Crosstalk? Noise with soundcard / videocard

Hi there,

I recently noticed that my soundcard is somehow picking up noise when I perform graphic operations (such as moving windows around the screen) Also certain colours seem to cause more noise than others!

I can also hear very quiet noises when the hard drive is working.

The noise is not a hiss or a hum, rather digital sounding pops and squals. A good description is like the noise of tiny lawnmowers doing their thing.

I am running an EWX 24/96 (and I also had an Audigy which displayed the same symptoms)

The video card is an NVIDIA ultra 64. The system itself is an Athlon XP2000+ sitting on an ASUS motherboard with the VIA chipset. (I've tried applying the via fixes.. no luck)

An article in Sound on Sound mag suggested that this noise might be a ground loop inside the pc..

Any idea how I would go about fixing this? Do I need a new motherboard? I figure it's not 1 component alone, as I can hear both the Video Card noise AND hard disk noise...

Many thanks,

Nash.

Nope.. didnt even have the CD-audio cable connected

I tried connecting it last nite to see if that might ground the soundcard (if it wasnt already) still no luck.

I think the next step is to try the soundcard out in another system...

you could try going digital out to the speakers. that would certainly eliminate coupling of unwanted signals taking place inside the PC.

I would be interested to hear what works if you find something.