Horrible noises from my X-FI Fatality

[cantankerous]

Has anyone noticed their X-Fi based card giving out horrible noises, especially under certain modes? My card as of late has been giving out horrible high pitched digital screeching, chirping and buzzing when in game mode. The louder I put my speakers the more I hear it. When a game starts up I can hardly hear the noise due to the threshold being lower than the game volume but it is still really annoying knowing it is there. When at a quiet spot where a level is loading etc it is very noticeable. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers and same thing. It does this through headphones attached to the front bay as well yet entertainment mode and audio creation mode are much, much quieter. On top of this I still get the odd crackle and pop which is really annoying. The X-Fi sounds great when it works properly but these audio anomolies just put a sour taste in my mouth about owning this card.

Has anyone else experienced any noise even close to what I am describing above? Is my card dying or what?

Thanks.

[cantankerous]

i guess everyone's X-FI is crystal clear in sound all the time and only mine is botched?

[cadaveca]

heatsinked processor? is the "big cap" in good shape?

[cantankerous]

I will check these out. No my processor is not heatsinked as it is one of the very original ones before they started doing that. I will take the card out and check the cap for any bulging/leaking tomorrow.

[cadaveca]

You have NF4 board, and this sort of issue is pretty prevalent with this chipset. For some reason the processor works alot more than expected, and hence the issues, as well as the complete redesign of the X-FI board.

I currently have a refurbished "old" board, from RMA'ing my original card, which was one of the newer units. I have found that if you do not select the proper "mode" for the card when using it, problems can arise such as crackling and popping, so this may be something you want ot consider as well.

[HiJon89]

"Horrible noises from my X-FI Fatality"

Take the Panic! At the Disco CD out of your drive and the horrible noises should go away :)

[cantankerous]

lol. Actually the gf listens to that on itunes so the CD is always in the car hehe.

[Alik4041]

The trick is to mute your microphone because SVM differentiates the different types of sound, but it does it with your microphone for some reason. Go to "sound and audio devices" in your control panel, click on the "audio" tab. Click on the "volume" button for "sound playback" and mute your microphone. I had to do this because it removed my windows volume panel in my taskbar. The noise usually happens when your soundcard isn't outputting any sound, which is when the mic usually kicks in. It gets more high pitched by the second. This should take care of this problem.

[Nikolasz]

Try to find sourse digital interference it comes to audio devices too.
Try to put audio cards away from graphics and away from any of cards.
Let it be alone.
And flat cable away from electronic things too.
This will silend up.
But if you do audio dont use soft cpu coolers.

And dissable imputs when/wich you dont need them.
Mics, cdrom, aux, cd-rom ...

[cantankerous]

Thanks a ton for the input guys, I really appreciate it. I just checked with my sound properties and unfortunately I had already disabled all uneeded inputs and outputs as I had thought of this in the past when troubleshooting this issue which only seems to be worse than it was in the past. Too bad too cause your description of the resolve to the problem is exactly what I am describing. When no sound goes on the sound is very evident and does seem to get louder as time goes on but not entirely louder, it does level off shortly. It does sound exactly like digital noise, screeching, chirping, hissing etc that seems to fluctuate as cpu load, hard drive load etc increases. I will try and swap pci slots for the sound card and will try and put that damn ribbon cable far on its own and away from other cables. Isn't it suppose to be shielded however? POS.

[cantankerous]

Oh so sweet! Here is a digital kiss to everyone who helped me with this problem, in particular Alik4041. My problem is solved. I had in fact muted all uneeded inputs and outputs upon checking again HOWEVER going into the advanced properties of the microphone I found an option for 20+db boost to the Mic! I disabled this and voila! No more digital screech! All I get now is a little hiss and only when I put my speakers on their fullest. Games are actually sounding much crisper now as during quiet parts I no longer hear the noise I was hearing before. Thanks again guys, you have made me feel a lot lighter about this problem.

[Alik4041]

Glad I can help ;) You have a nice setup BTW. And to think I can't wait until my ASUS p4c800-e dlx comes in on thursday :rolleyes:

[cantankerous]

wow, thanks for commenting on my setup. I have actually been thinking it isn't nearly as hot as it used to be. With everyone getting their highly clocked C2D/C2Q etc I was feeling behind on my X2 based cpu. Everyone with their fancy 8800's doesn't help either lol.

[Andretti]

So what should you do if you have this problem but WANT to use your mic?

I use Teamspeak alot, but also run alot of music through my computer between videos and mp3's. Mine is reacting just like the one above....mute the mic and things sound great, no hissing, no popping, and most of all no feedback. BUT, unmute the mic and boom, feedback galore when I try to use ts and distortion all over the place again in the speakers and headphones.

Any suggestions?

Bryan

[strange|ife]

on my a8n board last year. my faitlity did that. just poped in my trust aud 2. and all was well

this card has been fine on my non nf4 builds.

iam really not happy with the quality though, and going to get a blue gears. sellin the creative

[Donnie27]

So what should you do if you have this problem but WANT to use your mic?

I use Teamspeak alot, but also run alot of music through my computer between videos and mp3's. Mine is reacting just like the one above....mute the mic and things sound great, no hissing, no popping, and most of all no feedback. BUT, unmute the mic and boom, feedback galore when I try to use ts and distortion all over the place again in the speakers and headphones.

Any suggestions?

Bryan

Others have used a USB MIC to get around that problem.