[zombiereptar]

Hey guys, 

When connected through the front panel audio jack of my computer, my headphones pick up this really irritating ringing/buzzing/static noise. I assume it's hardware related but it seems like it could also be connected to software somehow because the pitch and severity of the sound varies as I perform different tasks (eg: scrolling pages up and down, transferring files from one location to another, opening certain programs etc...). 

Audio from the rear jack is fine. I know it isn't a problem with my headphones, I'm listening with Audio Technica ATH-M50's which sound perfect with other devices. I've also tested the front the jack with various other speakers, headphones and ear buds and the same ringing is produced no matter what is connected. The sound is present both when using on board audio and my Asus Xonar DG card (one of the reasons I bought the card was to eliminate the buzzing). I've altered all the audio settings I can think of with no results. At first I thought the sound may have been caused by the front panel audio cable touching the video card or motherboard so I moved it as far away from other components as possible to no avail. 

Does anyone know what may be causing this and how I might be able to fix it. If there's nothing that can be done short of buying a new case, I've been thinking of buying a 3.5mm jack extention cable to run from to jack on the back of my case to the front (headphone cable won't reach the back panel comfortably which is why I need this issue resolved.) would this result in any loss of of quality? Here's one I've been looking at http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=WA7010&form=CAT2&SUBCATID=1013#4

System Specs: 
Seagate Barracuda 1TB ST31000528AS 
Samsung SH-S223C SATA DVDRW Drive 
Powercolor Radeon HD5770 
1GB Mushkin 996768 Silverline PC3-10666 (2x2GB) 
DDR3 Intel Core i5 760 
Coolermaster Hyper 212+ 
ASRock H55M-L Motherboard 
Asus Xonar DG sound card 
Aywun A-1 Game series case 

Thanks for your time.

 

[Head Injury]

Probably the cables running from the sound card to the front panel jack aren't shielded, and you're picking up interference. I had the same problem with my old sound card, and never bothered to try the front jack again. The same problem is often apparent with onboard sound's back panel jacks and laptop jacks. Wouldn't know how to fix it so you can use the front jack. The extension cable will fix the interference.

 

[hdufour]

Quote:

Probably the cables running from the sound card to the front panel jack aren't shielded, and you're picking up interference. I had the same problem with my old sound card, and never bothered to try the front jack again. The same problem is often apparent with onboard sound's back panel jacks and laptop jacks. 

I second this idea.  Most of the front panel cables I've seen over the years are terrible.  You can try moving the audio cable around in the case, getting it away from all other items in the case (wires, power leads, etc), but it may not help.  As a super long shot, make sure that your front panel audio cable matches the profile of the header on your motherboard (AC97 or HD Audio), and that your bios is set correctly (some are selectable, some are not).  Or, you could aways get a small DAC/Amp combo and bypass the onboard sound totally 

 

[youngngray]

Yep, I know the problem exactly. I can tell you for sure that it has to do with the design of your computer unfortunately. Mine is exactly the same way and it makes it such that I absolutely cannot use the front panel audio jacks for headphones or microphone.
 
The problem is that when the cables inside your computer were run from the motherboard to the front panel they were either not shielded at all, not shielded well, or run directly past something that induces RFI or RMI interference into the cables. This could be a hard drive, the CPU, your RAM, or something else.
 
To fix it:
a. Don't use the jack! Of course this is the easiest way, but if you really want/need to use it...
b. Open her up! find the cable that attaches to the front panel and see how it is routed to the motherboard. If there's enough cabling inside your case, you can reroute it somewhere so that it isn't near anything else. Be wary of all major components and power cables.
c. Get some kind of shielding for that cable and wrap it up. Disclaimer: I've never actually tried shielding a cable myself like that and I'm not sure how well it will work...
d. Your way will work too. Get a cable exactly like the one you linked. Personally, I would get one that has gold-plated jacks on the ends, they don't cost much more if any.
e. You can also (which is where I am right now) get an external, USB or otherwise, DAC/amp for your computer and move the audio outside of it completely. I have a Total Bithead.
 
Good luck!

 

[zombiereptar]

Thanks for the responses guys! As I mentioned in my original post; I have indeed opened up the case and rerouted the cable as far from other components as possible and yes I'm using a dedicated sound card as opposed to on board audio. How would I go about shielding the cable? Would I just do it with electrical tape or something? If that fails it looks like the extention cable is my only viable option(I can't really afford an amp or anything at the moment), as long as you guys don't think that would degrade the sound quality at all (would getting a gold plated one a you suggested prevent that?). Thanks again for your help so far 

 

 

[stv014]

Just get an extension cable, and use the headphone with that. I assume you have the coiled cord version of the M50, otherwise the extension would be unneeded ? The front panel cable already worked as an extension anyway, just inside the computer case, if you are worried about sound quality. If you do want to use the front panel, and there is no shielded front panel cable available, you have to make one yourself from shielded audio cable(s) and the original connectors with some soldering.
 

 

[youngngray]

Quote:

Thanks for the responses guys! As I mentioned in my original post; I have indeed opened up the case and rerouted the cable as far from other components as possible and yes I'm using a dedicated sound card as opposed to on board audio. How would I go about shielding the cable? Would I just do it with electrical tape or something? If that fails it looks like the extention cable is my only viable option(I can't really afford an amp or anything at the moment), as long as you guys don't think that would degrade the sound quality at all (would getting a gold plated one a you suggested prevent that?). Thanks again for your help so far 

 

As for shielding the cable, I really couldn't help you there as I've never tried anything of the sort, sorry.
 
The external extra cable shouldn't degrade the signal any more than any internal one does. That is, if the front panel jack were working properly, it wouldn't be any better/worse than that cable. (These points being heavily discussed over in the Sound Science forum... 

 You've probably seen some of those cable threads...) The main reason I say gold-plated is not necessarily for SQ, well that too, but also for longevity as the gold will not corrode like it might without.

 

[zombiereptar]

Okay, extension cable it is then! Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it 

 

[RandalMcdaniels]

I had this exact same problem, my front audio jacks would make buzzing/clicking electrostatic noises that drove me absolutely crazy. Meanwhile the back audio jacks were crystal clear.
I even went through the lengthy process of putting multiple layers of shielding around the wire, as well as re-routing the wire throughout different parts of the case. I figured the little front panel circuitboard was grounded to the case correctly because there was little ground grommit thing sticking out of one of the wires that you had to put on top of the screw hole before screwing it down.. I later than opened up the case to make sure the ground was screwed down properly which it was.. It turns out the little ground grommit sticking out of the wire was for the 1394 firewire cord which i never had plugged into the motherboard (i have an asrock z77 extreme4 which does not have a firewire port) so basically the ground circuit was being completed because that 1394 wire was not even plugged into the motherboard at all..
 
So I fixed it!! Finally! I am so proud of myself!
After months of annoyance and multiple attempts at getting the buzzing noises to go away i had a hunch that it was because the 2 inch little front panel circuitboard was not sucessfully grounded to anything. So to make a long story short i decided to take a chance and see if i could ground it myself.. I got lucky here because i have to admit, i had no idea what i was doing.
 
I unscrewed the little front panel circuitboard and i took a little piece of tinfoil and i made it so one end of the tinfoil was touching one of the little soldered sharp bits at the bottom of the circuitboard, and i made the other end touch the screw hole area so that the screw would press down on the other end of the tinfoil when i screwed it back down..I had to use a little piece of scotch tape to get the tinfoil under the circuitboard to stay attatched to the pointy little solder notch. It looked pretty silly, but i was careful and made sure the tinfoil was only touching one metal contact under the board.
 
I was almost convinced it would do nothing because of how stupid it looked but OH MY GOODNESS!! I plugged the headphones back in and IT WAS FIXED!!! Crystal clear sound! I even turned the volume up to 100 on windows and i could not hear ANYTHING!
 
The only reason i tried this was a last ditch final desperate attempt to stop the annoying noises, please do not view my post as a failproof solution, if you want to try something similar please do so at your own risk, i had no idea what i was doing and got lucky. Just be careful and always remember to disconnect your computers power wire before doing anything

 

[hdufour]

Good job figuring that out!  Sounds like the case designer cut a few corners on that front panel - bummer, but figuring it out just earned you a smile ear to ear, and a 

.  We should all remember that little trick in case we run across it in the future....