Persistent buzzing noise

[voicey99]

Exactly what it says in the title. In all scenes, there is a constant and very annoying low-pitched buzzing noise. It does come and go (for example, going quiet during loading screens) and will change pitch based on the camera orientation, also persisting outside of KSP and, strangely, not stopping even when all sound (KSP and system) is completely muted. This noise used to be limited to the VAB (which was tolerable), but now manifests itself in every scene and the only way to shut it up it to close KSP.

This is on Steam KSPx64 on win8.1. I tried updating the audio driver, but no luck.

[LoSBoL]

Are you sure the noise is coming out of your speakers?

The symptoms you describe sound like 'coil whine' from your computer itself (graphicscard, mainboard or PSU)

[technicalfool]

This does sound like some kind of system noise (coil whine for instance). Does it happen with any other title or while your system is under load in any other circumstances?

I'm wondering if running something like the Unigine benchmarks or 3DMark with the music off might reproduce the effect.

[voicey99]

3 hours ago, technicalfool said:

This does sound like some kind of system noise (coil whine for instance). Does it happen with any other title or while your system is under load in any other circumstances?

I'm wondering if running something like the Unigine benchmarks or 3DMark with the music off might reproduce the effect.

This is only KSP. It occurs with or without the music off, and this is definitely coming from the program because I am using headphones. I also have no idea what you mean on the 2nd line.

It is generally loudest in the space centre view and the VAB, both of which are fairly non-intensive.

Edited May 1, 2017 by voicey99

[LoSBoL]

These questions come to my mind:

Are we talking PC or laptop?

Does the sound come out of the headset?

Is the headset connected properly? Did you try exchanging front panel and rear I/O pannel connection?

Is the headset powered?

Did you try another headset or speakers?

Is your computer properly earthed?

Did you try another power socket?

Basicly need more info, what have you already tried to pinpoint the problem?

[voicey99]

12 minutes ago, LoSBoL said:

These questions come to my mind:

Are we talking PC or laptop?

Does the sound come out of the headset?

Is the headset connected properly? Did you try exchanging front panel and rear I/O pannel connection?

Is the headset powered?

Did you try another headset or speakers?

Is your computer properly earthed?

Did you try another power socket?

Basicly need more info, what have you already tried to pinpoint the problem?

Your questions in order: PC, sound is coming over the audio channels, it is connected via the only audio jack, it is obviously on, it comes over the main speakers too, all sockets here have an earth connection, and why does that even matter? I'm not sure what I can do to get a hold of the problem, since I have no tech skills whatsoever beyond 'turn if off and on again'. All I can tell is that it's coming from KSP, and occurs nowhere else.

[LoSBoL]

30 minutes ago, voicey99 said:

Your questions in order: PC, sound is coming over the audio channels, it is connected via the only audio jack, it is obviously on, it comes over the main speakers too, all sockets here have an earth connection, and why does that even matter? I'm not sure what I can do to get a hold of the problem, since I have no tech skills whatsoever beyond 'turn if off and on again'. All I can tell is that it's coming from KSP, and occurs nowhere else.

to exclude an ground (or earth) loop problem  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_loop_(electricity)

It is not uncommon for 'coil whine' to be picked up by your computers audio card. It's not uncommon that KSP envokes coil whine more then other games do. I had an coil whine in KSP while with other games, it never even caught my attention.

Also, when a computer gets older, and maybe even when it gathers a whole lot of dust inside, coil whine could be getting worse.

Try booting up KSP without speakers or headset connected, put your ears as close to the PC as you can get, opening the case and disconnecting fans (except for the CPU fan) is even better, and see if you hear that noises is in your PC to.

Here is a good read to, I still suspect either PSU, mainboard or Graphics card.  http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2743256/high-pitch-whistling-coming-sound-systems-coil-whine.html

 

[voicey99]

28 minutes ago, LoSBoL said:

to exclude an ground (or earth) loop problem  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_loop_(electricity)

It is not uncommon for 'coil whine' to be picked up by your computers audio card. It's not uncommon that KSP envokes coil whine more then other games do. I had an coil whine in KSP while with other games, it never even caught my attention.

Also, when a computer gets older, and maybe even when it gathers a whole lot of dust inside, coil whine could be getting worse.

Try booting up KSP without speakers or headset connected, put your ears as close to the PC as you can get, opening the case and disconnecting fans (except for the CPU fan) is even better, and see if you hear that noises is in your PC to.

Here is a good read to, I still suspect either PSU, mainboard or Graphics card.  http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2743256/high-pitch-whistling-coming-sound-systems-coil-whine.html

You're right, there is indeed a high-pitched buzzing noise coming from the graphics card. While that article is useful in identifying it, it doesn't say how to fix it. I'll try dusting the card off and report back in a minute.

EDIT: Nope, still whining away. And now everything is covered in dust as well.

Edited May 1, 2017 by voicey99

[Numerlor]

11 minutes ago, voicey99 said:

You're right, there is indeed a high-pitched buzzing noise coming from the graphics card. While that article is useful in identifying it, it doesn't say how to fix it. I'll try dusting the card off and report back in a minute.

I had coil whine too, don't know what fixed it (maybe reinstalling of drivers or something like that because I'm using same setup) But you could try changing clock speed a bit lower or higher to at least make it quieter

[voicey99]

6 minutes ago, Numerlor said:

I had coil whine too, don't know what fixed it (maybe reinstalling of drivers or something like that because I'm using same setup) But you could try changing clock speed a bit lower or higher to at least make it quieter

Clock speed of what, and how?

The whine has spontaneously dropped off back to ignore-able (as long as I have something to play over the top) levels now, so it's not a really serious issue any more but it would still be nice to be able to remove it.

Edited May 1, 2017 by voicey99

[Numerlor]

Using msi afterburner by tiny bit, I don't recommend doing it if it is ignorable. You can do something to your gpu if you mess with something wrong

Edited May 1, 2017 by Numerlor

[Galileo]

Last time I had a GPU with a whine, it ended up dying on me shortly after the whining began (roughly a month)

[voicey99]

17 minutes ago, Galileo said:

Last time I had a GPU with a whine, it ended up dying on me shortly after the whining began (roughly a month)

I hope it doesn't, the whine may be getting worse but I only bought the thing six months ago.

[Galileo]

31 minutes ago, voicey99 said:

I hope it doesn't, the whine may be getting worse but I only bought the thing six months ago.

I had only had mine for about 3 months. Turned out it wasn't enough power from my GPU. Over powering it can cause the same problem though, but that is really hard to do.

Edited May 1, 2017 by Galileo