High pitched whine from headphones (EMI?)

[Beerlake]

Hey guys.

I have this problem that when I do anything that uses gpu hardware acceleration (games, video editing, whatever), I get this high pitched whine on my headphones.

The headphones are hooked on the back of the system to Xonar DG soundcard, frontpanel audio isn't hooked up at all. The whine doesn't get louder with more volume.

It's clearly audible when I enable headphone amp on the Xonar and pipe something through HDMI.
It's less audible but still there if I don't use HDMI, but still use the headphone amp.
If I turn off the headphone amp, at that point I can't be sure if it's there anymore.

Turning off headphone amp isn't a real option however, because the Dolby Headphone feature of the card is tied to that, and I don't want to lose that feature.

I can't move the card further away from the gpu, it's already in the bottommost pci slot available.

So I suspect that since Xonar DG doesn't have EMI shielding, that it would be some kind of electromagnetic interference coming from the graphics card.

But I kind of don't know anything about that, so I'm looking for some help and options.
I could always buy a new card with EMI shielding, but since I'm not sure if that's even the problem, would be a shame to waste money on a card that may not even fix the problem. Is there a way to verify if it's indeed EMI problem?
The onboard sound seems fine, but again I kind of like to use Dolby Headphone stuff. As far as I can see my onboard doesn't have that, or equivalent.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z87P-D3
Sound: Xonar DG
GPU: GV-N760OC-2GD

 

[Ketchup]

If you touch a metal part on the case, do you get a shock?

 

[Beerlake]

If you touch a metal part on the case, do you get a shock?

Nope.

I should also mention that I didn't have this problem on my previous mobo (P7P55D PRO). I upgraded my mobo/cpu combo to my current setup about a month ago, and after that I noticed this.

 

[Ketchup]

Was this sound card in the previous system? Has the OS changed since the previous system?

 

[crashtestdummy]

What wattage/brand is your power supply? The whine can sometimes show up if the power to the amplifier in your sound card is a little off. If it's only happening during gaming, it might be in response to the increased power load.

 

[Beerlake]

The soundcard was in the previous system, same OS (win7).

When I upgraded about a month ago I went from Asus P7P55D PRO/i5-750/Corsair HX520 to Gigabyte GA-Z87P-D3/i5 4670K/Corsair RM 650.
Everything else stayed the same.

 

[Ketchup]

Have you tried different slots for the card?

 

[Beerlake]

I have, didn't make a difference.

 

[Skryblz]

Sorry my answer isn't specific to computers because I haven't experience this same problem myself; but with car audio and whining in the speakers, it usually is related to bad/improper grounding somewhere. Are all the contacts for the motherboard secure?

Also like crashtestdummy stated, if your power supply isn't up to snuff/close to its limit, it will whine through the speakers.

Another dumb idea, are you cables and card sockets very clean and making good contact?

 

[Ketchup]

I have, didn't make a difference.

OK, at this point, I would probably take out the card and use the onboard sound. See what happens to the whine.

Should narrow down the culprit either way.

 

[Virgorising]

Beerklake, you are in expert hands in this thread re yr (very annoying) whining issue.....but I just have to say, yours, to me, is, open and shut, hands down.... the BEST AVATAR on the site.:wub:

 

[Beerlake]

Sorry my answer isn't specific to computers because I haven't experience this same problem myself; but with car audio and whining in the speakers, it usually is related to bad/improper grounding somewhere. Are all the contacts for the motherboard secure?

Also like crashtestdummy stated, if your power supply isn't up to snuff/close to its limit, it will whine through the speakers.

Another dumb idea, are you cables and card sockets very clean and making good contact?

Everything's secure and clean as far as I know. I cleaned everything as I moved from the old mobo to the new one, and have reseated the card a few times as well. All that stuff should be good, which is kind of why I immediately jumped to EMI conclusion myself.

OK, at this point, I would probably take out the card and use the onboard sound. See what happens to the whine.

Should narrow down the culprit either way.

Like I said in the first post, the onboard sound seems fine (as in, no whine that I can hear). But keeping in mind that without the headphone amp in the mix, I can't be sure if it's there on the Xonar either.

Beerklake, you are in expert hands in this thread re yr (very annoying) whining issue.....but I just have to say, yours, to me, is, open and shut, hands down.... the BEST AVATAR on the site.:wub:

Heh, thanks.