Static noise sounds - GA-z68X-UD3H-B3 with Creative X-FI

[plattin]

Dear community,

The problem:
I can't get my sound card (Creative X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion - PCIe) to work without static sound/noise with this motherboard (GA-z68X-UD3H-B3, BIOS F4).

First of all, I know I don't have the latest BIOS for my motherboard. I want to try everything else first, (your ideas/suggestions) before upgrading it, since I work on some important projects, which I want to finish without risking an unstable system.


Where/when do I hear static:
-scrolling in the browser (FireFox and IE)
-everything related to 3D (games)
-moving windows around on the desktop
-every activity related to the video card

Where/when I do NOT hear static:
-hard disk activity
-playing music, mp3, iTunes
-system idle (just the desktop, not doing anything)
-CPU-only activity

The static sound is not dependent on the volume. It is not getting louder when I turn up the volume.

I know it is not a sound card issue because when I remove the video card and use the integrated HD3000 graphics, the sound is perfect. No static, no matter what I do.

The static appear on the rear output and on the front bay, so I don't think it is a problem of the cables shielding inside the case.

What I tried:

-I tried every possible combination of putting the sound card and video card i different PCIe slots. It did not help. (I think I tried all constellations...)

-I tried removing all drivers: nForce, creative, Intel drivers. Reinstalled them in different order. I came to the conclusion, that as soon as I install the nForce drivers, the sound card starts with the static noise. But without the nForce driver, I only have low resolution and no 3D support.

-I tried installing Windows XP professional 32bit on another hard disk. Fresh install, only motherboard drivers, creative and nforce drivers. Exactly the same problem...so I think it is not Windows 7 related, nor drivers related.

-I tried disabling in BIOS: C3/C6 C1E state, Virtualization technology, Multi thread, Azalia codec, firewire, USB3. I do not over clock my system. I also clocked my RAM down to 1333Mhz. I changed memory profile from turbo to normal. I disabled the serial ports. None of this had any effect.

-I took the X-fi out of the system, and using only the integrated Realtek ALC889 sound. This works perfect, no static noise...perfect.

-I installed my old video card geForce 8800GTS and took out the GTX580. Same static noise. So it is not the video card.

-an information for you nerds out there: I also have a hackintosh OSX Lion installation on another drive. Even there, I have the same static noise as in windows. I bet, if I would install a Linux, it would be the same.

After trying all this and limiting the possibilities which could cause the problem, I came to the conclusion that it is the motherboard - the way it distributes data over the PCIe bus. There must be an interference between the PEG slots and the normal PCIe slots. This happens of course only when the operating system has the drivers for the video card, and can access the full potential of the card.

Do you experts out there, have another idea what I could try (besides of upgrading my BIOS, which I actually am sure would not solve the problem)? Maybe you know how I can control something in the BIOS, something which I don't know?

Be welcome to ask me, if I forgot some information. This is important for me, since the sound card was expensive and I actually love it. I'd rather change the motherboard than the sound card  But there MUST be a solution to this!




My system specs:

Windows 7 Ultimate, 64bit, SP1
Motherboard: GA-z68X-UD3H-B3, BIOS F4
CPU: Core i7 2600K
Video Card: Gainward GeForce GTX 580 1536MB GDDR5
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB 1866Mhz
Sound Card: Creative X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion
Harddrive: Samsung 2TB
PSU: Corsair Gold AX750
Case: Corsair Obsidian 800D

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome.

I know that it's not what you want to hear but updating the BIOS would normally be one of the first steps I would recommend.

The next would be to uninstall the graphics card drivers and see if the standard VGA drivers still make the same noise.

If they don't I would try downloading and installing the latest drivers for the GPU.

Try moving the mouse and keyboard USB connections to another port, in fact try several different ports.

Disable the USB3.0 and ESATA in the BIOS.

[Rolo42]

I agree; I wouldn't think of troubleshooting without updating the BIOS first; you could always flash back if you don't like it for some reason.  

Your problem seems like your X-fi is picking up EMI from your video card with the cause being attributed to either the motherboard as you suggest, the X-fi itself, the panel, or it's cable.  Static on the rear jack doesn't eliminate the cabling/front connector bay as it is connected to the sound card, acting like an antenna; try disconnecting the cable from the card to see if the problem clears.  Does the cable have a case ground connector?  If not, it's not properly shielded, if at all--likewise with the bay.

What options do you have enabled on the X-fi?  Try disabling them to see if the problem clears; the Crystalizer sounds awful on mine.