Hearing static in the headphones - Page 2

I'll try to describe the problem a bit further:

The sound glitches occurs at times rather randomly, at times whilst the browser (both firefox and chrome) is being used and whilst playing Starcraft 2. As I'm writing this, the DPC Latency checker is completely red.

My setup is a gigabyte ga-x58a-ud3r motherboard with some **** realtek integrated sound card and equally **** realtek integrated network card. I'm using a USB cable connected to a E9/E7 combo along with my HD650s which I recently switched to. The problem did also occur when I was using my old Razer Megalodons (also USB headphones), but I feel that it didn't happen as frequently, but it might be because I didn't listen to music as much when I was using them.

I've spent multiple hours browsing the internet in an attempt to solve the glitch and gone from Vista x64 Home to Windows 7 x64 Professional from scratch (as in not updating but installing from scratch), updated the chipset, realtek hd audio, realtek lan and graphics card to the latest drivers (right now the DPC Latency checker is completely green, but as I open another tab it spikes again). I've also tried disabling/enabling all hardware in the device manager one by one without the spikes stopping.

Any thoughts?

Quote:

Originally Posted by fufula 

olander08, when I was getting some DPC latency spikes (nothing as drastic though) I started diagnosing the cause by killing processes, then going into Device Manager and disabling hardware one by one (don't disable your disk, video card or anything like that obviously; only things like LAN card etc.) You can also try updating the drivers for everything you have in your computer and see if you notice any difference.

 

In my case, what was causing the biggest spikes were the High Definition Audio Devices (HDMI Audio Drivers for nVIDIA.) I then experimented with a few different versions of video card drivers, which also made a bit of a difference and finally stuck with the ones that managed to bring the average latency a little lower. Good luck.

if you dont mind me asking, which driver did you go with. My computer was doing well with the 8800GT; although the GTX460 has proven to be more of a PITA than an upgrade
 

You've got the E7/E9 via USB so you can completely bypass the realtek system and get direct digital streaming. All you have to do is set the output on your media player to ASIO, WASAPI or kernel streaming. The best players to do this are Foobar 2000, Winamp Pro or J River Media Center v16. The latter two are not free but Foobar is so start there and I'd strongly suggest kernel streaming for your output. You might have to download and install the plug in but you'll know very soon if it solves your DPC latency problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by holden4th 

You've got the E7/E9 via USB so you can completely bypass the realtek system and get direct digital streaming. All you have to do is set the output on your media player to ASIO, WASAPI or kernel streaming. The best players to do this are Foobar 2000, Winamp Pro or J River Media Center v16. The latter two are not free but Foobar is so start there and I'd strongly suggest kernel streaming for your output. You might have to download and install the plug in but you'll know very soon if it solves your DPC latency problem.

Tried this before and now again. Doesn't improve the latency...

Solved by updating BIOS. Now for that amp upgrade...

Quote:

Originally Posted by aleki 


if you dont mind me asking, which driver did you go with. My computer was doing well with the 8800GT; although the GTX460 has proven to be more of a PITA than an upgrade

W7x64, driver version 266.58, but I'm using them with this crappy GT240 card, which is pretty much like the 8800GT performance-wise. The good thing about it is, it's really quiet, tiny (no monster heat sinks,) and relatively cool. I'd just experiment with a bunch of different versions, because what works for me doesn't have to work for you. It most probably won't.

Quote:

Originally Posted by olander08 

Solved by updating BIOS. Now for that amp upgrade...

 More detail please - what exactly did you update?

Quote:

Originally Posted by fufula 

Quote:

Originally Posted by aleki 


if you dont mind me asking, which driver did you go with. My computer was doing well with the 8800GT; although the GTX460 has proven to be more of a PITA than an upgrade

W7x64, driver version 266.58, but I'm using them with this crappy GT240 card, which is pretty much like the 8800GT performance-wise. The good thing about it is, it's really quiet, tiny (no monster heat sinks,) and relatively cool. I'd just experiment with a bunch of different versions, because what works for me doesn't have to work for you. It most probably won't.

I'll give it a shot. A lot of people have been saying how the new drivers seem to be breaking more features than doing any good.

nVidia really botched the audio bitstreaming feature; they really should just disable it. The performance gap is really huge between the two cards, but dealing with this problem has left me contemplating about reverting back to my 88GT

BTW: my card takes up over 3 slots; consider me envious
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by holden4th 

 More detail please - what exactly did you update?

If you would like to try to update BIOS, you visit the website of the makers of your motherboard and you should be able to find the resources needed there.

   I was hearing the exact same symptoms ... and I moved some wires about and changed the USB cable to a different port (from a Usb addon card to the Mobo Usb) ... and it cured the problem. 

I don't know if it was moving the wires or changing the Usb port ... but as long as it is fixed its OK with me.

+1 to ↑

I get insane line noise through my front panel audio vs plugging the headphones through my sound card. I'm thinking something about the noise shielding gave away over the years, as the front panel didnt give me this problem when I first built the PC