Very annoying noise problem

In article , says...
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc Crazy Horse wrote:
? You may have notice that I used the past tense, "was" and this is
because simultaneously with the appearance of the system noise, that
sound went away. I double-checked to make sure the box is still checked
(and it is), but... no sound. Following up on this discovery, I
unplugged everything from the hdph/spkr jack to make sure I'd still get
sound out of the onboard speakers, and I do.

Hmm. Interessting. This raises a new possibility: The toggle-sound
circuitry may be broken and injecting the noise now instead of
nothing or the anoying loud toggle sound. Or something may be wrong
with the sound-system that also kills the toggle sound.

Something like this sounds right to me, intuitively... I really don't
grasp the hardware knowledge underlying your comments, though.

------------------------------
Because of the very close proximity? between plugging in that cheapo
microphone and noticing the system noise and other symptoms (mentioned
above), it seems quite clear to me there is a strong cause-effect
relationship between the two. So, *if* that's the case (i.e., if
plugging in this microphone somehow *caused* the noise problem), then
would that suggest the problem is in one area over another?

It may. It could be a very broken sound design (hardware and/or software)
and plugging in the microphone could have left the ''toggle-input''
of the soundcard open. An open input can catch the noise you mentioned
from direct RF input.

I take it RF stands for "Radio Frequency", and you know some of the
sounds are reminiscent of noises I've heard coming out of broadcast
radio sets.

What I'm trying to get at is this: if the problem was caused by plugging
in that mic, would doing that more likely be able to effect the
soundcard[/chip] subsystem, vs. being able to effect the main power
supply?

It would not effect the main power at all.

This is reassuring.

And since you have backups anyways (you do, don't you?), a very small
risk of a power problem does not merit drastic action.

As for backups... er, uh, uhmmmm... NO!

One possibility is what somebody else here mentioned: A broken input
jack. Another one is that a broken driver just does the wrong thing
on microphone plug-in. One thing you can try is pluging in and
removing the microphone say 20 times or so. This may get a broken
connector to work again. It may just be that is does not ground the
input anymore. This could (in a cheap design) also kill your
toggle-sound.

You can also try to disable the sound completely in the BIOS.
If you still get the noise, then it is not a driver problem.

I don't think my BIOS gives me that kind of granularity. Perhaps the
diagnostic disk would.

More questions: Is normal sound still normal? Or is "worse"
than before?

Normal sound is still the same -- no discernable degradation of audio
quality: volume, frequency response, etc. No spurious noises when I
move the sliders, or anything like that, either.

And does the mircrophone work?

Yeah, it worked but the throughput seemed weak unless I blew on the mic
-- that came through loud and clear (the wind noise, that is). But it
sounded like crap. Like I said, it's a cheapo. Can't tell you how much
I regret ever plugging the thing in.

________________________
1. And by this I mean that I'd been using the earphones right along.
Took them off long enough to fetch the microphone, take it out of its
sealed plastic bag and plug it in. I popped the headphones back on and
immediately noticed the noise which hadn't been there just a few minutes
before, or at any other time.

Ok. Even more indication that something went wrong on plug-in. That
would be a localized problem in the sound system.

Guess that's about it for now. Meant to get back to you sooner, but got
a little sidetracked. It's now Friday at 2AM in northeast USA, and I
still think it's Thursday. Up until dinner, I thought it was Wednesday.
The days are blending together, I guess.

Thanks again for your help, Arno.
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-CH
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