Help! - Popping sound from my speakers
I'll try to be as detailed as possible...anyway, just got a new computer the other day, with a set of Altec Lansing 251 speakers (5.1), and just using the onboard sound card (Realtek AC97) at the moment.
When I play a DVD movie from the DVD-ROM, I can hear a beep/popping noise (it's a soft quick beep, basically) coming from the right-front and right-rear speakers. All the other speakers do not display this noise. It's not so loud that it really disturbs the viewing experience, but when the volume's turned up significantly and there's a quiet passage in the movie, it becomes quite perceptible.
The popping/beeping doesn't happen if I play a DVD from the hard drive, nor does it occur when I play music, either from MP3 on the hard drive, or a CD.
Is the problem to do with my speakers...or could it perhaps be the sound card? Thanks in advance.
When I play a DVD movie from the DVD-ROM, I can hear a beep/popping noise (it's a soft quick beep, basically) coming from the right-front and right-rear speakers. All the other speakers do not display this noise. It's not so loud that it really disturbs the viewing experience, but when the volume's turned up significantly and there's a quiet passage in the movie, it becomes quite perceptible.
The popping/beeping doesn't happen if I play a DVD from the hard drive, nor does it occur when I play music, either from MP3 on the hard drive, or a CD.
Is the problem to do with my speakers...or could it perhaps be the sound card? Thanks in advance.
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Comments
1) You say that the noise does NOT occur when you play a MP3 CD or normal CD from that DVD-ROM drive?
2) Is it a particular movie that gives you this beeping noise or ALL DVD movies when played from that DVD-ROM drive?
3) Is the beeping consistent or intermittent? EG: beep (2 second pause) beep (2 second pause) beep. etc.
First steps to troubleshooting.
- switch the inputs for the speaker. Plug left into right...right into left. Does the beeping/popping now come from the other set of speakers?
- As always...have you installed the latest drivers for the AC97 sound? (see www.realtek.com.tw)
- Go into the device manager (START>CONTROL PANEL>SYSTEM...choose HARDWARE PROPERTIES tab and click DEVICE MANAGER. Find DVD/CDROM Drivers. Expand that and double click on your DVD-ROM drive entry. Choose ENABLE DIGITAL AUDIO from the PROPERTIES. You should also have the secondary cable running from the back of the DVD drive to the motherboard CD IN besides the IDE cable. If you have also have a CD drive using this then use the AUX IN.
Is your DVD drive slave or master? Does it share the cable with another device. If it is a slave then try making it a master and disconnect the other device. See if the audio noise goes away.
- Lastly...you may want to flash your motherboard to the latest BIOS.
Hope this helps.
EMI interference would affect both channels...not just one and be present through all audio regardless of source.
By switching the leads you can determine if it is the speaker(s) or the hardware.
1 + 2. That's right. The noise DOESN'T happen with CDs, MP3s, nor DVDs played from the hard drive. The noise only occurs when I play DVDs. I've played 3 DVDs with Dolby 5.1, and a South Park DVD which is in Dolby 2.0. All display the noise. Having said that, I put in a Sugar Ray Robinson DVD (stereo), which didn't have the noise. Or if it did, it was drowned out by all of the background hissing noise, as the footage used is very old. But yeah, the noise seems to happen with all DVDs tried so far.
First steps to troubleshooting.
3. The beeping is intermittent. Probably once every 1.5 secs or so.
I could only switch the right-rear speaker with the left-rear - the right-front (which exhibits the noise) has a special plug into the sub, as it's got all the volume controls. When I switched the right-rear with the left-rear, the noise started coming out from the left speaker, the right-rear speaker didn't have the noise anymore.
Downloaded the driver from the motherboard manufacturer's website yesterday, so that should be good. Also, I've only got 1 optical drive-the DVD-ROM/CD-RW combined. The secondary lead is indeed running into the CD-IN.
The DVD drive is master-it's the only device on that IDE cable. HDD is SATA, FDD is on another IDE cable.
Hmm never done this before. I'll see if I can try the speakers on another computer system first before i do this flashing thing.
Any more suggestions anyone? Thanks a lot by the way.
What are your exact system specs anyway? (mobo, video, etc.)
Oh ok. Again Mediaman, thanks a lot for your effort and help, it's greatly appreciated. My specs are:
MB - Gigabyte 8IPE1000 Pro 2
Vid card - Gigabyte ATI 9200SE 128mb
CPU - P4 2.8G 800FSB Prescott
512mb pc3200 Kingston ram
120gb seagate SATA HDD
Samsung 52/52/32 + 16DVD combo drive
speakers: Altec Lansing 251
Sound - Onboard - Realtek ALC658
I'm scratching my head. You could try
1) Switching the DVD ROM to another EIDE header.
2) Try another dvd movie playback software. Remember that the Dolby Digital 5.1 decoding is handled by the software and not by the hardware. 6-channel onboard sound just means 6 available channels...not Dolby.
3) Got a spare DVD ROM? Put it in and see if it persists.
4) You could try updating the firmware on your DVD ROM
http://forum.firmware-flash.com/dl_all.php
I'm scratching my head on this one. If you want really good sound..then I suggest you move up to a PCI audio card. The M-AUDIO REVOLUTION is quite nice and sells for $99 at newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=29-121-101&depa=0
Other than that...I think I'm outta options for the moment.
Guess what? I have EXACTLY the same problem except my beeps are about 5 seconds apart and come only out of my front-left and rear-left speakers. It only happens when I play surround sound (non-stereo) DVD material directly from a DVD - either DTS or Dolby - it still happens during the entire playback. It's driving me nuts to be honest!!!
I don't use my onboard sound device - instead I have an Audigy2-ZS w/latest drivers. My DVD combo drive is a Samsung SM-352B on latest firmware.
I've tried different speakers and 3 different DVD playback software apps - still get the beeps. Narrows down to either the soundcard or DVD drive. I would suspect the drive.
Let me know if you have any more thoughts/advice as I've scoured the net for hours and come up totally empty on this one!
Cheers,
Sly down-under.
Sly, are you using the digital out CABLE from DVD to your Audigy, or no digital cable at all, or an analog audio cable from DVD to sound card???
With onboard sound disabled, you do not want to have a DVD audio cable connected to the motherboard-- needs to go to the sound card. AND, if your box is busy, no cable may result in bus interference that gives you pops &etc. One other thing, if your DVD has an earphone jack, plugging in an earphone into DVD will detect if audio interference problem is internal to DVD in most cases.
Ryko you're a genius....solved the problem! Very curious as to what the cable is supposed to do now...I guess it's like your appendix. No-one is really sure what it does ;-)
Much obliged.
Sly.
http://www.freakypc.com.au
Makes you wonder if it's a matter of shielding, or something else.
Right, running both analog and digital will make for a mess-- there are digital wires, and sockets for same, on some motheboards. BUT, if a computer works real well, digital sound can be handled in the IDE\PCI bussing and that is how the no-cord method works. If an analog cord is used TOO, DVD might try to do BOTH at once. THAT will make for a mess.
Digital is a three-wire common ground, three pin connector on mobo, a four pin is only for analog use. BUT, good DVDs can use no wire or wire for digital if right wire is used. Sometimes best results come through a digfital wire if PCI or IDE busses are busy.