Windows 7: Soundcard (possible) related issue, sound loss/ system slowdown.

My system has recently developed an annoying problem which is causing me some concern as it could indicate something serious.
Quite often when it boots up, there is instead of the properly functioning sound, a continuous high pitched whine. This goes away when I reboot. Sometimes though, this issue arises during games or other general use.
If this happens when the system is running, not just the whining sound is there, but also any 3D or video graphics slow down a lot.
I have attempted to remedy this by removing and replacing the soundcard and an uninstall/reinstall of the drivers. Unfortunately with no affect as regards removing the problem or it's cause.
Outside of these times everything runs as it should and the sound functions perfectly both through the speakers and headphones connected via the front panel box supplied with this XF-fi series card.
I am thinking about a full re-intallation of the O.S if nothing else works. My main concern though is if this problem could be a symptom of some more serious hardware problem, and the possible costs involved.

This sounds like a possible hard drive problem, rather than sound problems. The next time it happens check to see if the sound is coming from the speakers or from inside the PC and if it's inside I would suspect the hard drive.

It comes from the speakers whenever it happens. If it is a hard drive problem, do you think it's a physical problem which would mean a replacement, or just reformat/ reinstall of the O.S.
Thank you very much for your help.

Hello Katherine,

This sounds like it could also be from your graphics cards. If it gets to hot, it could do this as well. Since it's a HD graphics card, it could also affect your audio if you are using a "HD audio output" as your default "playback" device in Sounds.

While the computer is off and unplugged, you might blow it as clean as you can get it with a can of compressed air for compturs to see if that may help keep it running cooler if it was pretty dusty.

Hope this helps leads you in the right direction.

I will try and improve the throughput of air in my case, although there isn't much I can do apart from reversing the two large fans. I'm not sure if this new case was a good idea.
I think I will do a full re-installation of the O.S if nothing improves.
Thank you for your advice.

You might also try the old paper towel tube trick to eliminate a failing fan or two. When you hear this sound put the tube next to each fan, case, CPU cooler, GFX cards, and audio card to see if you hear the whine from any of those. Often a hi frequency sound will seem to emanate from different sources.

No luck with anything so far, I will see if there is any difference after I re-install the O.S. Thanks for the advice so far.

Have replaced the memory sticks, sound-card and the hard drive. No luck. The issue went away for most of a day then just returned. A high pitched whine through the speakers and a slow down of any web streams running at the time. No idea what else it could be, the only things left I could replace are the cpu graphics cards. no budget for those at the moment.

Hmmm, does the PC sit near a device which could be outputting some electrical interference? Perhaps an amplifier for your TV, stereo, refrigerator, etc? Something like that could generate "cross talk" creating the whines and maybe effect the PC too.

There are a couple of things nearby a printer and the subwoofer, but they are about 2Ft from the case. Also this issue is recent and those items were there before. Could be though.
The most annoying thing about it is, it is random so pinning it down is just guesswork on my part. All the temperatures are normal, idle and under load. No new software which might be conflicting with the sound drivers. Sigh...
It only seems to arise when I'm playing games, but the temps on the graphics cards don't seem high (66c) or CPU (54c) during those times.
Will keep trying.