Weird distortion under Stereo Mix?

Hi!

I have a ASUS motherboard with integrated VIA VT1708S chipset for audio. By default Windows 7 installs the generic Microsoft driver, which does not include Stereo Mix. Of course, I installed the correct drivers. However, I'm getting these strange artifacts. Hear this sample out. It's not a matter of clipping, I've tried sliding the input/output levels respectively down really much. The artifacts remains. I've also tried disabling all other recording devices except for Stereo Mix. Default device, default communication device, all set accordingly. Nothing beats this nut. Any ideas? I'd be much thankful.

Sorry, system specifications revolve an older system of mine. This is actually a M4A78T-E motherboard, whish uses the mentioned VIA chipset. And really, you can't hear the "buzzing" noise in the sample? At least to my ear it's pretty clear, and I'm not even close to an audiophile. It's a sample from one of the three songs that are included in Windows Media Player (Windows 7 Edition), so you could easily compare, if you're on a W7 box. Other ideas?

Tried another sample, using different software. Now, I recorded the simple "Test" sound coming from my output device, and recorded using Windows 7's own "Sound Recorder" (I used Audacity for the earlier sample). So, hear this sample out, and please tell me you don't hear the distortion?

Gew said:

And really, you can't hear the "buzzing" noise in the sample? At least to my ear it's pretty clear, and I'm not even close to an audiophile.

I can hear it really clearly in both samples, that would drive me nuts :)

I had a similar problem when using the "correct" VIA drivers for my MB although mine also gave a "pop" at the start of any application that fired a sound.
I went back to the MS drivers and the problems went away, so I guess it's buggy drivers. However sometime over the last week, Windows decided to update the drivers by itself to the VIA ones and my sound is now fine.