The unanswerable question?

[SilkTurtle]

I just read back over all my reply posts, scanning for any wording that might be (mis)construed as aggressive. Alas, I must be missing something.... :-(

 

[Yoshitoshi]

Don't you ever get those emails at work where the Author intends his message to be friendly and informative - it just reads really bad and sounds offensive to the Recipient?

It's so easy to write such messages.

Just use the preview button from time to time.

 

[SilkTurtle]

"Reads really bad" isn't the same as "aggressive" in my mind. Since I can't figure out how to please, maybe you would be happier ignoring my posts.

 

[Mingon]

I still think dodgy capacitor, which occasionally is 'popping' after a certain amount of time

 

[Spotch]

This may sound obvious but perhaps it occurs after a screen saver kicks in or your PC turns off some devices based on your power profile. Does this happen in cases of continuous use or only when you "leave and come back after a while" ?

 

[SilkTurtle]

It happens regardless if I am using the computer or it's idle. I don't use screensavers normally. I have not actually timed it to see if it always occurs a specific number of hours + minutes after starting up, but it seems to take something like between 2½ to 3 hours. It's not an intermittent thing, it happens every time the computer is on longer than however long it takes for the problem to kick in.

 

[C2]

If a simple reboot corrects the problem temporarily, I would suggest that it is not a heat related issue.

You stated that you have removed and reinstalled the drivers and the card. A reboot would not correct a hardware problem, but a driver problem or a memory leakage issue might be temporarily corrected.

Distortion might be a capacitor issue as well, although generally a capacitor failure will not be intermittent, but sudden, and I cannot imagine a reboot correcting a capacitor failure (other than discharging other caps around it).

I think your best bet is to start simple first. The next time your sound gets distorted, try unplugging your speakers and either using a headset or just reconnecting them w/o the reboot. It's possible you have some oxidation on your connector that acts as a small resistor, thus changing the voltage drop at, and current to your speakers. I doubt that though.

How much time are you talking about when you say it takes some time for the distortion to appear? Is the time almost exact each time? If so, a bad capacitor is very likely.

 

[SilkTurtle]

I still haven't had the presence of mind to actually keep track of how much time passes before the sound goes bad after starting the computer. My best guess is around 3 hours. It happens every time the computer is long enough.