Sound issues with my first build using an Z77 Extream4. Please help!

[Jak P]

I just finished building my first computer and was very excited because everything seemed to be running great except for I'm having strange sound issues.

Here is my build

ASRock Z77 Extream4 LGA 1155 Motherboard

Gigabyte GTX 670

and running windows 7 HP 64 bit.

Let me know if you need to know the other components.

I'm not using a sound card so I'm just using the ASrocks sound. No matter what I plug into it be it head phones speakers both USB and otherwise the sound does not come out clear.

I re downloaded the Realtek driver (i tried both the one from the ASRocks website and the Realtek website) as I think thats the sound driver but still getting the same sound distortion. I don't really know how to explain what is happening but the sound is unclear kind of like a bad radio in a car, you can hear what is going on but the sound is warped, there also is something that sounds like static but it's not very prominent. At first you can't tell that anything is wrong but after a few seconds of listening to music you can definitely tell something is wrong. This gets much worse when you go in game when sound matters a lot. It also seems to be a little worse using the USB headphones then the audio jack headphones/speakers.

Like I said I think all the drivers are up to date and all the speakers/headphones I'm trying to use work fine on my other computer. Please let me know what you think could be the issue and how to resolve it I'm really hoping it's not something with the MB where I might have to send it back.

Thanks for all the help.

-Jak

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Re: Sound issues with my first build using an Z77 Extream4. Please help!

Does it sound like background electronic noise? Your description is hard to understand. Have you noticed if you move the mouse the noise changes? If it gets worse while gaming, that tells me it is an interference problem, since the higher activity of the video card, CPU, memory, etc, all add to the electronic noise in a PC.

I've had several boards where apparently the audio system is picking up all the interference from the PC components. The inside of a PC is a terrible environment for sound reproduction, due to the noise from the PC. Sending back the board would be one of the last things I would do, since it is likely they'll all be like that.

BTW, most video cards have audio built into them. You could enable that instead of the Realtek audio chip, which IMO are poor.

You didn't tell us much about your setup. What is your source of music? How is it connected or sourced to the PC? Have you checked all the volume/level controls that are available, both in the Realtek and Windows controlling screens? If any of them (with one exception explained later) are turned up all the way, that may be overloading the next device or amplifier. Set them as low as possible, and use any volume control that you have that is outside of the PC, in any exist.

Since the audio cables for the front panel connections are usually unshielded, try to route them in the case away from the mother board and power supply, or even disk drives. Although it may be difficult, keeping power cables, like the 8 pin CPU power cable, away from the audio output jacks on the back panel may help reduce the noise.

Personally, when a board I used has noise issues, meaning IMO they all will, I use the digital output on the board to an outboard DAC or amp with a DAC, and since it's the analog signals in a PC that are noisy, the digital one is unaffected. If you are using a DAC in the PC, it is very important to have any level control on it set to maximum, because digital volume controls throw away information as they are reduced in level.