HELP! Audio being picked up even if mic is plugged out

[kasterdin]

Ok, so my friend is having this problem with discord where a sound is being played from his mic even though he isn't saying anything, and he is home alone. The wierdest part is that the audio that is being outputed from his mic sounds like hes watching a youtube video, or a conversation between two people. He says that he isn't watching any videos from his phone, so i am unsure what is causing the problem, we tried doing the stereo mix fix but he doesn't have that option is his sound. So if anyone can help, it would be much appreciated!.

P.S. the sound that comes from his mic is very low, like its at a whisper level of talking.

[WhyAlwaysMe]

Try lowering the input sensitivity in discord voice and video settings

[kasterdin]

Even when we did that, the sound can be heard. He would literally unplug his headset from his computer and the sound would pick up. Im trying to figure out where the sound is coming from and how to get rid of it. At this point we were leaning towards the sound being a virus.

[dcgreen2k]

Are you sure your computer doesn't have an integrated microphone? My laptop has one and it sounds like a whisper as well.

[kasterdin]

Nah. hes playing on a pc, and we're pretty sure there aren't any integrated mics.

[chckovsky]

24 minutes ago, kasterdin said:

 we tried doing the stereo mix fix but he doesn't have that option is his sound.

Not sure what this fix is supposed to be. Care to explain?

 

Anyways, it's not unheard of that guitar players often report hearing radio through their guitar amps or effects etc. Could be something similar? RF is fucking complicated shit.

[chckovsky]

And just to be clear, the sound is literally coming out of the microphone of the headset, right?

[kasterdin]

So basically, i tried searching up this problem and a lot of people said that it might be a stereo mix that is picking up whatever hes watching on his computer and outputing it on discord. So i thought it was that, he didn't have a stereo mix on his sound tab.

[kasterdin]

We aren't sure where the sound is coming out of. He has the hyperx cloud 2 and he would take the mic out of his headset and we would all still hear this conversation or video coming from his end.

[.Apex.]

18 minutes ago, kasterdin said:

We aren't sure where the sound is coming out of. He has the hyperx cloud 2 and he would take the mic out of his headset and we would all still hear this conversation or video coming from his end.

is this paranormal activity type stuff?

[.Apex.]

also i dont think you need stereo mix for you to hear his computer sound, discord might have an option to enable or disable PC sounds.

for example i have an external sound card and it doesnt have stereo mix at all, but when sharing screen on Skype, they can hear my PC, or for example Teamviewer does the same.

[chckovsky]

2 minutes ago, syn2112 said:

is this paranormal activity type stuff?

Nah it's probably RF interference. That shit can be wild, especially if you have unauthorized use of RF in his area.

[d3sl91]

Do you hear this constantly, even if he for sure is not playing any videos in the background? If you do, he is likely getting RF Interference from a local AM or FM radio station. This is actually very common. 

 

So, I'd recommend looking up guides on how to eliminate RF Interference. This is usually because all the cables plugged into the computer, are antennas and are happening to pick up the strong Broadcast Station's transmissions. 

Here are some suggestions off the top of my head. 

1. Try unplugging everything from the computer, every cable, and slowly start pugging them back in and see if the sounds are gone, and come back when a specific cable is plugged in. 

2. If you do find a cable that causes the interference, you can snap on a ferrite bead, or buy a cable with a ferrite bead already on it. Ferrite beads stop RF from traveling along a cable. 

3. You could try a USB soundcard. Again, using a USB cable that has these ferrite beads on it. 

Ferrite beads - those black cylinders on the cable:



Source: I am a licensed ham radio operator, We deal with this stuff alot. (But, I don't know everything....)