i had my headset plugged in at front panel and speakers at rear (but not switched on) i disconnected my head set and switched on my speakers, and they were all crackly distorted and such, i plugged headset back in (left speakers switched on) and the bad noise went. today i tried and speakers still terrible background noise, so connected headset and noise still there but not as bad. so disconnected speakers altogether and connected headset and still noise in background but faint. also i do an online radio hosting(poker) and other host's could hear the noise in background. so is my soundcard shot or my speakers? i am running windows 7 all drivers are up to date and did problem check and nothing.
It could also be your headphone jack is going bad in front.It acts like a switch and disconnects your speakers from the system when the head phones are plugged in.The contacts on the headphone jack might be bent and not making a good connection after the headphones are unplugged.Try plugging in the headphones and wiggle the headphone plug from side to side and see if it makes any difference in the sound.I've seen quite a few go bad.
its not the headset as i tried my sons speakers without the headset plugged in an get the same background noise and whistling.
I wasn't refering to the headsets being bad.I was talking about the headphone jack on the front panel of the computer being bad.It sounds like it could be a loose connection causing the problem.
thanks very much for your help but ive solved it i think. i right clicked audio manager and opened audio devices> recording right clicked mic>properties>levels and noticed boost was on max so rediced it to about 1/4 and everything was ok. so hopefully that was the problem.
