[Undesirable]

Had the screech again when fast-forwarding through a video. This time it stopped when I paused / navigated away from the video, and sound returned to normal. Normally the screech carries on until I reset the computer.

 

[MajesticTwelve]

  Had the screech again when fast-forwarding through a video. This time it stopped when I paused / navigated away from the video, and sound returned to normal. Normally the screech carries on until I reset the computer.

When I had it for the first time recently I also didn't have to reboot, just paused or rewound to the earlier part of the video.

 

[WaveRider69]

Is it extremely loud for you guys?  Mine was excruciatingly loud.  I just don't remember if it was left channel only or both right and left channel when it used to happen to me when I had my card a while back.  Have any of you experienced any slight loss of hearing damage in the 3khz or 6khz region as a result of this?

 

[MajesticTwelve]

  Is it extremely loud for you guys?  Mine was excruciatingly loud.  I just don't remember if it was left channel only or both right and left channel when it used to happen to me when I had my card a while back.  Have any of you experienced any slight loss of hearing damage in the 3khz or 6khz region as a result of this?

For me it wasn't THAT loud but maybe it depends on the headphones you have (I have Creative Aurvana Live!). I also took off my headphones very quickly so maybe I don't remember it right. I doubt it damaged my hearing in any way. I wonder if changing the max channel output in the C-Media panel (I have it on 0 level now, max level is +12) to a lower level will make the noise more quiet (smaller difference in the sound volume because with these settings you will have to set the Windows volume to let's say 60%).

 

[fufula]

For some reason the issue seems to be more prevalent in Windows 10. I've been using the new OS since July and it's already happened at least 5 times:\

 

[Undesirable]

Well I've had enough of it. It's ear-piercingly loud for me on my Beyerdynamic DT880 Pro cans, and nobody's proposed a verified cause or definitive solution. Surely it can't be due to "OS events" if the noise only occurs on the Xonar series of sound cards? I'm about ready to try the Devil HDX 7.1 Channel PCI-E Soundcard because it's cheap(er) and has similar hi-fi sound quality to the STX.

 

[MajesticTwelve]

OK, I think there are 3 things that might have caused this problem in my situation (things that I've recently changed in my setup):
1. Overclocking my 2500K for the first time (4,5Ghz)
2. Buying additional ram modules (I had 2x4GB, now 4x4GB of the same model but Corsair changed something and the new set is single ranked not double like the original ones, I had 3 BSOD with memory_management recently, with the stock XMP profile).
3. Windows 10 (I doubt it's the cause becuase I've been using it for over 1 month before the noise happened).
 
I think the noise is connected with the 1 point (overclock or overvoltage) because after I set my CPU to default voltage and multiplier, I haven't experienced this problem again (with OC I had it 2 times - 5 days apart).

 

[bcschmerker4]

  Well I've had enough of it. It's ear-piercingly loud for me on my Beyerdynamic DT880 Pro cans, and nobody's proposed a verified cause or definitive solution. Surely it can't be due to "OS events" if the noise only occurs on the Xonar series of sound cards? I'm about ready to try the Devil HDX 7.1 Channel PCI-E Soundcard because it's cheap(er) and has similar hi-fi sound quality to the STX.

Thanks for tipping me off to a possible solution to the 6kHz-scream problem that so far has defied a permanent fix in Microsoft® Windows® 6-up.  ASUSTeK Computer has used the C-Media® CMI-8888DHT PCIe DSP chip to date only in the ROG® XONAR® Phoebus™, which hadn't the purest analog support, unlike the Essence™ range currently hamstrung by the AV-100 DSP (based on the C-Media® CMI-8788 PCI 2.0, which requires a bridge chip to function on PCIe hardware).

 

[trooper05]

I had this exact same issue that lasted a few weeks, I would get scared using the sound card, it seems as if its sending a high pitched screech at full gain 600 ohm regardless of what gain setting you put on. Once it happens it just ruins any activity your doing like listening to music, Id end up throwing my headphones on the floor for fear of going deaf.
 
I solved the issue, it is related to system interrupts, when a device such as a network adapter or your sound card wants resources it sends a hardware signal to the processor that stops running processes and takes priority. Each device has a IRQ (interrupt request) associated to it.
 
I ran DPC Latency Checker which shows what is interrupting the system for resources and saw that I kept getting small peaks of high latency, when these spikes occurred the screeching would happen.
 
The first thing to do is to disable core parking in windows,
 
"Core Parking" dynamically disables CPU cores in an effort to conserve power when idle. Disabled cores are re-enabled as the CPU load increases once again." When cores are parked it caused massive interrupt requests which raised latency.
 
I then disabled all unnecessary devices I don't need like Virtual Machine Network adapters, Wireless Adapters, On board sound in the BIOS, Disabled Intel speed-step in the BIOS which dynamically changes the CPU frequency, Disable Intel turbo boost in the BIOS, Disable C states in the BIOS.
 
In the latter before doing this I was getting frequent spikes of 4000 US latency, Now it stays under 50 US at all times, I've been using the sound card for months now with no more screeching. 

 
If you are over-clocking your system set it back to stock as it causes system instability with detrimental performance on system interrupts. Think about it your sound card demands resources from your computer, other devices are taking priority, you sound card is left stranded and screeches. 
 
Also get the UNI Xonar drivers as they provide lower DPC latency!
 
Hope this helps 

 

 

[Undesirable]

So if all these interruptions are occurring all the time because of core parking, C-states and everything else, then why is the screeching so infrequent? Why can't the sound card compensate or avoid surpassing set amp parameters to make the noise at max ohm and max volume. I'd understand if it stuttered or popped slightly when the interruption occurred.

 

[trooper05]

The issue is not caused by core parking, C-states, etc exactly, its caused by high interrupt latency. 
 
To quote Wki, "In computing, interrupt latency is the time that elapses from when an interrupt is generated to when the source of the interrupt is serviced. For many operating systems, devices are serviced as soon as the device's interrupt handler is executed." All those things you disable lower interrupt latency.  
 
I think the Asus® AV-100 audio chip cant handle high interrupt latency, as I could run my on-board sound card without issue . For me it wasn't infrequent it was happening every day, in fact I could re create the issue by enabling all the things I have disabled.  

 

[Undesirable]

 I would rather purchase a different sound card that would allow me to use said features and put up with negligible latencies that wouldn't normally cause an issue.

 

[trooper05]

I 100% agree with you, I shouldn't have to disable all them features to have  a functioning sound card. Like you say why buy high end components with all these features and not be able to use them. If you want to recreate the issue enable loads of VMware network adapters and I promise it will happen everyday not once every couple of months. 
 
But if you only experience it rarely just disable core parking and see if it happens again, you can get DPC latency checker for free to see what your systems latency is now, you can watch your system when cores are parked to see how it reacts. Core parking for me was the main issue, I disabled everything else as a precaution as it was occurring everyday.  
 
I am past internal sound-cards, I think in the future I am just going to stick to external DACS.

 

[Undesirable]

Using that DPC Latency Checker utility, I found that HWiNFO was causing spikes with its Periodic Polling of Bus Clock setting in the Options / Safety menu. So I've disabled that and the graph now stays around the 500µs mark, which is in the green.

 

[trooper05]

That is good, you want it in the green, see if the issue occurs now that your latency is low and let me know .

 You can get it lower, get a program called LatencyMon  you can go into the driver tab and see which devices are using the most resources and disable them if necessary.