Sound card line out emits buzzing sound, interference fixable?

Factual Questions
1

I just got a new motherboard (http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socketa/a7v8x/overview.htm), which has an on-board audio chip. When plugged into my stereo, it emits a low, but extremely audible and definitely annoying buzzing sound.

My previous motherboard, also with on-board audio, did not exhibit this problem. Neither does my PowerBook. So it’s definitely a problem with the new motherboard.

I can only speculate as to the cause, but if it’s EMI caused by other components in the system, it might be fixable, right? I wouldn’t know what could be causing interference, but I have two Ultra2 LVD SCSI drives in the system, for example.

I’m going to experiment with removing/turning off some parts and see if it has any effect. In the meantime: Suggestions, anyone?

2

Try wiggling the plug in the jack, and moving it around some. My speakers sometimes do the same and that fixes em.

3

Thanks for the tip, but that didn’t help – the buzz is constant.

4

do you have amplified speakers? if so try turning the systems volume and turning up the speakers volume dial. it sounds unrelated i know, but something similer happened to me. that was the fix.

5

Sounds obvious, but have you tried different wires? Different stereos?

If so and the problem persists, why not try contacting Asus? Your motherboard could be defective. According to the specs you cited, your board has a three-year warranty.

6

netscape 6: My computer is connected to an amp. The buzz is not related to the volume of the audio card’s line output – it’s constant – so if I turn my system’s volume down and the amp’s volume up, I will just get more buzz. Conversely, I get less buzz if I turn my system’s volume up and the amp’s down.

With my previous motherboard I got a different kind of buzz, so to speak: It happened whenever I moved the mouse. In that particular case turning the system’s volume down and the amp’s volume up helped, because the interference was related to the output volume.

Maybe some engineers here would be able to tell me what kind of EMI would be volume-independent.

neutron star, contacting Asus would be the last resort, of course. If possible, I want to avoid going through the whole motherboard-swapping procedure again. I can’t afford too much downtime. There’s a (pretty high, imho) chance that the audio stuff is simply badly insulated against EMI and that a replacement board will behave identically.

7

neutron, no, not tried that. I only have that one amp, but I’ll try a different wire. (A wire that, incidentally, worked perfectly with my previous motherboard and with my PowerBook :slight_smile: