took GPU out for cleaning& reinstalled. now I have distortion/crosstalk noise alien noise with audio

[Rocketman122]

I live in a very dusty area and when I see the heatsink fans with a sheet of dust, I have to clean the PC. so I only took the gpu out to start with. I blew compressed air inside.

I reinstalled it. I cant hear any audio besides it sounding like morse code/frequency jumping/crosstalk type noise

I downloaded the recent driver although I think its the same that was installed. restarted pc, still the same noise. if I play anything with audio, I dont hear it at all. its only the "aliens trying to contact us on earth" noise.

what happened?
any help appreciated

 

[pandemonium]

I'm guessing you get your audio delivered via the video cable: HDMI, DVI, or DP?

Sounds like maybe some dust got onto the PCIe connector pins? You may want to take the card out of the slot and thoroughly clean that out with some IPA90 on the end of qtips. Also clean the connecting pins on the GPU while you're at it.

 

[Rocketman122]

took the card out. swiped the contact of the card with IPA. I also cleaned inside the 6 pin port with little liquid. I also swiped lightly inside the slot. the rear is a dvi connector.

now theres no audio popup box when I insert the headphone jack inside one of the 2 front case ports. it used to open up the realtek one.

update:
now I notice that after installing the driver to see if that would help. its no longer in the bottom right tray near the clock.

 

[pandemonium]

So, the popping audio you're experiencing: is this from your headset?

 

[Rocketman122]

thats the headset I use. yet it sounds like this no matter if I use this or the other smaller pair.

I told you it sounds like aliens trying to contact us haha

 

[Mathias_MM]

took the card out. swiped the contact of the card with IPA. I also cleaned inside the 6 pin port with little liquid. I also swiped lightly inside the slot. the rear is a dvi connector.

now theres no audio popup box when I insert the headphone jack inside one of the 2 front case ports. it used to open up the realtek one.

update:
now I notice that after installing the driver to see if that would help. its no longer in the bottom right tray near the clock.

If you're not getting your audio from the video card, I doubt this has anything to do with it. More lilkely that you knocked the front panel connector loose when messing with the card.
Are you using USB or audio jack for your headset?

 

[pandemonium]

Yeah, if I'd had known this was from the headset I wouldn't have bothered to ask you to clean the GPU PCIe slot, lol. It's likely some dust got into the jack for the headset.

 

[Rocketman122]

noise is the same if the headset is connected through the rear MB (green port) or through the front header. same noise. I cleaned them both with IPA. no change.

I didnt say it has to do with the video card. fault for not mentioning the headset. sometimes we think in our heads but forget to pass info we thought it was obvious to the other party.

@pandemonium youre horrible for wasting 3 minutes of my life to clean the gpu contacts (sarcasm) HA!

 

[pandemonium]

Haha, no worries. Though, it can't hurt having those contacts nice and clean. I'm glad it's not the GPU then.

Have you tried going into device manager and uninstalling the audio device then reinstalling it (instead of just updating over top of it)? > Uninstall audio device, > Scan for hardware changes, > update drivers if necessary. Download from Realtek or your motherboard manufacturer's site.

 

[Rocketman122]

ill try that. running to pick up my kid from school. be back soon. cheers buddy. you guys are awesome!

 

[Guru]

Yeah, use compressed air and clean up your whole system then. It seems like you moved the dust from your GPU/PCI-E to everywhere else. Did you accidentally hit something when removing/installing your GPU?

If its' making that sound on the front audio slots, is it making that sound when you plug your headphones into the rear slots? If yes, then its either your headphones that are broken or you must have hot the motherboard and damaged some transistor or something that is for the audio!

 

[pandemonium]

Since they tried another headset and it's happening with multiple ports, I'm afraid if the driver refresh doesn't resolve it the motherboard got damaged. I was hoping to leave that to the last possible conclusion.

A total cleaning probably couldn't hurt, but definitely check if any of the board got damaged.

 

[Rocketman122]

curious why there is no icon for the realtek audio software in the system tray? I connect my headphone and nothing pops up to ask me what I plugged in. as it did before

even after trying to install the driver, it doesnt show up. I dount theres physical damage.

im going to get another ssd I have an reinstall w7 on it and see how that goes.

 

[Rocketman122]

im going to bump this back

so I have warranty on the board. my idea was to send it in for assessment, I came to turn my old pc on to use a temp pc (Q6600 cpu) and it wouldnt post. i didnt mess with it too much

my other idea was to buy a cheap am3+ board and use that till I get my current mb back.

would using a pci/e slot audio card be a viable option?

 

[Leadbox]

im going to bump this back

so I have warranty on the board. my idea was to send it in for assessment, I came to turn my old pc on to use a temp pc (Q6600 cpu) and it wouldnt post. i didnt mess with it too much

my other idea was to buy a cheap am3+ board and use that till I get my current mb back.

would using a pci/e slot audio card be a viable option?

Go to control panel, under hardware and sound you'll find the realtek audio manager. If your problem is anything like what I used to get, click on the spanner in audio manager and disable jack detection and test your audio.

 

[Rocketman122]

thanks for the help. I tried what you said now. still alien morse code sound sounds

just curious if I can just use a pci audio card (or maybe a usb one) as a work around?

 

[Leadbox]

thanks for the help. I tried what you said now. still alien morse code sound sounds

just curious if I can just use a pci audio card (or maybe a usb one) as a work around?

Worth a try, let us know how it works out.

 

[Tweak155]

I just fixed all my audio popping with one of these: https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-Digital-Converter-Optical-Toslink/dp/B07L61JPQW/ref=sr_1_12?keywords=fiio+d3&qid=1558175413&s=gateway&sr=8-12&th=1

You'll need a Toslink cable if you don't already have one (or a coax cable if your motherboard supports digital out that way) and a power source other than your PC if your PC's power is causing the problem. I went from tons of static to 0 static for $22 after tax (had to buy Toslink cable)!

EDIT: I just realized my external speakers are powered. If you always use a headset, you may need a DAC with an amplifier which unfortunately would up the cost.

 

[sxr7171]

I just fixed all my audio popping with one of these: https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-Digital-Converter-Optical-Toslink/dp/B07L61JPQW/ref=sr_1_12?keywords=fiio+d3&qid=1558175413&s=gateway&sr=8-12&th=1

You'll need a Toslink cable if you don't already have one (or a coax cable if your motherboard supports digital out that way) and a power source other than your PC if your PC's power is causing the problem. I went from tons of static to 0 static for $22 after tax (had to buy Toslink cable)!

EDIT: I just realized my external speakers are powered. If you always use a headset, you may need a DAC with an amplifier which unfortunately would up the cost.

This. It sounds like EMI issues. As much as these MB manufacturers claim “audiophile” audio stages, no real audiophile would care. They don’t want their audio stages sitting in an ocean of EMI.

To be rid of this once and for all you can try one of many optical DACs or even usb DACs. Probably best off just getting a wireless headset. That keeps the dac and audio electronics far from that EMI filled ocean.

As to why a cleaning did this we can only speculate. Probably damaged some part of the audio analog path. Again audiophiles don’t care for analog audio paths sitting in a sea of EMI. I know it worked before and it wasn’t optimal even when it did.

Some people would have gone external dac/wireless from day one to avoid emi issues.