that's the signal comming throu, you can even listen those rare sounds in any speaker near your cell

That's a relief... that it's not something major cocking up inside my rig. None of it is that old and I didn't wanna be up for repairs, long waits on warranty replacements, etc.

Thing is, the sudden screeching caught me by surprise because the PC, sound card settings and speaker system had been set up that way for months and previously had never produced something sounding like an irate mother-in-law berating her daughter's other/worst half.

Never actually been on the receiving end of that, but now I know what to expect.

Dammit! The screech came back again - not as loud or for as long - but an annoyance nonetheless. I have been able to ascertain that it is definitely coming from the speakers, but why I don't know. I readjusted all the settings on the sound card to default and one by one increased them ever so slightly, the Windows sound level is turned down to 70 and the bass control on the subby is only at 25%.

I have the most recent drivers and software apps for my X-Fi soundcard, so I'm wondering if there may be a hardware issue with the card. My tower got a slight bump while I was vacuum cleaning one day, so perhaps I need to ensure the card is seated in the PCI slot correctly, and the ribbon connector to the front panel is secured properly.

Other than that, any ideas, anyone???

You're the problem that keeps on given.... ;p 


Un-install ALchemy.

What motherboard is in this?

Vista?

Define "bump".

I resemble that.

Besides, Jafo manages more cock-ups than me, So I'm only a minor irritant in comparison.



I don't have Alchemy installed... not much of a gamer so never really needed it.



Gigabyte S-Series GA-MA770-DS3/S3

CPU: AMD Athlon 64x2 6400 Black Edition.



Yup, Vista Ultimate SP1



The feet of the tower only just fit on the shelf... when the vacuum pipe slightly bumped the tower it dropped about a half inch (feet came off the edge) and landed with a bit of a thud cos its a heavy SOB. I wouldn't have thought that would have any harm, but who knows so I'll open her up in the morning and make sure everything is seated/connected as it should be.

Hopefully I won't find any of those creatures Jafo was on about.

Sir Starkers:

I've read all of the responses of this forum and most of these suggestions are good ones.

I have 2 questions though which may have been an over-sight but not mentioned.

First, is this a problem that you've always had, or something that just came up?

The other question is, how are you connected? Analog (6 channel direct) or digital (Coax or Tos-link)?

You see where I'm going with this?

If you've always had this issue, chances are you got a bad sound card. If this is something that just came up, ask yourself what's changed and when.

Also address your connection, being that 6 channel direct is a lower quality and subject to all sorts of outside interference whether it's directly connected to your system or not.

So if your running analog, you may consider a digital connection.

Just trying to give you more ammo!

G'Luk my friend.

Cp

  

...yeah, as unpleasant as it might be, you might want to take a look. Speaking of unpleasant....what's a guy doin' with a vacuum in the first place...???? Everyone knows men can't drive the damn things.....

Boot into bios. Make sure onboard and HD audio are disabled. When you boot back into Windows, open Vista Sound Control Panel and set rate to 16 bit 48000. Test. Run/ type msconfig un-check HD Control Panel. Re-boot. See how that works.

No, it's a problem that's recently reared its ugly head.



I have the card set to 5.1 digital output so I don't think it's that, Cp, but thanks for the ideas just the same... it's something to remember if I have to reinstall/set it all up from scratch again.

Um, HD Control Panel? Looked twice in 'Services" but could not locate....

... called something else/located someplace else/or am I just blind Freddy???

Well I've checked the connections and all seem fine/right, so I guess it's now a matter of wait and see... fingers crossed.

...not blind....just not paying attention.

Under 'Startup' (it's not a service or I would have had you access Administrative Tools). If it's not there, don't worry about it.

Good...now leave the vacuuming to the screamer...  

Wait a minute.....

Where do you have that setting at?? Do you have SPDIF connected?

I realize it may be a long shot.. but my old PC speakers had a din connector on the back of the subwoofer, after a while the cat constantly crawling back there wiggled one of the pins free from the connector and caused it to semi loose connection. At first it would only do it occasionally and drove me crazy, but as time went on and the cat broke the connection more it started getting more frequent. 

Or it could be ur PC... is haunted.

Was in a hurry before... should have said I checked startup as well... not there either.



My boo boo... digital output was selected at installation when I had my Creative 5.1 digital speakers connected... it wasn't changed when I swapped over to the Logitech 5.1's, but obviously they're hooked up to 3 analog outputs. Having to admit I used a vacuum cleaner and did housework has got me rattled... & getting jibed about it didn't help none, neither.



Nope... have the option available but nothing hooked up.

Anyhow, it has behaved well all day today... hopefully the issue is resolved.

I checked the speaker connections first up and they were OK... and if it 'ad been a cat wot dun this to I, 'e would of got a 'long shot' orright... wiv a barrel o' buckshot in e's bum frum me trusty ol' flintlock, aarrgghh!!!

I got a feeling it may have been that the soundcard may have become slightly unseated when my tower got bumped... cos since I checked that out everything seems to be good again, so hopefully it stays that way.



Now there's a thought... the ghosts of of those animals Jafo had sacrificed to the God Microsoft.

X-530's. I'm pretty familiar with the 5500's and the Z-680's decoders.

I'm running Logitech's Z-5500's with a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 external USB connected with a fiber optic tos-link Starkers. As far as sound and interference-free connectivity and performance it's virtually flawless.

Bottom line CD and MP3's is digitized music and Logitech speakers are digital. You're cheating your ears playing digitized music with an analog connection on digital speakers.

A 6 channel direct analog connection dispenses an obvious hiss at all levels. If your speaker's decoder has the capablility of digital connectivity, get a tos-link cable or a coax at the least. Tos-link is a bit pricey out here at around $60 US for 15 feet at Circuit City but is well worth the high quality.

You'll have to trust me on this one my friend, the difference is demonsterous!

  

Have you considered aliens?

As much time as you spend on the Borg thread.......you may have gotten noticed

  Scratch my last statement Starkers. I looked up your X-530's and there's no on-board digital connection. If you like the sound of your Logitech speakers, the Z-5500's 505 watts (total RMS) will blow your roof off!

They're just plain scary! And most of all, they're cheap! Got mine off of eBay for $215 smackers over 2 years ago!

The THX Certified by Lucas Arts Z-5500's decoder controls my PC sound, TV, DVD w/ DTS, VCR, iPod and head phones, all at once. I don't play video games, but I have a sound connection for it if I ever want to.

Check 'em out and tell me what you think...

WWW Link
  

 

hahaha, very funny!

capacitors, when starting to fail, leak...when they leak they can emit a sound which could sound wail-ish We had that problem with a TV a couple of years ago.

Have no idea which capacitor could be causing that, but, if it is definitely coming from your speakers, maybe it's the speaker with the power regulator in it.

Normally I would say it's from your main computer power supply.

just a thought.

Sadly, I'm stuck with analog output unless I use a coaxial cable from my card's digital output to an adapter that allows me to plug in the 3 speaker cables. However, I don't think that would give me true digital sound as I think the X-530's are analog.



Yeah, they'd be sheer beauty hooked up to my rig (and DVD's, etc), but at $400 US (more in Oz dollars) they're a bit out of my price range at this time... I'd have to fore-go a few things (and why not, I could do to lose some weight) and save a while before I could invest in a set of Z-5500's. Very tempting, though... VERY, VERY tempting.

Now there's another distinct possibility... there were some strange noises here the other night... and that saucer shaped thing hovering over the house. Wow, fancy that, being the first pirate to gain the attention of aliens. Anybody got any messages they want passed on?

"Shoot somebody else."

Seriously, I got this picture of this discussion going on over a game of poker. Yes, I know I'm strange.

 

I certainly hope it's not a capacitor on the blink! Thing is, since I checked all the connections and settings, the screeching has not returned... yet, so hopefully the issue has been resolved and will not return.



Another "I hope not"... being my PSU is relatively new. It's still under warranty but I don't really want all the hassle of going through manufacturer repairs/replacements, etc cos they can take a while... and my PC and I are practically joined at the hip.

I realise that I'm going to get some pops and outside interference via analog speakers, but it's so infrequence since doing all that maintenance that it's not such a big issue. There again, if it ends up pissing me off enough, I can go back to my Creative Inspire 5.1 Digital 5600's via the card's digital output.... which mightn't be a bad idea seeing as they kick some serious butt, sound-wise.

What about the anal probes?

I've already put in my request that they restrict those to politicians... suggesting an enema prior to the procedure cos they're mostly full of sh!t and hot 'air".

I know absolutely NOTNING much about computer internal workings.  But I will tell you I had a few very loud screeche's on my laptop before my whole sound system went out.  This happened when it wabout 3 years old.  And that was about 1 1/2 years ago.  The as computer still works pretty  good but the sound it gone.  I have had a few people take a look at it but they say I would have to get a whole new mother board which I won't do.  So I hope you are not having that kind of problem.  I guess my fan doesn't cool enough and it burnt out the sound card.   Good luck with it Stackers..:D