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Topic: 'Ticking' sound on soundcard line-out (Read 2790 times) previous topic - next topic
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'Ticking' sound on soundcard line-out

Unsure where to post this, but seems like an audio hardware problem to me...

Have recently built a new system - ASRock AliveNF6G-DVI, nVidia MP61 chipset, Athlon (Lima) 64 3800+ CPU, running WinXP Home SP2. On connecting the on-board Realtek line-out to my stereo system I hear what sounds like a metronome ticking away in the background with a 1 second interval. It starts as Windows loads but isn't audible during POST or when using BIOS setup.

It sounds as if it might be a hardware polling circuit - the only software I'm running that polls the hardware is Speedfan but the ticking noise is present whether Speedfan is running or not.

The ticking sound is not audible on recordings made from my stereo system via the soundcard's line-in connector. Tested this by recording a short clip from the FM tuner, loaded it onto a USB stick and plugged the USB stick into the stereo system - no ticking on playback.

The only hardware component I can think that might be the culprit is the 4 pin PWM fan on the CPU, but why would it affect line-out and not line-in ?

Hope someone can help - I have a 120GB ext USB drive full of music I can't listen to !!

'Ticking' sound on soundcard line-out

Reply #1 –
It may be this. Often ticking and such can be a grounding or earth problem. I have had the noise of the CPU picked up on one system with a particular USB soundcard.

Make sure all the equiptment is sharing the same wall outlet and not different earths.
There are ground lifters and noise eliminators sold at some more specialist electrical stores.
Some people pull or cut the earth pin from plugs from some equiptment to fix it.

'Ticking' sound on soundcard line-out

Reply #2 –
Quote from: audiobookie on
It may be this. Often ticking and such can be a grounding or earth problem. I have had the noise of the CPU picked up on one system with a particular USB soundcard.

Make sure all the equiptment is sharing the same wall outlet and not different earths.
There are ground lifters and noise eliminators sold at some more specialist electrical stores.
Some people pull or cut the earth pin from plugs from some equiptment to fix it.


Thanks - I did try that, but all my ground floor outlet sockets have a common earth anyway - UK ring main system. Don't think my PC would be happy 'floating' so I'll pass on disconnecting the ground pin   
Stereo system though isn't earthed - it just has a two wire plug.

I have a couple of old SB64PCI cards so will try one of these to see if it's similarly afflicted. I suppose I could try a USB sound card too if I can find one cheap on EBay.

'Ticking' sound on soundcard line-out

Reply #3 –
Quote from: taidi on
Stereo system though isn't earthed - it just has a two wire plug.

Amplifiers usually have a grounding point.
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