P55-GD85 - Realtek audio makes beeping and scratchy sound in speakers

[claykin]

Just lovely.  Haven't used onboard audio in ages but figured after all these years motherboard makers would figure out how to isolate noise from the audio circuit.  Well, again I'm proved wrong.  The Realtek 889 onboard audio emits a somewhat faint beeping and scratchy/static sound thats easily noticeable if I leave the volume of my speakers turned up a bit and lower the software volume control.  Its even way more noticeable on the front panel headphone jack.

I've already troubleshot this to death and know its the motherboard.  Tried changing and disconnecting every device and removed everything connected to the system, but the noise remains.  Even tried a different PSU.

No overclocking and have spread spectrum enabled.  Tried to disable as well and also tried BIOS fail safe settings.  Nope!  MSI sent me beta BIOS V1.24 and tried that too.  Nope!

Same nonsense I've experienced on other motherboards, except for Intel boards.  Why is it that they don't spend a bit more time to decouple the audio circuit to protect it from noise/RFI?

Can someone else please check theirs and please let me know?.  Do I exchange this with Newegg or will another board have the same issue?

 

[khein]

I have the same problem with my p55 CD-53, scratchy noise when an audio device is plugged in the front panel. But WORKS FINE when plugged at the back panel, although my back panel has its own issues(there's also a thread about it).

 

[Stu]

What speakers are you using?

 

[claykin]

I have the same problem with my p55 CD-53, scratchy noise when an audio device is plugged in the front panel. But WORKS FINE when plugged at the back panel, although my back panel has its own issues(there's also a thread about it).

Noise from front panel jack is louder and very hard to ignore.  Rear panel line out has much less noise, but I can still hear it a bit through the tweeters of my Klipsch 2.1 satellites.  Its pretty high pitched so someone with damaged/poor hearing may not notice it to begin with.

I occasionally do audio recordings on my PC and add audio to video files.  I'm really concerned that this noise will become embedded with every track I record.  I suppose it may be time for a Soundblaster XFi card.

To be honest I'd consider trading the motherboard for a different brand, but I know I'll just be trading one set of issues for another.  

 

[claykin]

What speakers are you using?

Klipsch Promedia 2.1  Its not the speakers as I can also hear the noise when connecting my headphones to the front panel or rear line out jack.  Rear line out nosie is pretty faint through headphones but definitely still there.  Front panel noise if much louder.

I've got another case so I robbed the HD audio connector out of it to try.  Same issue with the front headphone jack.  Both cases are Antec and the front panel HD cable appears to be high quality.

 

[Stu]

Aah, I only asked because I experienced something similar using some USB-powered speakers on my MSI Wind Board 330 powered mini-ITX system at home, as well as on a Wyse thin-client PC I have at work, both of which have Realtek HD Audio. Oddly the same speakers work fine when I connect them to my main KA790GX-M home system, which also uses the same Realtek HD Audio.

 

[Henry]

Is your OS XP or W7? I don't know why but there has been numerous sound issues for some reason on W7. If W7 can you try with XP?

 

[claykin]

Is your OS XP or W7? I don't know why but there has been numerous sound issues for some reason on W7. If W7 can you try with XP?

I booted from the Winki CD and had the same noise.  I knda like that Winki for its simplicity.  Good use is for kids or strangers who want to use my PC to browse the web. 

MSI support claims they haven't had complaints about noise and recommended I RMA.  I called Newegg and those lovely people are sending a replacement overnight for no charge.  Gosh, I love Newegg.  The problem is I bet I'll spend time swapping it out and still have the noise.  I have a feeling MSI didn't do the best job decoupling the sound path from noise.

I had this same issue in 2006 with an Asus P5B-E and after perusing other forums and Google, it seems that people who appreciate audio claim this is an issue with most onboard sound solutions.  The thing is that 95% of users don't notice the scratchy, beepy sound as they already have crap speakers to begin with and an untrained ear.  Now I have a better idea why music CD's I often get from friends I find the music they ripped sounds like crap and has background noise.

I emailed Realtek and actually heard back from them.  They claim that a reference design is supplied to motherboard OEM's on how to integrate the IC, but many times motherboard OEM's differ from the design.  Also in some cases extraneous things on the board cause interference and if the board design is not simulated and tested properly this can impact the sound IC.  They acknowledged that its easier for a PCI/PCI-E sound card to eliminate noise as all they need to do is properly isolate signals and power from the PCI/PCI-E bus and they can live in a clean world on their own PCB.  Hmmm, another bloody Soundblaster may be in my future.

 

[Henry]

That's something I haven't tried yet on my new H55 rig is the audio. Guess I should though. I ran this on Winki for a couple of days before I hooked up an HDD on my table top bench testing. Winki web browsing only 50W with this thing on internal graphics.

Edit: I just popped a CD in and no problem on mine, this with headphone in rear line out jack. To tell the truth as much as I've seen audio complaints lately I expected some on mine but none on this one. This is my 5th MSI MB an no problems with any of them yet. newegg's my favorite online store also.

 

[claykin]

Henry

If using the rear line out jack you need amplified speakers to test for noise.  The noise coming from the rear line out is faint when listened to through most headphones.  If using amplified speakers (such as the Klipsch Promedias) the noise is noticeable through the tweeters when you turn up the volume about 40%+.  I can hear noise from the rear line out using my headphones, but I'm using a $300 pair of Shure in ear earbuds that pick up even the faintest of sounds.

Through the front panel headphone jack the story is different.  The noise is way worse and can easily be heard with any set of headphones or speakers.  At first I thought I could use a different front panel cable or shield it but that didn't help.  I've tried two cables now and one that is wrapped with a foil material and has a ferrite bead on it.  Same issue when connected to the front panel connector.

The replacement board is on its way.  Expecting delivery any time now.  Lets see how that goes.  Will report back. 

 

[Henry]

Do you still have the noise out the rear if the front panel is disconnected? 

 

[claykin]

Do you still have the noise out the rear if the front panel is disconnected? 

Yep.  Noise out rear port even with FP audio cable disconnected. 

Received the replacement motherboard today from Newegg and as suspected same problem.  Even tested the board outside the case with only video card (MSI 5750) and one DVD drive connected.  used Winki to test and same noise.  Tried a second Corsair VX550 I have spare as well as an Antec 650W I use as spare.  Also tried a backup DVD reader I have and same issue.  So, its definitely a design issue with the motherboard. 

I'll let MSI know but they'll probably sleep on it unless they get more complaints.  Its not inexpensive to revision hardware.

Maybe by 2012 motherboard makers will figure out how to properly decouple the sound circuit from the rest of the motherboard.

Now, which Soundblaster card do I waste $50-$100 on?
Scott

 

[Henry]

I've got my H55-GD65 with my Harmon w/sub woofer Kardon and Altec Lansing in surround sound setup and no problems with oddball noises. Some people might disagree about the oddball noise bit considering it's old hillbilly, C/W & blue grass I've been playing. :lol_anim:

 

[Spawn51]

Now, which Soundblaster card do I waste $50-$100 on?

Asus Xonar DX 

 

[claykin]

Asus Xonar DX 

Cards looks good.  I see lots of capacitors and assume many of them are to decouple circuits.  Ahhh, the way sound should be designed.

Is this card really better than a Creative X-Fi Titanium?  Both are the same price.  Creative gets a bad rap because they don't do a good job of delivering updated drivers to end users.  Seems many people have tried older drivers on Win 7 and get lockups, etc.  For those who used the correct Win 7 drivers from www.Soundblaster.com they seem to be happy.

I read through a couple reviews of the Xonar and it seems users aren't happy that the front jacks are AC97 not HD Audio.  Also the front panel jacks don't offer jack detection to disable speakers when you connect headphones.  Not really a deal breaker, but kinda dumb of Asus.

 

[claykin]

Spent literally 90% of this weekend working on this noise issue. 

1)  The replacement board sent by Newegg is a bit better, not tons better but less noise.
2)  Turning off the Dr Mos LED's reduces the noise a bit as does turning off Dr Mos altogether.  Hmmmm. 
3)  Tried a Soundblaster X Fi Titanium in the last PCI-E slot and noticed further reduction in noise but still not 100% gone. (yes, I remembered to uninstall Realtek 889 from Device Mangler and disable in BIOS prior to installing the SB).  (BTW, Winki won't recognize the SB cards so if you plan to use Winki you'll probably need to stick with onboard sound.)
4)  Tried an old SB Audigy 2 PCI card and this worked best.  Noise was not 100% gone, but hardly perceptible unless you focused.  Trouble is that the Audigy card I have has an external POD and this POD does not talk to Windows 7.  Argh.  That means the headphone and mic jack on the POD aren't recognized and this card doesn't support AC97 or HD Audio FP connections.    Tried everything posted on the SB Support site, but no go.

So, I suppose maybe the Asus Xonar might work especially since it gets power directly from the PSU as opposed to the PCI-E bus.  Not sure I'm going to spend more time on this issue.  With Dr Mos and LED's off its really not intrusive unless you listen for problems.  And, through the FP headphone jack I can only hear it with my Shure in ear buds.  With my Sennheiser ear cans I don't notice the noise.  This is probably the reason why it slipped by MSI engineering.  They need to get some better headphones to validate their prototypes.

If there's any good news, I did some audio recording on the Win 7 PC (Realtek sound) and listened through my stereo.  No noise embedded in the recording which indicates the noise is creeping in at the preamp line out stage.

Oh, if there's one thing that annoys me about this new P55-GD85 board is that it has a bunch of solid capacitors labeled FP (the rest are Nippon Chemicon  ).  After tons of research I found that FP is FPCAP from CHINA!!  Bloody Chinese caps making back on our motherboards.  When will they learn?  OK, now that I'm done ranting, FPCAP is owned or has some affiliation with Nichicon.  Nichicon has the entire FPCAP product line on their website so maybe its just a re-branded Nichicon cap made in China?  I sure hope so!!!

 

[claykin]

Getting a tiny bit off topic, but I did more research on the FP capacitor thing and it looks less like a problem than I originally thought.

FPCAP was originally part of Fujitsu and they sold it off to Nichicon in Spring 2009.  The China factory was apparently where Fujitsu manufactured their electrolytic caps prior to the sale to Nichicon.  I'm also finding out that other respected makers (such as Kemet) also manufacture capacitors in the same city in China (SUZHOU) and maybe the same factory, so maybe its not all bad. 

I also compared the series of capacitors on my original board (all Nippon Chemicon) to the capacitors on the new board (some Nippon Chemicon, some FPCAP).  For the most part, the spec's are very comparable, but in some cases the FPCAP equivalent part has a lower ESR  and also higher rated ripple current than the Chemicon part  .  The only question I still have is one set of caps along Dr Mos.  The Chemicon caps from the original board are 5K hour rated and the FPCAP equivalents (on new board) are available in both 2K and 5K with no discernible notation on the aluminum housing.  Thats something that would have been printed on the tape/reel they were dispensed from during the auto insertion process.

Also the FPCAP spec sheets all say Nichicon on them so I'm a bit less worried now.  Still not "Japan made" like Asus and Gigabyte tout, but they should be good quality with Nichicon's name on them.....

I'm only making a big deal out of this issue because of the painful memories from years past with bad motherboards lined up like dominos waiting for replacement capacitors.  Don't want to repeat that nightmare again. 

 

[khein]

Sorry to bring this up again but, I recently noticed that the STRACHY/BEEPING audio noise happens when there is a device on a USB port.

For example:

USB MOUSE -> Front panel USB port.. <AND> .. SPEAKER/HEADPHONES -> FRONT panel audio port == SCRATCH BEEPING NOISE WHEN MOVING THE MOUSE (when not moving and the mouse went to standby, LED DIMMED, the noise disappears)

SPEAKER -> Front panel AUDIO PORT <AND>  NO USB DEVICE IN FRONT PANEL ==  NO NOISE (CLEAN)

USB MOUSE -> BACK PANEL USB port.. <AND> .. SPEAKER/HEADPHONES -> FRONT panel audio port == NO NOISE



As long as the USB device uses power from the port, the audio becomes NOISY. Attaching a usb thumb drive, produces NO noise INITIALLY, but Sending and Receiving Data produces noise.

 

[Henry]

khein, that sounds like a hardware problem with the audio jack/USB ports of your front panel module. Is there a forum for your case manufacturer that you can check if others have the same issues?

 

[khein]

When using the back panel produces the same results. But the noise is reduced a little.

So, I either I use the front panel for USB and back panel for AUDIO or the opposite.