[bcschmerker4]

Originally posted by Booki
 
Hey all, Just registered to chuck in what happened to me... I havn't read all of the thread, but noticed there are some recent posts.
 
I too just had this happen to me, this frightening, horrible experience leaving me scared to use my headphones again (Audio Technica AD700's). Bad apart about these headphones, and id assume most audiophile style is there is no volume. So it just blasted me deaf!
 
After the initial "bang" it continued a high frequency squealing/buzzing noise. The only way i could suppress it was to switch to my speakers, although i did not risk turning them on.
 
After a reboot, the noise is gone but i am a little skeptical in using them now.
 
I am using;
 
Windows 10 Pro 64bit
Asus Xonar STX
Driver: UNi Xonar 1822 v1.75a r2.exe
 
Also note: This happened while I watched a youtube video, no games or anything cpu/gpu hungry were running at the time.

 

 
Yep, core problem in the Vista audio stack.  The 6 kHz scream is tied to OS events.  The Asus® AV-100 and similar chips from C-Media International aren't the only audio chips to be hit with this problem.  Microsoft engineers estimated the 6 kHz scream as related to the resampler, but the hotfix wasn't much help in this department.  I've heard of no similar problem in LinUX.

 

[Booki]

So I guess there is no fix...
 
Is it a sound card issue, driver issue or a operating system issue?

 

[bcschmerker4]

I've determined the 6 kHz scream to be an OS issue.

 

[dmr87]

  Hi there, just signed up to share my experience with this. Just happened for the 2nd time in two years, the first time was a couple of months ago. I wrote off the 1st as just a bug or something and didn't think much about it after that, now when it happened again I googled it and came here.
 
I'm also on W7-64bit, both times have been triggered by starting a video file in MPC, high pitched noise from both channels. Rebooting the PC seems to be the only solution. Not that I've tried much else, just wanted to get rid of the sound so rebooted as fast as possible. I tried switching between my speakers and back to headphones but the noise was still there. I'm on the latest official drivers, think they are from 2013. Anyway, it's a ****ty thing, but it seems very rare for me at least so I don't care that much.

 
Hello again, I wrote here a while ago (quote above). Still happens from time to time and it has happened with both the UNi drivers and the latest Windows 10 drivers ASUS released just a couple of days ago. I'm thinking about what my next move is, if I should just give up on this card and try something else. The card cost a pretty penny after all and it's ridiculous that we even have this problem. And to reiterate, it only happens when I start or skip through a video, either through MPC or on Youtube (doesn't matter if it's flash or HTML5).
 
edit - Gonna try switch the card to another PCI slot, one thing I haven't tried so worth a shot. I'll come back and update after some testing.
 
Feels like it would be a bigger issue if it is an OS thing, I've read some quick customer feedback on local sites/stores regarding the card and no one seems to have problems.
 
edit 2 - Slot change didn't help

 

[racofer]

So I have been having this problem as well using my Xonar D1 for well over a year. It's specially terrifying since I only use headphones (senns HD515).
 
Relevant specs:

1. Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3
2. Asus Xonar D1
3. Windows 8.1
4. Driver UNi Xonar 1822 v1.75a r2

 
Every single time I had this issue was watching a video on Youtube. Maybe, if I remember correctly, I had it happen once in Assetto Corsa back when it was still in very early access, but I always have Firefox running in the background. I watch a lot of videos using MPC-HC and I never had this issue there.
 
Steps that often cause this loud squeal of doom:

1. Open a video on Youtube (using either Flash or HTML5, doesn't seem to matter);
2. Skip to some random position;
3. Pray it doesn't puncture your eardrums;

 
I'm literally developing PTSD over this thing. I've tried different driver versions as well to no avail. One thing that fixes this issue is to close the glitch's originating application, in this case Firefox. After that all sounds return to normal with no need to reboot.
 
It's intriguing that of the few people on this thread that mentioned it, they were using Youtube in Firefox. Could Firefox be triggering these glitches? I have Chrome but I barely use it, so saying that I never had this problem in there while watching Youtube videos may just be a matter of luck. Could anyone verify?
 
I'm seriously considering ditching this card and getting a headphone DAC and plugging it into the onboard optical output before I go deaf. It also doesn't surprise me one bit that Asus doesn't give a flying screw about this issue, as their driver support for these cards has been more than lacking since the beginning. And like Button said on an earlier post (http://www.head-fi.org/t/494565/xonar-essense-stx-random-loud-high-pitched-ringing-noise/120#post_11844040), I remember reading about this issue on the Asus support boards and no help was ever given.
 
I also have a hard time believing it's a faulty card as it always happens in specific usage situations (Youtube + skipping the video). If the hardware was faulty it would trigger more often in random situations, but by the looks of it, it may be a combination of OS + Drivers + Applications.
 
Never had this happen with any card other than a Xonar.

 

[bcschmerker4]

I've had the 6 kHz scream start from any Application, even an individual-device Control Panel, at random.  The problem is tied to OS events.  Microsoft Corporation put up a hotfix for the audio-resampler library in Windows 6.n, but it doesn't fix the 6 kHz scream trigger for everybody; the problem has not been completely resolved for Windows 10, either.

 

[EasyC]

Hi Everyone,
 
Found this thread through some googling. I've had this happen twice in around the last 2 weeks (about a week apart). I've owned an Essence ST for I don't know....5 years or something and never had this happen until just a couple of weeks ago. Like some other people have mentioned and for me, this constant loud pitch sound has only kicked in during youtube videos. I also use Firefox.
 
When it has happened I've closed Firefox straight away (mostly because I've almost had a heart attack) and also dragged any volume sliders down to 0 and even clicked on mute speakers, but it seems that doesn't work so I just log off rather then restart my PC which fixes it. I thought at first it may have been flash, but I remembered I use Youtube's HTML5 player.
 
So I'm at a loss as to why this would be happening after so many years of use.
 
Here's any extra info that may be useful:
 
Win 7 64 bit
Audio Driver v7.12.8.1794
DT 990 pro

 

[Sofacykel]

  Hi Everyone,
 
Found this thread through some googling. I've had this happen twice in around the last 2 weeks (about a week apart). I've owned an Essence ST for I don't know....5 years or something and never had this happen until just a couple of weeks ago. Like some other people have mentioned and for me, this constant loud pitch sound has only kicked in during youtube videos. I also use Firefox.
 
When it has happened I've closed Firefox straight away (mostly because I've almost had a heart attack) and also dragged any volume sliders down to 0 and even clicked on mute speakers, but it seems that doesn't work so I just log off rather then restart my PC which fixes it. I thought at first it may have been flash, but I remembered I use Youtube's HTML5 player.
 
So I'm at a loss as to why this would be happening after so many years of use.
 
Here's any extra info that may be useful:
 
Win 7 64 bit
Audio Driver v7.12.8.1794
DT 990 pro

 
I thought I had written that, it sounds exactly like how it happened to me, except I had an Essence ST, and now have an Essence II, and I'm running W8.1. When it happened to me however, I got very loud clipping sound of the video I was playing (like, way beyond sound card spec and possibly damaging my headphones kind of sound level and distortion) - I got the ringing after stopping the video.
 
It feels like Firefox and Youtube is the culprit, or at least the method of provoking the issue most reliably. I've since updated Firefox once, put the Xonar center to force 192KHz 24bit and it hasn't happened since. I don't know how or why but it seems to have fixed it for me. Still kind of scared of skipping in Youtube videos though, it really scars the mind.

 

[mindbomb]

So I have 2 computers with xonars, and this happens only on one of them. So I think I can find the cause by just looking at the differences between the setups. My theory atm is that there is some hardware instability on the other motherboard that is responsible. I'm trying now with different voltages and clocks.
 
I use an external amp with it's own volume control, so the noise is still normal volume, so it's only mildly annoying. It happens at a frequency of about once a month, so it takes a while to test any potential solutions.

 

[Undesirable]

I have had this high pitched noise twice while mounting encrypted containers in VeraCrypt, which is a very CPU intensive task, and once while opening Facebook (there were some videos in my feed) in Firefox. Another time it happened while I was mousing over my downloads on my Download Status Bar, which is an addon for Firefox. It calculates the MD5 hash when you do this, which is another CPU intensive task. I have mounted encrypted containers and opened facebook hundreds if not thousands of times since without issue, so this is a really rare occurrence and difficult to reproduce. My processor is overclocked, but apparently stable (no blue screens after I initially set it up).
 
BIOS Settings (animated GIF set to 10 seconds per image, click for larger version):
 

 

[rvcjew]

This only happens for me when swapping across youtube videos for some reason I guess as it swaps sound process's. My god does it hurt with cans on, at least it's rare.

 

[WaveRider69]

You guys, is it happening on both left and right channels or just one?

 

[Undesirable]

Both channels for me, I believe.

 

[rvcjew]

  You guys, is it happening on both left and right channels or just one?

Both, it allways makes you think your pc has froze.

 

[MajesticTwelve]

  I have had this high pitched noise twice while mounting encrypted containers in VeraCrypt, which is a very CPU intensive task, and once while opening Facebook (there were some videos in my feed) in Firefox. Another time it happened while I was mousing over my downloads on my Download Status Bar, which is an addon for Firefox. It calculates the MD5 hash when you do this, which is another CPU intensive task. I have mounted encrypted containers and opened facebook hundreds if not thousands of times since without issue, so this is a really rare occurrence and difficult to reproduce. My processor is overclocked, but apparently stable (no blue screens after I initially set it up).

It may be related because for me it happened for the first time (5 years using Xonar D1 without problems) few days after I overclocked my CPU (2500K on Asus P8P67 Pro motherboard). I have offset set to 0.07v and turbo mode additional voltage to +0.02v.