Monitor Flicker/Speaker Crackling (now with more bluescreen!)

[imported_redhead]

I've had this problem for a couple of months now and it's finally become enough of a pain that I want to do something about it. Every once in a while, my speakers, headphones, or headset (whichever is connected at the time) will produce a staticky sound. This sound can range from a light yet annoying background crackle to a full-on wave of static that destroys my hearing if I'm unprepared. Interestingly enough, my friend can hear it if he's connected through Ventrilo.

Accompanying the sound is a monitor flickering issue. My monitor will flicker to black when the sound is very loud, and can stay that way long enough to make my computer pretty much useless for a good minute. This obviously kills my gaming pretty effectively, so I'm hoping you guys know what could be causing this and what I should do to fix it.

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4, 2000 MHz (20 x 100)
Motherboard Name Intel Pendleton 2 D845EPT2 (3 PCI, 1 AGP, 2 DIMM, Audio)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Brookdale i845E
System Memory 768 MB (DDR SDRAM)
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600 (128 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600
Monitor Dell 1500FP [15" LCD] (3492DACGHR89) (OUT OF DATE- now using Dell 2005FPW)
Audio Adapter Intel 82801DB(M) ICH4(-M) - AC'97 Audio Controller [A-1]

That's the information that looked relevant from a tool my friend sent me.

This pretty much only happens in games. If it does happen when I'm not playing, the crackling is lighter and it very rarely will flicker. In games, however, it's quite pronounced and now happens pretty much every time I try to play. Recently it's started exiting from my games when it gets really bad, and even shut down my computer once or twice.

I've had people tell me it might be cell phone/wireless phone interference, but I tested that for a week and it still occurred. Any and all help you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Willoughbyva]

Make sure all your drivers are up to date.

 

[madthumbs]

Reset or check the connections to the speakers. Sometimes plugs will go in farther than they should. Check speaker cables for dammage or shorts. Try replacing monitor cables if possible, or reroute.

 

[imported_redhead]

It's not my drivers. I updated to the latest, but it still occurred. (This caused problems with Counter-Strike: Source so I uninstalled, but that's beside the point.) It's not my speakers, since it occurs no matter what I use- headphones, headset, anything. Someone else suggested that it might be my sound card, but I tried disabling that and it happened all the same. Is there anything else I should try?

 

[DaSaint]

Sounds like your Screen's Resolution, i know i get that prob when my screen is set to a high resolution in windows and when my games try to play it does that so it can readjust the monitor to the games resolutions. whats ure display in windows resolution and color bit depth? then what is your gaming setups?

 

[imported_redhead]

I'm using 1680x1050 resolution in 32 bit color on my desktop, but I doubt that's the cause. I experimented with changing the resolution to every available setting (well, most of them) and the flickering still occurred. Thanks, though, it's something to think about.

I've got an update that may help anyone who's as stumped as I am. I noticed that Device Manager was telling me that I had, in addition to a fully-functional wireless mouse and keyboard, a mysterious USB device that had some trouble installing. Strangely enough, there was nothing else connected to my computer, and when I removed the keyboard reciever the phantom device disappeared also. I'm now using a fully-wired mouse and keyboard setup, though the flickering still occurs.

More pertinantly, I got this strange bluescreen error twice recently:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v131/snowden/P1010029.jpg

As it happened right after a particularly fierce attack of the flickers, it seems likely that they are related. I hope someone a bit more knowledgable than I can tell me my best course of action.