My soundcard dying ??

Gh0sT-NoVa · Jan 23, 2016

Hi, this actually happened before but I thought it was my PC so I ignored it.
So if when my PC is running, if I were to unplug the 3.5mm jack from my PC whether if Im using a speaker / headphone.
My PC will totally locked up, the only solution is hard reset !

As of just now, my bro got a pair of new headphones I want to try it out, so I unplugged my speaker from my soundcard and plugged in his headphones, at first everything is fine, but when I try to listen music with his headphone the music is all distorted !
So I thought maybe I didn't plug in properly, I tried unplug it and plug it back in, then my entire PC got locked up again !
Had to do a hard reset, but what worst is this time is, my PC won't POST ! I tried two - three times nothing. So I turn off the power from the wall completely, remove the soundcard and install it back in, finally it POST like normal.

Then I thought I give it another go with his headphone, but this time I didn't use the rear jack, I used the front panel one instead, sounded normal everything works fine, after Im done I just unplug it and plug back my speaker jack at the rear of my soundcard ( speaker jack was still disconnected after restart ).
Nothing happens, no lock up nothing.

So Im wondering is my soundcard on it's way out ?? Or there's a horrible Driver issue here ??
If it's a Driver issue, it shouldn't cause my PC unable to POST would it ?? But this only happened just now, as for previous locked ups Im able to POST no problem but I never thought it was the soundcard, now I confirm it has something to do with soundcard.

mimart7 · Jan 23, 2016

Try the on board audio. Your not gaining much if anything at all by using a $30 sound card. Asus audio drivers have a less than stellar reputation. You can try these third party drivers, http://maxedtech.com/

Gh0sT-NoVa · Jan 24, 2016

mimart7 said:
Try the on board audio. Your not gaining much if anything at all by using a $30 sound card. Asus audio drivers have a less than stellar reputation. You can try these third party drivers, http://maxedtech.com/

But how does trying on-board audio help me determine what's wrong with my soundcard.
Because now I know it's my soundcard problem, most definitely, but I just want to be sure whether is a hardware issue or driver issue.
Of course if I were to use on-board soundcard I won't get lock up.

I must make thing clear, even now as if we speak, Im using the soundcard, the soundcard have no issue honestly during normal usage, the weird lockup only happens whenever if I do unplug and plugging in my speaker / headphone jack on the rear of the soundcard.
When the day I bought this soundcard I been switching in between many times and never had this issue before.
It's really a weird issue if you ask me, if it's hardware issue, normal usage there isn't any problem at all, and why does just by unplugging and plugging in my audio device jack will cause the PC to lockup and had to do a hard reset. But this time is worst, the PC won't even POST after that.

So anyways, I went and check with ASUS site, there is two drivers, I notice that the current driver version Im using is actually older than the another one. Why was I using an older driver you asked? Well I didn't look at the version before, I only follow the release date....which is weird, the older driver version had a newer release date while the latest driver version had an older release date....thus the mistake...

So now I went ahead and downloaded and installed the LATEST driver. I did a short test with my speaker jack, unplugging and plugging it back multiple times, so far so good...no lockups yet....but I barely use headphone anymore. So I may not run into any issue in future soon.
But just in case if anyone have any slightest idea what's going on please do share, I really appreciate.

mimart7 · Jan 24, 2016

Gh0sT-NoVa said:
But how does trying on-board audio help me determine what's wrong with my soundcard.
Because now I know it's my soundcard problem, most definitely, but I just want to be sure whether is a hardware issue or driver issue.
Of course if I were to use on-board soundcard I won't get lock up.

I must make thing clear, even now as if we speak, Im using the soundcard, the soundcard have no issue honestly during normal usage, the weird lockup only happens whenever if I do unplug and plugging in my speaker / headphone jack on the rear of the soundcard.
When the day I bought this soundcard I been switching in between many times and never had this issue before.
It's really a weird issue if you ask me, if it's hardware issue, normal usage there isn't any problem at all, and why does just by unplugging and plugging in my audio device jack will cause the PC to lockup and had to do a hard reset. But this time is worst, the PC won't even POST after that.

So anyways, I went and check with ASUS site, there is two drivers, I notice that the current driver version Im using is actually older than the another one. Why was I using an older driver you asked? Well I didn't look at the version before, I only follow the release date....which is weird, the older driver version had a newer release date while the latest driver version had an older release date....thus the mistake...

So now I went ahead and downloaded and installed the LATEST driver. I did a short test with my speaker jack, unplugging and plugging it back multiple times, so far so good...no lockups yet....but I barely use headphone anymore. So I may not run into any issue in future soon.
But just in case if anyone have any slightest idea what's going on please do share, I really appreciate.

It's called isolating the problem. You have a short/grounding issue. If the problem doesn't occur when you are connected to the on board sound, then you know it's the card. Unless you are using audiophile grade equipment, a sound card isn't needed. An inexpensive card would would be useless with higher end audio equipment.

Gh0sT-NoVa · Jan 24, 2016

mimart7 said:
It's called isolating the problem. You have a short/grounding issue. If the problem doesn't occur when you are connected to the on board sound, then you know it's the card. Unless you are using audiophile grade equipment, a sound card isn't needed. An inexpensive card would would be useless with higher end audio equipment.

What I actually want out of my soundcard now is the EQ lol, my on-board sound card really sucks since Im on the older Z77 boards, most soundcard on them is very bad.
I really can't withstand flat EQ settings for both games and music.

Hmm " You have a short/grounding issue. " so this can cause my PC locking up ?? I didn't knew that....so if it doesn't happen on my on-board soundcard but it happens on my dedicated one, does it still means that Im facing a short/grounding issue ? Or it's the dedicated soundcard faulty ??
If it's a short/grounding issue what's the solution for this ?? Is it related to my wall socket ??

mimart7 · Jan 24, 2016

If the issue doesn't happen with the on board audio, then the problem is most likely the sound card. In this case, your a/c outlet would most likely have nothing to do with this problem. A grounding issue would cause a hum.

Gh0sT-NoVa · Jan 24, 2016

mimart7 said:
If the issue doesn't happen with the on board audio, then the problem is most likely the sound card. In this case, your a/c outlet would most likely have nothing to do with this problem. A grounding issue would cause a hum.

I see, well as far as since day one till now, it didn't produce any that kind of weird hum before even with headphones.
Maybe I would try with the on-board soundcard to see whether does it produces a lockup if I do constantly unplug and plugging in.

But is it really possible of it's a hardware issue being the soundcard is able to cause a PC lockup ? Im no expert, but I just find it rather weird lol but don't get me wrong Im not questioning your knowledge or whatsoever it's just I find that its so weird ! Yet it's so interesting at same time.
But overall, so far nothing serious or major has happened besides the weird lockup. Thankfully !

If my soundcard is on it's way out even if getting a new one now it be a waste, since my board doesn't even have anymore PCIE slots, getting back an old one like this which uses a PCI is rather waste if I were to upgrade to Z170 or AM4. Besides most new Mobos now the on-board soundcard least comes with an EQ for me to play with it, I may have to try out the new board's on-board sound before I decide whether do I still want a soundcard in future or not.

I wanted to get audiophile grade headphone back then, but the investment is just too costly...so like you said a soundcard maybe a waste, but I really want an EQ to play around with. But even for a 30$ soundcard, it does have improvement if I were to use headphones back then, least that after tweaking around with the EQ, I never knew my headphone could have produced such amazing sound and such a heavy bass ! And it was just a cheap pair of Audio Technica headphone I had before, but really can't compete with those big dogs those going for 400 - 500$ ones the sound was amazing ! Even just on a damn DAP ! Without a freaking Amp lol !

kyfire · Jan 24, 2016

IMHO If the sound card works fine except when you plug/unplug your speakers, it's not the sound card.
First rule of computers....NEVER plug/unplug things in the back while the computer is on.

There is a headphone jack on the front for a reason. There should be a setting in your sound card's sofware to disable the speakers when the front headphone jack is used. In some cases it's a factory preset that automaticly disables the rear jacks when you plug in headphone in the front panel.

Gh0sT-NoVa · Jan 24, 2016

kyfire said:
IMHO If the sound card works fine except when you plug/unplug your speakers, it's not the sound card.
First rule of computers....NEVER plug/unplug things in the back while the computer is on.

There is a headphone jack on the front for a reason. There should be a setting in your sound card's sofware to disable the speakers when the front headphone jack is used. In some cases it's a factory preset that automaticly disables the rear jacks when you plug in headphone in the front panel.

Could be driver issues, hopefully ! As now I've updated to the latest one ( least based on the driver version, not the release date which is wrong.... ) I've tried doing it few times so far nothing happen, but I no longer actually own a headphone now, so I doubt I be running into this issue in future, unless all sudden I have a pair of headphone to test or something lol, but it was just something I stumbled upon the other day just want to know what's going on. As I mentioned It actually already happened before two times if not mistaken. But I ignored it back then I wasn't so sure it was caused by this action.

Maybe I really should plugging and unplugging devices while my PC is running lol...
Tks for the replies.

NiHaoMike · Jan 27, 2016

kyfire said:
First rule of computers....NEVER plug/unplug things in the back while the computer is on.

Almost all of the external connections used nowadays are specifically designed to be hot plugged.

In fact, in all the years of PC hardware, the only audio interface that can be problematic to hot plug (that I can think of) would be a speaker level (amplified) 3.5mm connector, and only because the 3.5mm connector has a design flaw that can cause a brief short when hotplugging. Well designed line/headphone level outputs have series resistance that makes them immune to short circuits.

My soundcard dying ??

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