The system experienced an issue with the onboard audio.
The system experienced an issue with the onboard audio.
Hey all I'll start by saying that I believe I permanently broke my onboard audio so I'll simplify my question to: What's the cheapest sound card \ usb dongle I can get that does it's own audio processing and doesn't use my motherboards sound controller? Background: So for whatever reason after installing a new Gigabyte Gaming OC 9070xt and a NZXT c850 (labs recommended) I can no longer get proper functioning audio from my x470 MSI gaming plus motherboard. During the install of the components I also re-installed to a fresh ISO of windows 11 64bit. My motherboard is on the latest bios update. I've installed my chipset drivers, sata drivers, Lan controller drivers, audío drivers and graphic drivers. Observable problem: - On the latest driver with Nahimic software as recommended by my motherboard page the front and rear panel have low quality sounding audio. - I've tried to see if it was an equaliser setting but nope. - Going back to the previous driver I knew works has no working audio. But on this using the front and rear I can hear electric static like noises. These noises change on the computer processing task. - When I had no driver installed the sound quality was just bad. Very delayed and fuzzy. - No luck using realteks driver from their own website - I reinstalled my old GPU and PSU with og cables literally to the old setup and the problem is persists (phew!). Using hwinfo the voltages are within normal ranges on my new one. - I've inspected the front panel to hdaudio pins on my motherboard. The cable is fine and the pins are good. - I've inspected the motherboard traces surrounding the audio chip as someone advised poor GPU insertion can often damage them. Nothing obviously wrong. - I've tried different headphones and wire. Same problem. - I've tried Bluetooth headphones. Strangely enough the audio quality is good but under heavy load the sound is stuttery and delayed. But I suspect it's my crappy Bluetooth dongle. Either way I don't want to rely on Bluetooth. I also suspect it uses the onboard sound. Moving the dongle improved the audio quality and I disabled hdaudio in the bios and can confirm the audio processing doesnt involve the motherboard. - I've tried my monitors audio jack (via display port) and again the quality is good BUT there is underlying static/harmonics I assume from the monitor itself. I've got a ugreen USB to 3.5mm jack coming today but I fear this may not qualify as a sound card and still rely on the motherboard processing. So.. Can anyone recommend me something to bypass the onboard sound? Or give me some speculation to what went wrong or some more troubleshooting tips? I won't be reinstalling windows or removing the motherboard for now. Edited March 25, 2025 by Nordita