odd audio problem

[thubby]

i recently had to reformat because, well, it's a long story.

but now that I've got my machine back up and running, im getting a strange static-y noise whenever i type, move a window, or the computer tries to load something.

anyoen know how to get rid of it?

[Jimorian]

First off, some questions. Desktop/Laptop? And this noise is coming through the speakers? If so, if you plug in headphones instead, does it come through them?

My first guess is interference getting into the audio cables connecting the speakers, so try running them along a different path that stays away from the computer body as much as possible, and in particular away from the video cable to the monitor. My 2nd guess is that the internal audio levels are set too high, so it's picking up noise from somewhere and boosting it to where you can hear it. It could also be the opposite, that the levels are too low and you have to turn the speakers up so high you get unwanted noise that way.

Also, be sure to update audio drivers to see if that's an issue.

I work at a TV station, and troubleshooting audio problems is one of the biggest headaches on nearly every shoot, so I definitely feel your pain, so hope I can help.

[thubby]

it's a desktop.
headphones/different ports/different external wiring actually sound worse, but that might just be because my headphones far outclass my speakers.

[Jimorian]

If you're comfortable opening the computer, and the sound comes from a separate card other than the motherboard, you might try re-seating it. If you're really comfortable with the inside of your computer, then you can check the actual connections on the motherboard/soundcard leading to the audio jacks (usually small 4-pin connectors at various points around the board).

Also, like I said, check for updated drivers. Neither of these is the likely problem, but this is such a strange problem who knows.

If it's the gain structure (basic level too low or too high), then you want to click the volume icon in the taskbar and open up the mixer. Depending on your sound card configuration, it will either be a really simple setup with a short list of inputs/outputs, or something fairly sophisticated. What you want to check there is that all the inputs and outputs aren't at any extreme. Usually you want something in the 50-70% range at each step.

Given how it's tied to particular computer operations, it might be a damaged cable that's allowing interference to leak into the audio wires directly, but that's a really difficult problem to detect. However, one way to see if it's an audio hardware issue, or software, is to use a USB headset to listen to the sound, which would completely bypass any physical audio cables, connections, jacks, and speakers. Lacking that, record some internal audio into a program like audacity, transfer that to an mp3 player, and see if the noise is still there when you listen on a completely different device.

That's about all I have for now.