in specific ways, for example more draw every time it renders a frame and then less draw when it's finished and waits for the next one from the CPU.

[Noah0302]

For a quick fix Ill just use my Fiio K3 from my main PC as audio device connected to my ATH-M50Xs or Sennheiser HD58X.

Better audio and no electrical noise with it!

 

The only thing is that Ill have to disconnect and connect it to the device im using every time. Maybe Ill get a 2nd one sometimes...

[PriitM]

Crazy idea, but you could check your gains in audio set up. I had noises coming through the GPU (hiss, coil whine etc) until I turned the mic gain down. 

 

(Input device > Input (mic) device properties > Additional properties > levels > Boost)

[Noah0302]

13 minutes ago, PriitM said:

Crazy idea, but you could check your gains in audio set up. I had noises coming through the GPU (hiss, coil whine etc) until I turned the mic gain down. 

 

(Input device > Input (mic) device properties > Additional properties > levels > Boost)

Interesting! But there is no boost option fot he mic im using.

 

Also tested it without the mic, still audible.

[PriitM]

30 minutes ago, Noah0302 said:

Interesting! But there is no boost option fot he mic im using.

 

Also tested it without the mic, still audible.

I did not use a mic either, still got noise. Might worth a try.

[reza.vortex]

On 1/14/2020 at 1:14 AM, Noah0302 said:

EDIT: Restarting the PC in safe mode without audio enabled results in electrical noise when moving the mouse. I guess the new GPU has resulted in additional electrical noise within the system so that the onboard soundcard can no longer block it out as it could with the previous GPU. But that is just a guess!

 

Hi,

 

I recently build a PC with an MSI B450 Carbon AC and Ryzen 2700.

Ive been using it for about a month without a single issue and was really happy about it. I did not have any audio issues back then.

Two weeks ago I installed an RX 5700XT Red Devil as the new GPU and have not used my headphones since, because I have a quite good audio system which is connected via USB and his its own soundcard.

Today I had to use my headphones again and a USB mic because of a Discord conference.

Plugging the headphones into the mainboard, I instantly noticed the static sound and was quite pissed about it.

As I joined the Discord call the others said that my microphone also has a static noise. After that I tested it in Audacity and yes, a loud as fuck electrical noise, probably the same as in my headphones, is audible.

 

Keep in mind, the only thing I changed compared to when it worked was a new GPU!

 

I already reinstalled the realtek audio drivers 2 times directly from the MSI website.

That was when I noticed that the static stops as soon as the driver is uninstalled and prompts me to restart my PC.

After the inital post and before windows is loaded fully, no static is heard in the headphones.

Only after the Windows login screen is visible the static starts to play.

Thats why Im guessing that the audio drivers are to blame for it, but Im not so sure about it.

 

Has anyone else had this issue? All fixed I found online have not helped to far.

hi . yea i have this problem too . exactly after i changed my graphic card . i changed microphone . changed sound card . any thing . didnt worked or worked for short time . this thing destroying all the system . idk what should i do . i am thinking maybe some mainboard drivers are the reason . i made an earth for my pc also . worked for short time . but now have pure buzzing noise from my microphone . some one guide me plz .

[H713]

I've seen this kind of thing happen before, and it's usually related to ground noise. Unfortunately, it's often a nightmare to chase down. Sometimes a very powerful GPU, which has very large (and VERY nonlinear) current draw can inject a lot of crap into the ground, and onboard audio often doesn't do a very good job of isolating itself from that part of the system ground.

 

Another possibility is that it's related to a power supply that is poor quality or undersized. That can cause problems to, since a lot of ripple on the power rails (or on the ground) can find its way to the audio output.

Some internal (PCI / PCIE) sound cards handle this well. Some do not, and usually the ones that do are pretty expensive. 

 

If the ground noise is really severe, even a good USB audio interface might not be able to handle it. In one case I had a defective monitor power supply cause the problem. As soon as the outer shield (ground) on the DVI connector made contact, an extremely annoying noise was very audible on the interface's line outputs.

 

Start by minimizing what's connected. If you have an onboard GPU, use that. If not, try to find something else (preferably NOT a high-end card) and put that in. Use a single monitor and make sure your drivers are up to date. Slowly add pieces back into the system to determine where the problem comes from.