27 Jul
2006
27 Jul
'06
6:34 a.m.
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Hi everyone!
I have noticed this for a long time, but did not actually thought
about it until recently. It so happens that apparently a lot of X
events produce some sort of noise ranging also from what I am doing.
First of all, here are my system's specs:
* AMD Athlon 2800+ (S754)
* VIA-based motherboard with K8TMM chipset. VIA VT8235 southbridge
(the box says VT8237R, but it actually is a VT8235)
* 2x 512Mb RAM DIMM sticks DDR PC-2700
* 2x 80 Gb ATA-100 HDDs; one Western Digital, one Seagate. Attached to
primary IDE channel.
* 1x 40 Gb ATA-133 Maxtor HDD, connected through add-on IDE card.
* 1x 10 Gb ATA-66/100 Seagate HDD (used mainly for storing .ogg
files), connected through the IDE add-on card
* 1x LG CD-RW 52x32x52, secondary IDE master.
* 1x LG 16x DVD-RW , secondary IDE slave.
* 1x generic brand Floppy disk drive.
* 1x GeForce 5900, 128Mb VRAM. Using nVidia's proprietary driver.
* 1x Sound Blaster Live! Value, the primary sound card. Using ALSA
1.0.11 emu10k1 driver... This has been my trusty sound card for so
many years now.
So this noise happens whenever there are events, from dragging the
mouse, to cliking on windows, to scrolling a window or even typing
some text. The noise is not very audible, only if I crank the volume
really high, and it is composed primarily of low frequency sounds.
These noises even vary from application to application. They're like
clicks in Thunderbird, with a rather low repetition frequency, and a
much more rapid succession in Firefox, for instance. When changing
focus of windows, or when changing from one virtual desktop with some
windows to another (despite if the other has or no windows) the sound
I can only describe it as "similar to that sound in Diablo II when you
changed tabs or clicked the close button of any other "window", like
the Inventory"... I can't really describe it better than that. I will
try to see if I can record some these sounds. There's a "base humming"
sound in the background if I crank all the way up the volume either on
my speakers or headphones.
Anyway, my question is what are these, and why are these produced? I
know they respond to activity in the computer, mainly from X, or the
video card, but why?
Another thing that I think I read somewhere a while back. I have
optical drives connected to the sound card through analog cables... Is
it possible that these are working as "antennas" and what I hear is
actually the the activity of the PSU/CPU/Memroy, etc?
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27 Jul
27 Jul
6:43 a.m.
On Thu, 27 Jul 2006 03:35:34 -0500
Gian Paolo Mureddu <gmureddu(a)prodigy.net.mx> wrote:
Anyway, my question is what are these, and why are
these produced? I
know they respond to activity in the computer, mainly from X, or the
video card, but why?
Bad shielding. The inside of a computer case is filled with
electromagnetic fields. These induce currents in your soundcards
circuits (mainly the DA's and output amplifiers), which are sometimes in
the audible range.
Oftentimes cheap soundcards also pick up noise from their direct
electrical connection to the system, the bus. In your case the PCI bus.
Flo
--
Palimm Palimm!
http://tapas.affenbande.org
7:34 a.m.
Florian Paul Schmidt escribe:
Oftentimes cheap soundcards also pick up noise from
their direct
electrical connection to the system, the bus. In your case the PCI bus.
It's very common with internal soundcards embedded in mobos, it's
quite strange that happens with a SB Live! Maybe switching PCI slot?
Cordially, Ismael
--
When I grow up I will go there.
8:37 a.m.
On Thu, 2006-07-27 at 03:35 -0500, Gian Paolo Mureddu wrote:
I have noticed this for a long time, but did not
actually thought
about it until recently. It so happens that apparently a lot of X
events produce some sort of noise ranging also from what I am doing.
First of all, here are my system's specs:
I had this problem too with an SB Live, and in my case the problem was
the ADCs. If I mute the analog inputs ("Line" and "Mic") the noise
goes
away.
--
Lars Luthman - please encrypt any email sent to me if possible
PGP key: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x04C77E2E
Fingerprint: FCA7 C790 19B9 322D EB7A E1B3 4371 4650 04C7 7E2E
9:36 a.m.
As people have been saying, it's EM interference. Muting the analogue
stuff you aren't using might help (as has been suggested) but so does
moving the soundcard as far away as possible from the graphics card.
Alternatively, try and only move your mouse and perform window
operations in time with your music.
James
On Thu, 27 Jul, 2006 at 03:35AM -0500, Gian Paolo Mureddu spake thus:
Hash: SHA1
Hi everyone!
I have noticed this for a long time, but did not actually thought
about it until recently. It so happens that apparently a lot of X
events produce some sort of noise ranging also from what I am doing.
First of all, here are my system's specs:
* AMD Athlon 2800+ (S754)
* VIA-based motherboard with K8TMM chipset. VIA VT8235 southbridge
(the box says VT8237R, but it actually is a VT8235)
* 2x 512Mb RAM DIMM sticks DDR PC-2700
* 2x 80 Gb ATA-100 HDDs; one Western Digital, one Seagate. Attached to
primary IDE channel.
* 1x 40 Gb ATA-133 Maxtor HDD, connected through add-on IDE card.
* 1x 10 Gb ATA-66/100 Seagate HDD (used mainly for storing .ogg
files), connected through the IDE add-on card
* 1x LG CD-RW 52x32x52, secondary IDE master.
* 1x LG 16x DVD-RW , secondary IDE slave.
* 1x generic brand Floppy disk drive.
* 1x GeForce 5900, 128Mb VRAM. Using nVidia's proprietary driver.
* 1x Sound Blaster Live! Value, the primary sound card. Using ALSA
1.0.11 emu10k1 driver... This has been my trusty sound card for so
many years now.
So this noise happens whenever there are events, from dragging the
mouse, to cliking on windows, to scrolling a window or even typing
some text. The noise is not very audible, only if I crank the volume
really high, and it is composed primarily of low frequency sounds.
These noises even vary from application to application. They're like
clicks in Thunderbird, with a rather low repetition frequency, and a
much more rapid succession in Firefox, for instance. When changing
focus of windows, or when changing from one virtual desktop with some
windows to another (despite if the other has or no windows) the sound
I can only describe it as "similar to that sound in Diablo II when you
changed tabs or clicked the close button of any other "window", like
the Inventory"... I can't really describe it better than that. I will
try to see if I can record some these sounds. There's a "base humming"
sound in the background if I crank all the way up the volume either on
my speakers or headphones.
Anyway, my question is what are these, and why are these produced? I
know they respond to activity in the computer, mainly from X, or the
video card, but why?
Another thing that I think I read somewhere a while back. I have
optical drives connected to the sound card through analog cables... Is
it possible that these are working as "antennas" and what I hear is
actually the the activity of the PSU/CPU/Memroy, etc?
Version: GnuPG v1.4.4 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Fedora - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
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=52/R
9:59 a.m.
james(a)dis-dot-dat.net escribe:
Alternatively, try and only move your mouse and
perform window
operations in time with your music.
OK, and any chance to record the graphic card interference to the
soundcard when moving the mouse, applying some cannon reverb and use
it as an ambient pad!?
Cordially, Ismael
--
Dropping science like when Galileo dropped his orange!
3:03 p.m.
On Thu, 27 Jul 2006 13:58:32 +0200
Ismael Valladolid Torres <ivalladolidt(a)terra.es> wrote:
james(a)dis-dot-dat.net escribe:
Could start a new fashion. Interactive music :)
--
Will J G
Alternatively, try and only move your mouse and
perform window
operations in time with your music.
OK, and any chance to record the graphic card interference to the
soundcard when moving the mouse, applying some cannon reverb and use
it as an ambient pad!?
Cordially, Ismael 
11 Aug
11 Aug
8:54 a.m.
On Thursday 27 July 2006 12:36, james(a)dis-dot-dat.net was like:
As people have been saying, it's EM interference.
Muting the analogue
stuff you aren't using might help (as has been suggested) but so does
moving the soundcard as far away as possible from the graphics card.
That's a good suggestion that I've never heard before. I think I'll try this.
Alternatively, try and only move your mouse and
perform window
operations in time with your music.
Heh. ;)
--
cheers,
tim hall
http://glastonburymusic.org.uk/tim
We are the people We've been waiting for.
27 Jul
27 Jul
5:03 p.m.
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Thank you all for the suggestions. I will apply some of them, as for
moving the card, it already is in the farthest PCI slot available. I
will, however remove the analog cables, as they pass rather close to
the graphics card, and they might be acting as "antennas" to pick up
the EM emitted by it (not to mention the rather big HSF the GeForces
nowadays include :)). I guess a quick and dirty test could be to only
mute the CD-In and Aux controls and see if those stop these sounds...
Will report back.
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5:07 p.m.
On Thu Jul 27, 2006 at 02:03:57PM -0500, Gian Paolo Mureddu wrote:
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Thank you all for the suggestions. I will apply some of them, as for
moving the card, it already is in the farthest PCI slot available. I
will, however remove the analog cables, as they pass rather close to
the graphics card, and they might be acting as "antennas" to pick up
the EM emitted by it (not to mention the rather big HSF the GeForces
nowadays include :)). I guess a quick and dirty test could be to only
mute the CD-In and Aux controls and see if those stop these sounds...
Will report back.
another thing (not sure it applies to SBLive or not, but it has to most onboard sound ive
used),
is the 'external amplifier' button in the alsa mixer. on Windows this is just
permanently enabled. toggling this generally switches between silence and hiss and
interference noises. with it disabled, and Master on 100%, putting PCM at around 80% is
enough to drive MDR-V6 at comfortable levels.
in otherwords bypass the crappy amp. better yet, bypas the crappy soundcard entirely :)
28 Jul
28 Jul
2:24 a.m.
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carmen escribió:
Yet again, thanks for the suggestions, Carmen.
However, as odd as it
seems, it actually HAD effect if I disabled the Aux entry. I will
remove the analog cable for the DVD drive now! I right now have the
headset on, with its volume control set all the way up (PCM is at
about 71% as I have a surround setting, and have to balance Surround
and PCM to be able to "properly" hear the 4 channels output). I must
admit I was rather surprised that this actually had any effect in the
end! Thanks again to all who responded!
another thing (not sure it applies to SBLive or not, but it has to most
onboard
sound ive used),
is the 'external amplifier' button in the alsa mixer. on Windows this
is
just permanently enabled. toggling this generally switches between
silence and hiss and interference noises. with it disabled, and Master
on 100%, putting PCM at around 80% is enough to drive MDR-V6 at
comfortable levels.
in otherwords bypass the crappy amp. better yet, bypas the crappy
soundcard
entirely :)
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linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
10 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
carmen -
Florian Paul Schmidt -
Folderol -
Gian Paolo Mureddu -
Ismael Valladolid Torres -
james＠dis-dot-dat.net -
Lars Luthman -
tim hall