Hey guys. So I finally got finished with my Cosmos Mod (which I hope to have up and posted on the forums soon ) but I'm having some trouble with buzzing and crackling with the headphones plugged into the front jack. My Cosmos case comes equipped with the HD Azalia front audio connector in addition to the AC '97 audio connector. When completing my wire management and sleeving, I decided to remove the AC '97 connector since I only needed the HD Azalia connector, which is attached to my Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer sound card. So I simply cut the AC '97 connector off. I did not cap each of the exposed remaining wires as they were very small in diameter and I figured I would just sleeve over it and try it. Problem: When I plug any of my three pairs of different headphones to the front panel I have buzzing and crackling whether games or programs are making sound or not. I especially have crackling when I move my Razer Death Adder around, which seems really weird. I've got the Death Adder plugged directly into my Logitech G15. By the way, I've also got my wireless Logitech mouse plugged in and when I move that one around, there is no ill effect on the sound. ?? When I've got the headphones plugged in directly to the sound card at the back of the computer, I've got perfect silence. No interference at all with each pair of headphones I plug in. Question: Am I getting interference (buzzing and crackling) because I didn't cap the exposed wires after cutting the AC '97 audio connector off the front panel extender cord? If not, what else could it be? I suppose I could just get a splitter and connect both my speakers and my headphones to the jack at the back of the computer, but then I would have sound coming from both of them at the same time. Thanks to anyone who can help!!!
Is it buzzing as in digital cross-talk (if it is you'll get it when you move the mouse, cause cpu load, do anything with the hdd, or utilise USB), or just white noise or AC hum (50/60 or 100/120hz)? Without shielding the soundcard or moving it there's not a great deal you can do about that, unfortunately. If it's AC hum, it could be a grounding issue which might be remedied by grounding the appropriate wires from the unused connector (e.g if the connectors are both using a common ground and this connects back to the computer via the connector you cut off). You could try putting a ferrite ring on the cable -- just loop the cable around the ring once or twice, but at audio frequencies I don't know how much effect that'd have, and it could also attenuate the /wanted/ audio frequencies. Put it at the noisy end -- i.e. right before it connects to the X-Fi The silence at other times could just be a product of the differing efficiencies/responses of the various headphones, or a result of the X-Fi's PCB layout, among other things. There isn't much you can do in the latter case, which does sound plausible as you say the back connectors are OK.
I think it's alittle of both. When not moving the mouse cursor or doing anything with the headphones plugged into the front jack there is some static/hum/buzz noise. When moving the cursor and generally doing anything else I get the digital cross-talk, as you put it. I did some more research and found that some Dell XPS systems in 2002/2003 had the EXACT same problem. The problem, however, went on for many, many months unresolved by Dell with many angry customers. A couple customers stated that a tech came out and replaced the front I/O panel with a different one and also installed sheilded dongle wires (apparently the original dongles were not sheilded at all). Also, some did state that they had experienced less interference when they had moved their sound card further from the graphics card. The cosmos does have sheilded dongle wires, so unless they are poorly sheilded (which I would have no idea how to tell) I think some of the AC hum may be from the un-capped wires. Maybe I'll try the ferrite ring as you suggested. I'll try a few things and see what happens. Thanks for the help! At least I know I can get good results if I simply purchase a Y-splitter and don't use the front jack.
Doublecheck that ground is properly connected, and that none of the signal lines are connected to ground. It sounds like a short to ground somewhere.
My laptop does this as well (dell), it's rather annoying. I think the root cause is because the traces on the motherboard which take the audio from the chipset to the jack socket go right along with all the pci bus or memory bus lines, so every time you do anything that creates pci traffic, it starts buzzing away. Onboard speakers are fine though : \ That said it is only noticeable if I plug my laptop into my PC's line-in which amplifies everything again so exacerbates the problem. With headphones it's OK. Just to point out the ferrite ring would go on the cables you *do* use, not the ones you cut off.
hi I think it is because of the software being used... ...I play Call of Duty United Offensive online quite alot and with any of the sound settings, the 11Mhz,22Mhz or 44Mhz...popping and static noises would start after about 1/2 to 1 hour of online(only online) gameplay. Ingame options also allow changing; 24 Bit audio(something) EAX(TM), EAX 3D, 2D audio settings...this is from memory but once you see the settings ingame you will see which they are - maybe you don't have CoDUOP but there may these options to change the settings in other games). Once I changed the audio to the EAX 3D, I think it was, the static and popping disappeared edited: ...oh well, the static/popping noises went away for a longer time than usual when I changed the ingame audio setting to the 3D (TM) setting. The noises came back but the audio settings have not remained at the 3D setting after I restart the game. Usually when I change the 11, 22 or 44Mhz audio settings more often the noises go away for a short time and only the one last time i changed that setting did the noises stay away longer. I give up...for now...
Does the same with my XtremeGamer; especially when the graphics cards get a good load (i.e. benches in 3Dmark)
