Electrical interference from a graphics card?

[Puffnstuff]

I've got a grounding issue ever since I moved my stuff into a new case and I'm puzzled by it. I've checked and double checked for anything that might be grounding inside yet I find nothing. While I was trouble shooting it I did notice that when I changed the power cables supplying the gpu that the noise changed a bit. Hell I even swapped out my enermax galaxy 850 ps for a corsair hx1000 just to rule out the ps. Could it be possible that the interference that I'm seeing could be caused by my graphics card if it were going bad? I even tried using a ground lift adaptor on my pc just to rule out fan and power cables inside the case even though I visually inspected them yet the problem persists. At this point I'm open to suggestions as I've pretty much exhausted everything I know to do to solve this little mystery.

 

[Seero]

what noise? If you are hearing noises which ain't coming from fans, then you will need to explain further.

I used to have an audio wire laying on top of the power cord of the GPU,and there are electrical interference that I can hear whenever i put on my headphone which was what the audio wire is for. Nothing is wrong as it is normal. You can shield the cable better, or somehow move it away from those power cord.

 

[Puffnstuff]

If I use a mic I can hear a feedback that lessens if I touch the case with my hand or foot. Even after I used a ground lift adaptor the noise was present. While I was doing that I noticed that when I swapped the pci-e power connectors to my gpu that the noise changed but was still present. Then I removed the enermax galaxy 850w ps and replaced it with a corsair hx1000w ps and the noise didn't change. Something is causing the feedback inside the case and it's frustrating me. I've never had this problem before and since nothing obvious exists tracking it down has been a problem for me. I'm not running cheap components in my system and no bare wires are contacting the case, the mb is properly mounted on its standoffs and the io shield is not contacting any of the mb connectors. I've even tried disconnecting all front panel connectors from the mb including firewire and usb and booted using the switch on the mb and the noise is still present. Keep in mind that this noise is present through a mic only when I try to record or participate in chat or games. My headset doesn't have any issues otherwise and my xonar will not operate unless it has a power cable connected to it. Considering what I've noticed with swapping power cables to the gpu I'm leaning towards the gpu being the source of the interference. I've built many pc's over the years and have never had this problem before.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Well now I'm pretty certain of the source of the electrical interference. I discovered that my one lone hd mounted in a 5 1/4 slot is the only one making physical contact with the chassis. Once I removed that drive from my system the interference stopped meaning that the drive shell itself was bleeding electricity into my chassis. I've never seen that before and I'm moving the data off it to another drive before it croaks all together. That will be my last hitachi hd thank you very much. The problem probably has been around since it was new but this is the first time it was mounted outside of a dedicated hd rack with the drives isolated from the chassis. I chalk this one up to experience.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Interesting

 

[faxon]

Wow, well there's one for the log book. You hear something new every day lol.

 

[VashHT]

If you're using front audio jacks you may want to try switching to the rear jacks. My front audio jacks pick up noise from the EMI flying off the mobo because the cable was going directly over it, I can "hear" my mouse movement when I use headphones on my front audio jacks. I moved around the cable going to the jacks and that helped a lot, little things like that can make a difference.

 

[Modelworks]

Hard drives touching the case should not add electrical noise, any voltage they produced if fault would go out through the AC ground. It sounds like you have a grounding issue with the case ground and the homes AC ground. The AC power ground and the case ground that touches all the hard drives, motherboard, etc should be at the same potential voltage.

A mic input is highly amplified . When you are in a room your skin is at a voltage level of the surrounding room, floor, etc that voltage is the noise you hear in the mic. When you touch the case, you are changing your voltage to the level of the case canceling the noise.

If the ground for the home is not correct then the case is said to have a floating ground, which could lead to shock/injury if something shorts. Especially dangerous in homes that have a poured foundation directly on the ground without a crawlspace ,because that floor is at ground potential and will conduct electricity from a person into the floor. A home with a proper ground will not have this issue because all stray voltages flow through the case , out the ground wire into the AC wiring and into the ground rod for the home.

 

[Seero]

Without putting my finger at risk, how do I know if my house is grounded properly?

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Buy a plug in from Home Depot or Lowe's that will light up and tell you if it's grounded or not.

 

[Modelworks]

Without putting my finger at risk, how do I know if my house is grounded properly?

To do it right you need a meter. If you don't have one and you work on pc you really should get one, even a cheap $10 meter will be fine.
To check the homes ground, set the meter to AC voltage of at least 130VAC , most will have a 200-250VAC setting.

Place one probe, either color in the round ground connector of the outlet, place the other on something that has a metal case that should be grounded like a pc case, make sure it is bare metal, not painted. There should be no reading or very very little, under 1 volt. Anything more and the ground connection between the wall outlet and the pc case is broken somewhere.

To test the outlet itself keep one probe on ground and use the other probe to measure both connectors above ground of the outlet plug. Between one slot and ground should be 100VAC+ , between the other slot and ground should be 0VAC.

If you get 100VAC+ off both slots on the outlet or nothing at all then the ground is not connected either in the outlet or the breaker box.