Problem with on board microphone on ASUS mobo

[Ne0]

Hello folks, I will try not to bore you but I am literally fed up of this problem with my motherboard.

I have an ASUS P5B-Deluxe WiFi AP motherboard which I had a few problems with and had to RMA two different boards back to eBuyer (bad memory controller & broken battery holder).

I have the latest Windows XP sound drivers for this motherboard which were downloaded off the ASUS website. The update was in March, funnily the ZIP archive the drivers are contained in is corrupted. (Link - for your viewing pleasure )

The problem is when I speak over the microphone to friends they report a train sound coming from my end. When I try recording using the built in XP sound recorded I can replicate the train sound. It sounds like bad interference/crackling. This is random though because when I stop the recording and start it again it can be fine until I restart it again.

I have tried on many occasions uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers and even installing older drivers. I have even tried every possible configuration within SoundMAX the tool where you configure the on board sound. I have tried various microphones including a superbeam microphone provided with the motherboard. I have tried disabling microphone boost and muting every other sound channel expect for my left and right speaker.

I have exhausted all options and have even posted on the ASUS forums without success. This is my last resort. I would appreciate all the help I can get

[EtheAv8r]

Could be that you have an AC97 front panel audio connector and the board has HD Audio and they are incompatible (I don't know what type of front panel audio the Antec 900 has, my P180 is AC97, but the P182 I just built for a friend is both AC97 and HD).

Or it could be that your overclock is the cause. My onboard sound was utterly horrible with the OC, so I fixed it by putting in a X-FI Extream Audio (OEM)

[Ne0]

Could be that you have an AC97 front panel audio connector and the board has HD Audio and they are incompatible (I don't know what type of front panel audio the Antec 900 has, my P180 is AC97, but the P182 I just built for a friend is both AC97 and HD).

Or it could be that your overclock is the cause. My onboard sound was utterly horrible with the OC, so I fixed it by putting in a X-FI Extream Audio (OEM)

Yes you are corrent, the front panel audio has an AC97 connector and I have set the BIOS option to use AC97 audio instead of HD audio. Also I never use the front audio or mic slots as the connectors touch my sliding wooden keyboard and mouse desk.

I haven't overclocked my CPU or RAM so it can't be that. I decided to give ASUS tech support a ring to see if I could get anything useful out of them but their American operators as nothing but retarded. The guy I was put through to told me my motherboard didn't have on board audio after I told him the motherboard model. I decided to hang up rather than waste any more of my time.

[EtheAv8r]

I tried a couple of ASUS motherboards because everyone was raving about how wonderful they were and their great performance..... I went with the then flagship Commando for me and a lesser board for one of my daughters (February 2007). I was appauled at the ASUS technical support....... even downloading updates from any ASUS site is a major headache - often times impossible, they get corrupted, take forever or never complete. I dumped my daughters mobo and replaced it with an Abit IB9 - fine little board, and replaced the Commando with an Abit QuadGT which really rocks.

Abit have their problems too, but you get great support here on Hexus and you can quickly and easily download updates from their sites. I will never again buy ASUS - not unless I get reliable confirmation that they got their support act together (easy to test - just download some drivers.....), which is a pity - they make some good stuff. Still so do Abit so that is now my first choice, and also Gigabyte reputedly have good support.

[Ne0]

Update:

I decided to ditch my on board audio for a Creative X-Fi sound card from Scan.co.uk. It worked instantly out the box but up until today the problem has started with the Creative card. It started with a friend saying they could hear train like sounds coming from my mic in game and I decided to check it out with Windows sound recorded and in fact the problem has resurfaced. I can record fine up until I stop and start again. Occasionally when I restart recording the interference/high pitched noise starts, I can tell by the graphic line moving up and down without me making any sound.

For peoples viewing pleasure I saved a raw sound recording from Windows Sound Recorder tool <click to download sound>

I am starting to think this problem may be related to my case fans. I have them on the medium setting, 3x120mm fans and a 200mm fan on the top of my case.

[moogle]

goodness gracious!
i had the volume up there. maybe it could be your mic also? i had a bad mic and whenever i used to talk on vent it would randomly go into fuzz mode and everyone would leave the channel
my usb mic's never ever had that problem. the logitech premium ones.

i got antec 900 with all the fan slots filled and on full but my mates hear me fine now that is.

[Ne0]

goodness gracious!
i had the volume up there. maybe it could be your mic also? i had a bad mic and whenever i used to talk on vent it would randomly go into fuzz mode and everyone would leave the channel
my usb mic's never ever had that problem. the logitech premium ones.

i got antec 900 with all the fan slots filled and on full but my mates hear me fine now that is.

I am starting to think this is related to my Antec 900 case and maybe the fans. I read on the official ASUS forums how another user with the exact same problem as mine overcame the problem by purchasing a USB mic. I will see how it goes because for now the problem has mysteriously disappeared however I am sure it will return. I doubt it is because of a faulty mic, I use the array mic which came with my motherboard and a Logitech mic fixed to a headset I purchased earlier this year and I get the problem with both