Today I made three changes to my PC.

#1: Removed a faulty DVD drive.
#2: Gave the inside of my PC a good dusting with CO2 can.
#3: Formatted C: drive and reinstalled Windows.

Now I have everything reinstalled, but I have a sound quality issue that's a bit weird. There is a slight buzzing that varies with graphical on screen movements and perhaps even CPU activity. I always use headphones on the rear audio output, and tried on a separate pair and the same noises occur. The drivers I am using are the latest from the manufacturers website.

The sound card is a Soundblaster Live! 24 bit and the PC is a Dell Dimension 5000. Does anyone have any ideas of what might be the cause/solution of this problem?

Did you reinstall all the drivers that might be causing it?

Is everything correctly connected inside the PC?

Are you masturbating to much? hehe

Seriously, first two questions

yea, maybe you jiggled some sort of cable loose or something. Try reseating the sound card and checking any extra cables you have connected to it. Sounds like you're getting line noise but that really shouldn't be happening. If all else fails try swapping PCI slots.

Fiddled around and switched PCI slots. Problem persists.

Assuming you've tried drivers, how about removing as many components as you can to leave you basic function and sound.

See if it still occurs?

Anything - USB stuff, PS2 stuff, that extra stick of ram etc.

Just to narrow it down.

Fuck that shit, lol.

I'll try drivers tomorrow.

haha. So I'm guessing the buzz happens both with speakers and headphones, right? I think you said that above.

I would doubt it's drivers, but this is Creative we're talking about. Try the reset to defaults or whatever and see if it makes a difference. Or reinstall, whatever.

Either that, there's interference from another device (unlikely across PCI slots) or the card itself it screwed up.

I "fixed" this the other day:

Start -> Volume Control -> Line-In *mute*.

Job done.

LOL, I wonder how I haven't seen this topic. I'd suggested muting the in-line, CD or microphone for sure, since I experienced the same so many times.

Besides, bad or "twisted" drivers can cause very very bad things. I remember once I started Flanker 2.5 and got something 20Hz-ish and ~40dB-ish, which made me feel very bad (almost infrasound range, and very strong, which can cause hurt), although I turned the speakers off (CREATIVE's children as well) immediately.

hah, that's great. Oh well, live and learn.