Interference
 

A week ago I developed some sort of problem with my computer. My games, mp3s, and basically anything sound related sounded like trash and was messing up.

I solved the gaming issue; the newest patches and updates just don't like my computer (the sound is messing up on a friend's computer also, who has different hardware).

I have formatted 4 times in the past week trying to fix the mp3 dilemma though. Whenever I play mp3s (or any music for that matter, be it iTunes off the network or music CDs) sound distorted at some parts. It basically sounds like I have the Windows volume maxed out and my speaker volume at the lowest setting (audiophiles know what I'm talking about). The sound distorts and sounds just overall trashy at the hard notes of the song.

So I just finished formatting, and reinstalling drivers for my motherboard (NF7-S V2) and all that stuff. Guess what? The mp3s still sound like crap.

So I am about to give up when I open the NVIDIA nForce tray sound options thing. The left and right channel for the Speaker Output show a signal coming through! And I have no music playing!

A forum I visit along with this one suggested that interference could cause my sound to mess up. They also asked if my keyboard and mouse seemed to affect the sound. It definitely did.

Interference it is!

No wonder my music sounds like crap, interference is messing it up...

And I CANNOT find out what is causing it. It didn't start this 'til recently, so I don't know why it's doing it. I haven't put a microwave or anything of the such in my room.

Anyone have any suggestions?

any wireless components? keyboard, mouse, net connection?

any stereos? flourescent lights?

have you tried taking your setup elsewhere? if you tried out your computer somewhere else and it had the same problems, it might not be interference....

Stupid question, Did you try and mute all the other inputs other then basic the sound you need? Also if you have the equipment, try and use DIgital Audio instead of normal, does that fix the problem?

I have a NF7-S v2 and the sound is great on my machine, but if I mess with the MIC / LINE IN settings, I can make things sound like ass too. Finally, Check your Environment settings, and change them, maby it got locked on one? Just a few suggestions, when I get back to my gaming comp (the one with the NF7) I will try and figure out some other things for you to try.

Thanks guys, I've tried most of what you said (especially the volume and mic and line in settings, etc.).

I do have a wireless mouse, I'll try my normal PS/2 ball mouse when I get back to the room.

If all else fails I will take my computer to my friend's room across the entire building.

Alright, I took my computer downstairs (across the building) and it still did the distortion. So it's definitely not interference. My friend's computer (who has the EXACT same speakers) didn't do it at all, and mine did. So it's something with my computer. I also switched out videocards, and it still did it. So it's not the video.

Swap soundcards!

That will tell you if it's your hardware doing it or not!

I noticed with my headphones that my TELEPHONES caused major problems whenever they rang. (Wireless headphones, and wireless phones on the same frequency...)

I've been trying to fix Redjakes's problem as well. We've tried a SoundBlaster Live! in his PC, and the SoundBlaster does it too. My PC has a SoundBlaster in it, and mine is doing it as well now (it didn't a few months ago).

You'll really enjoy this part: our friend's PC downstairs has a SoundBlaster Live! as well, and his does NOT do it.

So now we know that the SoundBlaster is not the cause and the SoundStorm on the motherboard is not the cause. It's not interference, the videocard, or any other type of hardware (since it does it in mine on a completely different PC). The speakers don't matter, since it does it downstairs on our friend's PC with the same speakers as RedJake's. I have different speakers, and it does it on mine too. It's not the power in the room since it did it downstairs.

We've basically narrowed it down to a software problem somewhere, but we are really blank on what it could be now. Keep the suggestions coming everyone!

-Lasereth

dude, i am stumped.

if you tried different soundcards, videocards, speakers, no wireless mouse, moving the computer, and have the same problem on different computers, maybe it's the motherboard....

i dunno.

i know he's got a compatibility issue with nForce sound and Cakewalk Sonar.... so now he can't record music on his computer... maybe it's just the nForce.

i really don't know. sorry.

My computer has the VIA chipset, not nForce 2, so it's not the motherboard *or* the chipset. This is getting really narrowed down!

I just installed my onboard AC97 sound, and the static still remains. So now we know for 100% sure that it's not the soundcard or chipset that's the problem.

Different versions of WinAmp have been tried, and iTunes does it as well.

One point of interest: Windows Media Player reduces the static by about 90%. It still does it, but *barely*.

All suggestions are appreciated!

-Lasereth

Make sure that your sound card and your USB Controller / Mouse&Keyboard are not using the same IRQ if possible, this could cause something like this. I would be truly suprised though, because the last time I seen a problem like this was back in Win98 with a old 486 and a limited amount of resources, The Serial mouse was interfearing with the modem, so if you moved the mouse, the modem would stop dead in its tracks in the middle of dialing up. Also check the Equalizer on your software you are using to play the MP3s. Are you able to take out your powersupply and replace it with a known good one? Perhaps it is not producing clean power and causing this? Also make sure your box does not have any kind of electrical pulse through it. THey are used as a Ground for most systems and if there was an issue with power, the case could become energised MABY? cause this kinda problem.

Anyway I am just listing off a few things hehe Gluck, and I will try some other things and let you know.

The only thing that ever caused my speakers to sound terrible was the "stereo wide" option in the volume control being cranked and my cell phone ringing when its next to the speakers. I'm sure you guys checked that though.

:(

hmm.......I like the power supply idea. I'm gonna give that a try when I get back to the room. Perhaps my Enermax is going bad or something.

alright, tried the PSU (put another one in) and it still did the static and distortion. shit.

i have a soundblaster card, and though, this "story" may be long, it might have some relevance.

basically, i have a soundblaster live card, altec lansing powered speakers with subwoofer. i don't have any distortion problems except when for things going into the line-in or microphone jacks.

i'm a musician and i sometimes play my synth through my computer speakers. the connection goes from synth to mixer, then cables going in to the microphone jack.

automatically, the stereo sound becomes mono, and there's distortion at any volume. the workaround is to go into the volume settings, and adjust the recording properties. i basically select "what u hear" (a soundblaster volume setting?), and then reselect the microphone volume in the recording settings, then on the playback settings, unmute the microphone again.

after i do that, the distortion is gone and magically, the stereo goodness is restored. however, that will only last until i turn off my speakers, then i have to repeat the process.

i don't know if that will help any, but i know that that's how i gotta work my shit. other than that, it's fine.

BTW, i only had to do that AFTER i upgraded the soundblaster drivers. i never had any problems with the original drivers.

the only other thing i can think of is to get an outlet tester and make sure the outlets are wired correctly... maybe you have a building-wide problem?

Those are some interesting ideas, thanks for the reply. A couple of people I talked to said to check and uncheck and then recheck some options (sorta like you did) and it will fix it, but I've tried everything like that it it doesn't help.

I agree I could have a building-wide problem, but why wouldn't it do it on anyone else's computer? It seems I am the only one with the problem :(

do you have any lights in the case? I have had problems with the power converters being too close to the sound card causing distortion. If you do have lights turn them off and see what happens. Sometimes it takes a while before the power convertor starts creating the distortion and other times it does it right form install. If that is the problem, be happy it sint the highpitched tone that some generate.

alright, I unplugged all the lights in in my case. didn't fix it :(

yeah, the high pitched sound that the transformers can make in the control box on cathodes are incredibly annoying :)

it seems like you've looked at everything.... is your setup plugged into any kind of surge protector or UPS?

Yeah, mine is too, but he took his PC down to our friend's room at the other side of the building. It did it in his room too, so I doubt we're using a bad surge protector.

-Lasereth

the only other thing i can think of is that maybe the speaker output jacks are dirty? maybe some contact cleaner will do the trick.

What do you mean "contact cleaner?"

Like 409 or something? :D

no contact cleaner. that's what it's called. it's a spray that has freon and alcohol or something that's used to clean electronic contacts. like with my musical equipment i spray all the jacks on my amps and guitars and usually the tips of the cables.

you can find it at radioshack and at most hardware stores. just make sure your computer or whatever equipment you spray it on is turned off and unplugged. it's liquid and evaporates quickly, but it's still a liquid.

i don't know if anyone around here will have any objection to you doing this.... and i don't know if it'll wreck any computer parts (though i doubt it will)... if you go to radioshack or the hardware store, just ask someone.

don't use 409 or wd-40 or anything like that.

BTW, is there ANY chance that there's a BIOS setting that may be causing you all this grief?

It's snowing like a bitch outside, so I can't get any contact cleaner at the nearest Radio Shack. I started to take my computer apart and put my motherboard and processor back in right before I left for work (where I am now). I'll finish that later and let everyone know if the problem is still there.

alright guys, I swapped out the RAM, same thing happened.


my brother and my friend put the old mobo and processor in while I am at work (right now).

guess what? the sound distortion still occured.

but my brother manipulated some options in Winamp, and it didn't fix it. until he restarted. NOW IT'S FIXED!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't know you had to restart for Winamp settings to take place (the input settings).


We changed around the settings last night in Winamp with the NF7-S and Barton, but we most certainly didn't reset. I wonder if it was actually fixed, and we simply forgot to reset the computer?

so I guess this means it's winamp that was messing everything up?


interestingly enough, now that Winamp is fixed, Media Player seems to be fixed too.......without changing anything in Media Player.



ok, I don't know if I'm less or more confused than before

I changed my WinAmp settings and mine is fixed too. That's one crazy program. :) I hope the same settings fix the NF7-S as well!

-Lasereth

great. my brother just IMed me and said it's doing it again. apparently he had the decibels turned down to -10 on the Preamp in Winamp. When he puts it back to default, it does the static again. Not as bad as usual, but it's there. I hate my life

hmm... that makes it sound like it's distorting during winamp's dsp. I don't suppose you know what square-wave distortion sounds like, do you? Without going into too much digital audio theory, what might be happening is that when winamp is set at unity gain (0 dB) it is actually still amplifying the signal. If you are listening to something that is recorded at a consistently high level (anything rock, pop, etc. ever recorded by anyone who knew what they were doing) then you could be filling up the buffer where the math is being done. When this happens it sounds like distortion because it is basically producing a square wave for the output.

But that still doesn't explain iTunes...

Some things to check... find some quite jazz or classical music and see if they distort as much with identical internal settings. (You should probably set winamp's volume to ~50% and the gain at the eq to unity (0 dB again). Also set the windows volume output to a lower level.) I suggest these genres because they don't have as much compression on the recordings (note - amplitude compression and data compression are completely unrelated, so mp3s of the same music should work fine). I have seen internal distortion caused from what I have described, so I hope this helps you.

Welp, I just looked into my WinAmp again, and I didn't have the Equalizer turned on. It still does the static thing.

I did research on the WinAmp forums, and apparently this is a MAJOR problem with WinAmp. There are literally hundreds of solutions, and we've tried ALL of them. I'm almost ready to give up on this one.

-Lasereth

Just for curiosity sake, do you have a Knoppix CD near at hand that you could use to see if you have the same problem?

that's a good idea. I can probably find one on campus somewhere, maybe from the Linux Club guys or something