on board sound dead?

[xu^]

hi all, today i was testing a diff graphics card, for a while, and it was all good, but upon rebooting the pc , im just getting a high pitched squelaing sound thru both speakers and my headset.
sidenote, the gpu i was testing worked fine ( gtx 960 ) and after putting my 4070 back in, thats also fine, but same noise all the time, so i hope the problem occuring while changing GPU's about, was just a coincidence....

have tried many things to fix it, uninstalling the audio sections in device manager, many times
reinstalled windows fresh, and also fomatted nvme drive before installing ( the noise was present even while it was installing)
tried a different set of speakers with different cables and power supply. and same thing, PC works fine other than the noise, which is so annoying i had to turn speakers off and unplug headset.

so im poss thinking the onboard audio has gone kaput for whatever reason.
any thoughts/ideas , could it be anything else casuing this noise, before i go buy a new board, and maybe suggestions for a reasonable ATX AM4 board

currently on a 4 year old MSI B450 Tomahawk Max

any help/suggestions would b most appreciated.

 

[Onasi]

…why, in Cthulhu’s name, a dead on-board audio chip would make you instantly go to the “buy a new MoBo” option? Just buy an external USB DAC/sound card and turn off the on-board audio in the BIOS.

 

[xu^]

…why, in Cthulhu’s name, a dead on-board audio chip would make you instantly go to the “buy a new MoBo” option? Just buy an external USB DAC/sound card and turn off the on-board audio in the BIOS.

easy answer.

i never heard of a usb dac no idea what it is or does
sound cards ? do they still make them, are they cheap compared to a new board ( am4)

not everyone is up on all this fancy tech

 

[Onasi]

Well, that’s fine, if… weird, considering we’re on TPU. Sound cards they do still make, yes, though I meant external ones. Less hassle than PCI-e ones. USB DACs are essentially the same as sound cards, to simplify - it’s a box with a DAC and often a headphone amplifier that you hook up via USB and it’s usually plug-n-play, driverless. And yes, almost certainly any such option is cheaper than any AM4 motherboard and, better yet, will yield better sound quality than any onboard and can be kept throughout upgrades.

What exactly do you need in terms of outputs? Do you use headphones, speakers (active or passive?) and if so - what setup? I am sure we can find you a reasonable option.

 

[xu^]

Well, that’s fine, if… weird, considering we’re on TPU. Sound cards they do still make, yes, though I meant external ones. Less hassle than PCI-e ones. USB DACs are essentially the same as sound cards, to simplify - it’s a box with a DAC and often a headphone amplifier that you hook up via USB and it’s usually plug-n-play, driverless. And yes, almost certainly any such option is cheaper than any AM4 motherboard and, better yet, will yield better sound quality than any onboard and can be kept throughout upgrades.

What exactly do you need in terms of outputs? Do you use headphones, speakers (active or passive?) and if so - what setup? I am sure we can find you a reasonable option.

i have a set of 2.0 powered creative speakers and a headset/mic, so would need both to be connected if possible.

not that weird really, a dac, which ive never heard of, id guess isnt that commonly used, ive never had a problem before with sound until now, so never needed to think of alternatives.
as for soundcards, i dont think that would be an option anyway, as all but 1 of my pci-e slots are used, and its only one of the small x1 or x4 ones, id guess a scard would need better?

and also need to keep price in mind, if these things cost more than a board, then not much point.

 

[silentbogo]

…why, in Cthulhu’s name, a dead on-board audio chip would make you instantly go to the “buy a new MoBo” option? Just buy an external USB DAC/sound card and turn off the on-board audio in the BIOS.

Actually it's probably a much better option(but I'm also sure he did it by accident).
Since his audio codec is already dead, there is a high chance that sooner or later it'll degrade further just by being powered up. This will cause a short on 3V rail and make motherboard dead-dead. Replacing audio codec is easy and not so hard or expensive, but in UK it'll probably cost just a smidge less more than a used AM4 motherboard.
External DAC is kinda temporary solution in this case.

 

[Onasi]

i have a set of 2.0 powered creative speakers and a headset/mic, so would need both to be connected if possible.

Something like a SoundBlaster X4 can be a good option in this case then, since you want a microphone input too.

Actually it's probably a much better option(but I'm also sure he did it by accident).
Since his audio codec is already dead, there is a high chance that sooner or later it'll degrade further just by being powered up. This will cause a short on 3V rail and make motherboard dead-dead. Replacing audio codec is easy and not so hard or expensive, but in UK it'll probably cost just a smidge less more than a used AM4 motherboard.
External DAC is kinda temporary solution in this case.

Good point, but that depends on what exactly went wrong with the onboard and if the BIOS switch off will fully power it down or not (I’ve seen either way). I say this because I have seen boards with a dead audio chip work flawlessly otherwise for years and the users just switched to external audio. *shrug* It’s up to him though. I merely dislike the idea of moving to a new board with all the hassle it involves unless really necessary.

 

[Beginner Macro Device]

SoundBlaster X4

In Russia, it's almost $200. You can buy a premium AM4 motherboard for that much quid.

 

[Onasi]

In Russia, it's almost $200. You can buy a premium AM4 motherboard for that much quid.

He needs a mic jack, so that unfortunately eliminates a lot of good cheaper options. Well, I guess he always can grab something like a Fiio K5 and a USB microphone. That would be cheaper, but I didn’t want to presume.
Anyway, I’ve seen the X4 on discount as low as 100-ish. And I feel like this is a purchase that you can make once and just keep carrying forward for all builds. Onboard audio then becomes of no concern on any MoBo.

 

[eidairaman1]

easy answer.

i never heard of a usb dac no idea what it is or does
sound cards ? do they still make them, are they cheap compared to a new board ( am4)

not everyone is up on all this fancy tech

Just get a sound card

 

[izy]

hi all, today i was testing a diff graphics card, for a while, and it was all good, but upon rebooting the pc , im just getting a high pitched squelaing sound thru both speakers and my headset.
sidenote, the gpu i was testing worked fine ( gtx 960 ) and after putting my 4070 back in, thats also fine, but same noise all the time, so i hope the problem occuring while changing GPU's about, was just a coincidence....

have tried many things to fix it, uninstalling the audio sections in device manager, many times
reinstalled windows fresh, and also fomatted nvme drive before installing ( the noise was present even while it was installing)
tried a different set of speakers with different cables and power supply. and same thing, PC works fine other than the noise, which is so annoying i had to turn speakers off and unplug headset.

so im poss thinking the onboard audio has gone kaput for whatever reason.
any thoughts/ideas , could it be anything else casuing this noise, before i go buy a new board, and maybe suggestions for a reasonable ATX AM4 board

currently on a 4 year old MSI B450 Tomahawk Max

any help/suggestions would b most appreciated.

If you are sure its broken you can buy some USB headphones till you are going to buy a new MB.

For example you can get something like this, cheap , with USB , sounds decent/ok and the mic sounds good. (you can get it cheaper than on amazon or you can get cheaper models too)

G2 II

7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset

www.edifier.com

https://www.amazon.com/Edifier-Headphones-Canceling-Microphone-Compatible/dp/B086QG7HBG?th=1

Edit: I had a problem like this with the same MB and the reason was that my extension cord was broken and the ground didn't work and it was fine after I changed it, before I realized I had disassembled and reassembled the whole computer to find the problem.

 

[Ruru]

I'd get an Audigy Rx myself if you consider a PCIe soundcard.