ATI AIW 9000 Pro Buzzing Issue

[manyk]

First off, I have searched and could find nothing related to my particular problem either here or elsewhere on the web. I have called ATI and even THEY are stumped.

The problem, simply, is a high frequency sound coming through my speakers whenever my card warms up. During regular tv watching the sound is barely noticeable. But in my recorded videos the sound is much more noticeable because the recorded audio is much lower than playback audio [another issue for another time].

Now, I know this sound is coming from the AIW 9000 Pro because when I disconnect the audio cable, the sound completely disappears.

I thought perhaps my 400 watt power supply may have been strained and a possible cause for the sound. SO I disconnected all extra case fans, both my dvd rom and dvd/rw drives and my second hard drive. Booted the pc and the sound was still there, identical in nature to when everything is plugged in.

I then thought that maybe my SBLive Value was the case. So, I removed it from my case, connected the breakout to my onboard input, booted and switched ON my onboard AC97 sound. Exactly the same sound, although slightly louder. So, I turned off the PC, put the SBLive Value back in [in a different PCI slot], booted and turned OFF the onboard AC97 in the bios, booted into windows and again I got exactly the same sound.

I have tried all the internal connectors on my SB Live with the same results. I have also tried the breakout [external connection] with the SBLive. I have tried different cables for internal connection. All to no avail.

I thought perhaps my Logitech MX700 wireless mouse could be the culprit, so I totally removed it from the system and moved both the base and the mouse [batteries removed] to the other end of the house. Same noise.

I have disconnected the coax cable from the TV Card and the noise is still there.

I did a fresh install of XP Pro ... no difference.

Now, I have absolutely no issues with image display or watching TV with the card. Everything seems to be working 100% with regard to picture. It's just this sound that is getting rather annoying. My current connection to my soundcard is internal through the AUX line. When the line is muted, the sound is gone. It only comes on when the AUX is used [unmuted]. It doesn't matter what program I use to capture with either, the sound is always there when the AUX is unmuted.

I called ATI and talked to two tech support guys. I played the sound really loud for them over the phone. The only thing they suggested was maybe the card was defective. The first card I had I returned. But when I installed the new one it does exactly the same thing, same frequency of sound. The serial number on this card IS different than my original btw.

I would really appreciate any help in this matter.

[lordsmurf]

Motherboard and/or power leaks in the hardware. Causes a power-related noise.

[manyk]

Oh, I also forgot to mention. My previous setup was an ATI Radeon 7500 AGP with an ATI TV Wonder Pro PCI. I had connected the TVWonder to the same internal connector I'm using now [AUX] with the same cable. I had no noise with that setup at all.

Smurfie: if it were a mobo issue, wouldn't I have had a similar noise with the previous setup?

[manyk]

BUMP

I have also tried plugging the PC into a different recepticle in my house ... on a separate line too. I thought maybe there may be some problem with the current receptacle, even though I have the pc components plugged into a power surge protector [not a cheap one btw].

I have also checked the voltage stats in my bios and nothing seems to be fluctuating wildly or spiking in any way.

Also, this sound SORT of sounds like it MAY be related in some way to something spinning. Like, if I were to speed up or slow down a system fan, or disconnect the fan on the video card, the sound MIGHT go away. Not that this IS the issue ... I'm just saying it sort of 'sounds' like that. But I gently touched the fan on my video card while listening to the sound through my headphones and the sound was identical. I also powered down my HDDs through XP's power saving and the sound was identical. I thought maybe the sound could be related to the drives spinning.

[Nelson37]

Does this sound vary in pitch or remain constant? Can you take the PC to another environment and sound source and test for that? Have you turned off ALL electrical devices in the home, including the stereo and using a different sound source? Are you in an apartment? Have you checked your electrical ground in the building or home?

One possible work-around. Set you recording volume very low in Volume Control, then set the source volume high. I assume you are using a line-out connector on the source, not a headphone jack?

[manyk]

The sound does not vary in pitch at all. It is constant.
All other devices in the home have been turned off, and unplugged too.
I'm not in an apartment, it's a home. And all grounding is in tact as far as I can tell.

Current connection to the sound card from the AIW is internal to my AUX in on my SBLive. I have tried the external BOB provided by ATI and even connected to other line-ins. The sound is identical.

Changing the volume for recording is another issue I have to deal with. I can't. But that's a minor issue for me. I'll sort that out once this noise is dealt with.

I will be removing my HDDs from my shell soon, to see if it's electro interference of some sort. And I will be taking the shell to test to a friend's place in the near future as well.

[manyk]

UPDATE

OK, I removed both my harddrives and ONLY connected my main drive to the IDE cable. I left the drive outside of the shell as far as my cables would allow. And placed my secondary HDD away from the pc altogether.

Booted the pc, and right off the bat there was no noise. BUT, the noise DID gradually come back to full force. It now seems that perhaps this has something to do with heat. And more specifically when my motherboard/PSU/Video card heat up. All three? or just one of, I don't know.

[lordsmurf]

More fans. ALways good to have more fans. I have 5 in one system, 4 in the other. Makes more fan noise, but they have less problems.

[manyk]

I agree smurf, that's why I have 2 extra 8cm fans and one pci slot fan in the shell.

I think however that the noise issue isn't related to the temp in my shell.

[mastersmurfie]

Just a thought, and I am quite probably wrong...I remember I had to do this when I had problems with my ATI-AIW:

Onboard Audio Codec Jumper: JP1
This jumper can enable or disable the onboard software audio codec. When enabling the onboard audio codec, the system will use the onboard codec as the PRIMARY audio adapter and the installed CNR card as the SECONDARY one. However, some types of CNR cards cannot be set to secondary mode. In this case, the onboard audio codec must be disabled to resolve the system
conflict.

It was not enough that I disabled the sound in the bios...I know you said you took out the SBLive and just used the onboard sound. But, I had nothing but problems ("feedback" sound sometimes...recording issues with the volume...etc) with my ATI-AIW card with the onboard sound enabled.


Like I said...just a thought. The above quote is from the manual for my MOBO...

Hope you are able to figure this out.

mastersmurfie

[manyk]

Thanks for the suggestion mastersmurfie, I didn't think of doing that myself ... but, I looked through my manual to see if I could find jumper settings for the audio. There isn't any suggestion anywhere on how to totally disable the onboard sound. But, I searched the web and did find a review on my particular board which stated that if all the pins were off the sound jumpers the onboard sound wouldn't work. 'Wouldn't work' I took to mean 'turned it off' ... so I took the pins off the board and alas, I still have my buzzing sound issue.

[manyk]

UPDATE - Fixed

Turns out it was my power supply. Which I found very interesting as there were no fluctuations in voltage from it, and no other problems with the computer due to the power supply.

But at any rate, brand new power supply and I have no buzzing at all passing through the AIW now. WHEW!