Terratec Phase 28 Distortion

[mart_haj86]

Hi all I have had this problem for quite some time now but have never been to bothered to sort it out. Basically what is happening is that if I turn the volume up high on my mixing desk with no music playing I get a buzzing sound which alternates between different frequencies when minimizing and switching between windows on my
PC. It sounds to me like there is some kind of interference between my Graphics card and soundcard but Im just curious as to anyway you all might know how to stop this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Martin

[toolsong]

Is your soundcard in the bottom PCI slot?

Noise problems like this can be linked to your PSU or it may just be that card? I haven't noticed noise with an E-mu 1212m or my current RME on a Seasonic 600W PSU.

[mart_haj86]

The soundcard is in the bottom PCI slot yes, with a wifi card in the slot above then a 7800GTX in the PCIE slot at the top. The PSU I have is a Tagan 530W Easycon, I had the same problem before with My old Antec 480W Truepower. Im starting to wonder whether it is the card itself Think i may get an Alesis Multimix 16 Channel mixer/Audio Interface.

[Steve]

Noise like that can be a real pain in PCs. I recently sent a PC back because of it. The noise was audible, as in it was actually coming from one of the inductors for the CPUs power circuitry. Sounds like your noise has a similar cause, but is manifested as interference.

Try moving a few thigns around if you can, or lowering the output volume of the soundcard itself.

[mart_haj86]

Cheers for the advice steve ill have a look into that right away

[mart_haj86]

It turns out that it seems to be my monitor causing the issues. If I unplug the vga from my graphics card then the noise dissapears. I find this very strange, anyone got any Ideas on the best solution for this? could it be the VGA cable itself, the monitor, or the powercable/transformer box.

p.s. I have been thinking about changing my TFT anyway.

[toolsong]

In that case it could be because you are effectively disabling the output circuitry of the video card, so a different cable or monitor probably won't help

[BlindMelon7]

Could it be that something isn't earthed properly? Earth noise is generally a mid-low hum but it can change.

[mart_haj86]

Everything is earthed properly AFAIK. So really ive got three choices left:
1) The monitor,vga cable, power cable as they are getting quite old now (ill see if i can use another one temporarily to test this theory)
2) graphics (Although this problem occured with my old graphics card aswell)
3) Mainboard (this problem also occured last year before I upgraded to a new MB, CPU, Case and PSU

[BlindMelon7]

Don't bother trying to replace things in YOUR computer. You should put the card in a mates computer and see how it fairs, THEN start pulling your computer to bits

[mart_haj86]

Cheers for the advice BlindMelon7. First things first though, I have been wanting to get a new monitor for a long time so I am going to replace that with a Dell 20inch widescreen anyway. If that solves the problem then great but if it does'nt then ill see if I can try my bits out in a mates PC.

[BlindMelon7]

Lol! Great excuse to get a shiny new monitor

[sunnyg]

i think it is something that can't be helped. when a voltage runs through the graphics card circitary it produces a minor magnetic field, which interferes with the mag fields around the sound card. try using something to shield the soundcard.

[BlindMelon7]

try using something to shield the soundcard.

You could add a pci card in between them if you have room. Yet another excuse to get something you dont need (get a phisics card or a tv card )