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Halp. Static noise from motherboard with Optical to DAC!

all-air

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Hello good people of ASR! I'd like to ask a question...

I can't rid my PC from static noise/humm coming from my motherboard through its optical out...

I've tried different dacs (RME ADI-2, Hugo 2) and it is the same with both.
The noise occurs if i play a song/video and pause it rather fast and turn up the volume really loud.
I think the static noise somehow is present all the time but to a very small degree with the "usual low-listetning volumes".

I've tried an expansive optical cable and some cheap/good ones, the noise is always there when I crank it up ("Supra Zac optical 1,5m", "Atlas mavros glass optical cable 1m", to name two of them), I've also tried reinstalling, removing and tweaking with my PC audio-drivers (don't know if that even matters), and also pretty much every setting in Windows sound settings (disabling enhancers, trying different sampling rates 44k 48k


The motherboard is a "ROG CROSSHAIR VII HERO" ( https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-crosshair/rog-crosshair-vii-hero-model/ ).
Is the motherboard probably at fault here? Could it be my PC-PSU? The RME-ADI2 dac and Hugo 2 is dead quiet with USB, but not so much with optical/toslink...
Is optical/toslink always prone to noise when at a very high volume?

My assumtion was that optical is somewhat resistant to noises.

If my motherboards audio is at fault, how would I go from here if i want to be able to use optical from my PC to a DAC, a new stand-alone internal soundcard?
I take it USB is more popular and I should probably skip toslink/optical altogether, but I kinda dont wan't to right now
 

amirm

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It sounds like a broken toslink transmitter. I have never heard of one but if you are getting static that way, it is the only explanation I can think of. Switching to USB is the only solution I can think of.
 
OP
A

all-air

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Thanks guys, I guess i skip the toslink then... Kinda disappointing since the mobo is rather new... Very well, will try some other things but I don't have any hope of solving it it without changing PC parts, which I don't have time or money to throw at the moment..:)
 

wwenze

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Test with ASIO if possible, just to rule out any weird behavior of that Realtek driver.
 

oursmagenta

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Hello good people of ASR! I'd like to ask a question...

I can't rid my PC from static noise/humm coming from my motherboard through its optical out...

I've tried different dacs (RME ADI-2, Hugo 2) and it is the same with both.
The noise occurs if i play a song/video and pause it rather fast and turn up the volume really loud.
I think the static noise somehow is present all the time but to a very small degree with the "usual low-listetning volumes".

I've tried an expansive optical cable and some cheap/good ones, the noise is always there when I crank it up ("Supra Zac optical 1,5m", "Atlas mavros glass optical cable 1m", to name two of them), I've also tried reinstalling, removing and tweaking with my PC audio-drivers (don't know if that even matters), and also pretty much every setting in Windows sound settings (disabling enhancers, trying different sampling rates 44k 48k


The motherboard is a "ROG CROSSHAIR VII HERO" ( https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-crosshair/rog-crosshair-vii-hero-model/ ).
Is the motherboard probably at fault here? Could it be my PC-PSU? The RME-ADI2 dac and Hugo 2 is dead quiet with USB, but not so much with optical/toslink...
Is optical/toslink always prone to noise when at a very high volume?

My assumtion was that optical is somewhat resistant to noises.

If my motherboards audio is at fault, how would I go from here if i want to be able to use optical from my PC to a DAC, a new stand-alone internal soundcard?
I take it USB is more popular and I should probably skip toslink/optical altogether, but I kinda dont wan't to right now

Hmm...
a) is your dac connected to a headphone ?
b) is your dac connected to a preamp+amp that is connected to speakers ?

If a), well yeah no luck. As @amirm said, a faulty toslink is rare but not impossible.
If b), I think you know where I'm getting at.
 

Lambda

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Maybe your microphone in/ monitoring is some how enabled?

Dose the noise stop if you disable SPDIF in software and and dose it stop if you unplug the spdif port.
 

abdo123

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Thanks guys, I guess i skip the toslink then... Kinda disappointing since the mobo is rather new... Very well, will try some other things but I don't have any hope of solving it it without changing PC parts, which I don't have time or money to throw at the moment..:)

Warranty?
 
OP
A

all-air

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Maybe your microphone in/ monitoring is some how enabled?

Dose the noise stop if you disable SPDIF in software and and dose it stop if you unplug the spdif port.

I opened a program called "SupremeFX" (Som type of Realtek HD Audio Manager-skin I think?), from there I tried different things (not much to tweak with) and found one that says "Separate all input jacks as independent input devices." It seemed to do the trick! :)
 
OP
A

all-air

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I've also tried reinstalling, removing and tweaking with my PC audio-drivers (don't know if that even matters), and also pretty much every setting in Windows sound settings (disabling enhancers, trying different sampling rates 44k 48k
I guess I didn't try tweaking enough, my bad.


The problem is now gone and I can stop fantasizing about a new MOBO/PSU which feels nice... :) Thanks guys!
 
OP
A

all-air

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Hmm, the static noise comes back if I use 44100 Hz with 16bit and goes away in 44100 Hz 24bit. I think this was the problem all a long, not the Realtek-settings. Is this normal?
 

AnalogSteph

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Smells like some sort of driver bug. That sort of thing does happen. In the past, I've had issues with Realtek device init being screwed up when set to 24/44, and an IDT chip sounded like it had hyped bass and highs in 16 bit but sounded normal in 24 bit.

Now thankfully there is basically no reason not to use 24-bit output these days. Perhaps this is why 16-bit output got screwed up, testing may be less than rigorous.
 
OP
A

all-air

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I had another "serious" problem using PC -> USB -> Dac. "AMD Sata Controller" (in Device manager under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers") caused some serious latency-spikes on my computer that I didn't even know was happening til I installed Latencymon and started troubleshooting.... Also had to remove all "Power throttling" and re-install video-drivers.

Well, 16-bit is a no-no on my computer at least with Optical, and as you said, there shouldn't even be a reason to use it at all so I guess it's fine as it is... :D
 
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