So, coax and optical cables for gaming pcs ?

I'm not familiar with TOSLINK, but the soundcard you linked has the traditional set of 1/8" TRS jacks to connect your speakers to, which would certainly work, so I would think you would be in business either way.

There's no real benefit in using optical connections for speaker cabling anyway. The only real benefit such a connection has is that it isn't susceptible to induced line noise (which is advantageous when used for its original purpose; connecting line-level sources such as a CD or DVD player to an amplifier), but speaker connections operate at voltages and frequencies which aren't particularly susceptible to induced noise, anyway.

Actually, you can use pretty much anything that can handle the current as speaker wire. I own a public-address system, so I do audio support for events on occasion. I've cut the ends off of old extension cords and used those with no ill effects, and on one occasion I used two sets of jumper cables and a couple of hundred feet of old wire fence.

 

Connecting your speakers with optical cabling probably isn't going to reduce this sort of noise, because it likely isn't being induced in the speaker cabling, it's coming in further up the line. It could be induced by a noisy monitor (more on this below) if your speaker cables run very close to it, but this seems unlikely to me. Still, try routing your speaker connections away from your monitor to see if that reduces noise.

Your mouse is attached to the end of six feet of cable, which makes it a passable RF antenna. Computer peripherals in general are pretty bad about this sort of thing. It doesn't affect the operation of your computer, since the whole thing works in binary on-off states on the electrical level, which is quite resistant to RF interference. So, because peripherals work fine either way, some manufacturers choose not to incur the extra cost of shielding them. It could also be your monitor (do you have a CRT monitor?). CRTs are actually pretty good short-range AM radio transmitters, and the transmission is modulated by the changing picture on the screen. If you have an hour someday, download the "Tempest for Eliza" software for a scary demonstration of this. As you use your mouse, the picture changes on your monitor, and the RF interference can change. I suspect that this is probably related to your mouse, though. There's an easy way to find out which -- just hold down a mouse button without moving the cursor, if the modulation changes, it's probably your mouse.

You can probably fix it yourself quite easily, though. A $1.50 ferrite bead around your mouse or monitor cord an inch or so back from the connector will probably stop the noise. Get the kind that comes in two pieces and snaps together around your cable. This is a standard way of reducing RF interference in computers -- you may have peripheral connectors or power supplies already with half-inch plastic cylinders around the cable near the end. Same thing.

Ground loops can cause unwanted noise. Your computer does share a common ground with your cable modem and router through your Ethernet cable -- both devices need to agree on what voltage represents ground so that their relative signal voltages will make sense to each other. As an experiment, you might disconnect your Ethernet cable from your computer, and see if the noise still persists. Another possibility is improper earth grounding. If you have a multimeter, check to see that the potential of the ground pin between your two outlets is exactly 0 volts. If not, one of them is likely lifted. Yet another possibility is that your power source has some sort of ugly harmonic being induced into it somewhere. If a telephone or cable TV line runs right next to a power run, this can potentially happen. Unfortunately, if this is the case, there isn't much that can be easily done about it.

All that said, because your mouse actions modulate the noise, I suspect that the noise is coming from either there or your monitor. Hope you get it figured out.

 

You're welcome.

The ferrite bead already at the USB end of the mouse will eliminate any interference from there, adding another wouldn't have any additional effect.

Last night, I thought of a couple of other things you can check: Did you build your computer? If so, did you use the little isolation washers when you mounted your motherboard in the case? Also, you said that the unused inputs on your soundcard were all muted. Did you go into "Advanced Options" in the Volume Control program to make sure that every input was selected?

So it's not a ground loop with your router/cable modem. That's good, we've eliminated one possibility.

Power cables carry quite a high voltage compared to your other cables, and they carry an oscillation around 50 or 60Hz, which is well into the audio range. You could be getting induced noise here.

The ground indicators on power strips aren't all that reliable, so you're on the right track testing your outlets properly with a meter. Set the meter to test AC voltage. The 200 volt range is a good one for house wiring if the meter isn't an autoranging model. Perform these tests on each outlet (AC doesn't have polarity, so it doesn't matter which lead goes where):

• Hot to neutral: One lead in hot (the smaller of the two vertical slots), the other in neutral (the larger vertical slot). Should read between 110 and 120 VAC.
• Hot to ground: One lead in hot, the other in earth ground. Should read between 110 and 120 VAC.
• Neutral to ground: One lead in neutral, the other in earth ground. Should read 0 volts.

The voltage on your earth ground, not read to anything in particular, won't necessarily be 0 volts. Every Class 1 device in your house dumps some amount of current to ground while it is running, so you may have a small voltage (less than 5 volts) on it. However, every earth ground should be at the same potential, so the voltage should be exactly 0 when read from the ground on one outlet to the ground on another.

A computer is typically a Class 1 electrical device, meaning that the electronics inside are enclosed in a metal case which is electrically connected to earth ground, which provides EMF shielding and isolation of the electrical current (the other kind, a Class 2 device, is one in which the electronics are completely enclosed in a nonconductive shield, and is not necessarily earth-grounded). So, when you were touching your computer's case, your body provided a path to ground for the current on the cable line, and you got a shock.

The resistance of your skin is such that about 30 volts is necessary to penetrate it. I don't know much about cable TV, so maybe someone else who knows more can confirm or deny this: AFAIK, there should be very little voltage present on a cable TV line. However, 60 volts or so could be normal voltage present on a CATV line amplifier. If the cable guy connected your drop to the wrong connector on the amplifier, or the isolation transformer in the amplifier isn't working correctly, you could see that voltage on your line. This is easy to test for -- just read the voltage from the center connector to the retaining sleeve. Check for both AC and DC voltage.

Hope this helps, too.

 

Doomy,
TrudyPinks dad does audio visual for a living. He maybe able to help (maxxroxx in aggromar) will see if I can get him to check out this post.

 

This is a problem with either grounding or electrical interference. I'm not sure how driver updates can solve that one, either.

Your motherboard should have come with little orange phenolic washers that are supposed to be put between the motherboard and the screw that holds the board into the brass mounting post. The motherboard is already grounded through the computer's power supply, so you could end up with ground currents in the computer case if the board isn't isolated from it.

 

A small amount of noise that you can hear with your ear to the speaker is perfectly normal. Glad you got it sorted out.