Solved Weird sound issue in DP35DP mobo

SPEC's:
Intel DP35DP
C2Q Q8200
Nvidia 9500gt
500w PSU
Onboard sound(included it due to the sound issue)

Hello everyone,

I about a month or so, upgraded(clean install) myself from vista to win7 x64 ultimate. It was very exciting to see the new features and the performance of the OS compared to vista as it boots,open programs faster and manages processor and memory much more nicely. Getting used to this new OS was very fun but after all that stuff, I had problems due to Intel because it didn't release all the new drivers needed for the OS(bloody hell!?).

So, I got very much disappointed but i thought it was no big deal as I'm missing only one driver: The "PCI simple communications controller" which I presumed to be the Intel ME interface and the sound driver is not a problem as it is given to me by windows 7 and it works good but not quite nice as there's no dolby support =(.

Now, on to the problem, Im having this weird sound issue which basically comes from both the CPU and my headphones that I constantly wear. It's sounds like a High frequency/pitch sound that is not quite loud but audiable and gets annoying after hearing it for a long time. To summarize it:

• It's not constant.
• It's not the fans. (I started the cpu with all fans off except the PSU and proceesor fan but I cleaned them and still have that issue)
• It's not a hardware fault.(I replaced the video card, PSU, etc and still have the issue)
• It only seems to play when i use Firefox(opening tabs, scrolling, webpage loading) and paint(scrolling) but no issue on IE or any other software.
• It does not come when I play games or any other CPU,GPU intensive program.
• It seems to be an issue after the upgrade to windows 7 x64 as with vista i had no problem like this.
• I ran many benchmarks and tests to make sure but didn't had that issue.

So, right now i have some suspects regarding this issue. It might be the drivers but I'll appreciate it if someone has the board like this with no issue on win7 x64, also. This problem came only after the upgrade to win7 because i used win vista with firefox and other software with no issue like this and I even reinstalled vista to make sure and i didn't had that problem there but upgraded again as vista felt slow and had loads of updates to complete. So now i have shrunk this issue to the drivers but im not so sure and I will really really appreciate it if someone helps me here because this problem is getting on my nerves and even after a month im unable to solve it.

Thanks.

EDIT: Found out the problem, It was caused from upgrading the bios to ver. 0572 and somehow it was bugged. How I found out was by changing the processor by borrowing my dad's e8400 processor and installing it into the board. Hoping not to have a same issue and seemed it worked, no noise,clean and stable running system. Then, putting on my own core2quad it came again. That made me wonder , and I tried to mess up the bios settings, hoping to find the problem.

So, after much disabling/enabling testing, I came across this option dubbed "Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology". Disabled it and rebooted, then what? No more noise! and the system ran smooth without any problems. Went to learn about this particular technology and found out that this option when enabled will automatically down-clock and up-clock the processor clock frequency in real-time due to the condition it's in, for example, it down-clocks the frequency when to 2ghz and when running on full speed to 2.33ghz on my processor. This makes efficient power consumption and reducing heat, that seemed a good technology but it caused considerable problems for me.

For a checking reason i installed cpuid pc-wizard and checked my processor and it showed 1999.31 Mhz current clock and by checking the technology tab on the details list it showed that speedstep is enabled but dynamic fsb is disabled. So, dynamic fsb caused problems on this processor :huhhuh!). But I happy that my problem is now long gone and i thank again the posters for their contribution.

As for the headphones problem, It was caused by a bad front-panel and it had a little short-circuit on the usb port and when plugging anything on it caused the noise.

That can happen with onboard audio solutions, unfortunately. That's why professional audio uses Firewire interface, outside of the pc.

What you can do is go into the bios and see if spread spectrum is enabled. If not, set it so.

thanks for the reply

I'll try that in the meantime, maybe that might be the problem.

I have an Intel DP35DP motherboard (and Win 7 64 bit). I'm not using the integrated SigmaTel audio. I have a separate sound card and I'm not getting any high pitched sounds. It may be the SigmaTel. Are you using the latest driver from Intel? (The latest Vista driver even has the System Mixer, that previous versions did not have).

I got the PCI Simple Communications controller error in the Device Manager too - a friend also gets that on his DP35DP so it's a global problem on Win 7. The Intel management software is not compatible with Win 7 and most likely the problem. The Intel software to monitor the board temperatures, voltages, etc is also incompatible. I keep checking the Intel downloads hoping they will update them for Win 7 but nothing so far. Trying to install the management software in a compatibility mode doesn't work - it looks like it will need Windows 7 specific software.

I should have mentioned, speedfan does work and shows the CPU temps.

fireberd said:

I have an Intel DP35DP motherboard (and Win 7 64 bit). I'm not using the integrated SigmaTel audio. I have a separate sound card and I'm not getting any high pitched sounds. It may be the SigmaTel. Are you using the latest driver from Intel? (The latest Vista driver even has the System Mixer, that previous versions did not have).

I got the PCI Simple Communications controller error in the Device Manager too - a friend also gets that on his DP35DP so it's a global problem on Win 7. The Intel management software is not compatible with Win 7 and most likely the problem. The Intel software to monitor the board temperatures, voltages, etc is also incompatible. I keep checking the Intel downloads hoping they will update them for Win 7 but nothing so far. Trying to install the management software in a compatibility mode doesn't work - it looks like it will need Windows 7 specific software.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply! Glad to see someone still using the intel dp35dp board, I strongly think that the sound drivers are causing the problem. As for the drivers, Intel still hasn't released both the ME and the sound drivers so i can't make sure to get the newest. You mention that this board uses sigmatel audio but then why intel labels it as IDT audio? Beats me but I guess I gotta wait for new drivers to come out.

Oh, as for the vista audio driver which I downloaded and thought I'll give it a go on this OS the driver installed nicely without any compability issues but the sound was terrible in a way, it sometimes skipped and both the dolby virtual surround and 5.1 surround didn't work. The high pitched sound was more louder after installing the driver on win7 but i had no issues in vista so I rolled-back to the previous driver, I hope that intel releases new drivers cuz i like this board and it's the best one from intel I purchased.

If Intel doesn't release any new drivers, I might get an external soundcard which i guess will resolve the issue.

Thanks again.

IDT is the new "name" for SigmaTel. IDT bought SigmaTel about two years ago and has renamed it to IDT. Sometimes I forget and still refer to it as "SigmaTel".

As I mentioned I'm using an HT Omega "Striker 7.l" PCI sound card. It works great and has the System Mixer function. Newegg.com - HT | OMEGA STRIKER 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card - Sound Cards

The dp35dp motherboard works well for my application. I use the PC for Recording and the Firewire chip is the desired T.I. chip. Most of the firewire recording interface units are designed around the T.I. chip and work best with the T.I. chip.

i have the intel dp35dp also but my only problem is that the front panel dont work!!!!
so no sounds problems for me
but no front panel

DP35DP and Windows7 x64. I running HD sound drivers 6.1.7600.16385 dated 7/13/2009. It seems to work fine for me.

It could also be from dirty power into the pc. If you have the time and energy to test, move the pc to another location in the home to a power line from the circuit breaker with least power being used.

Also, touch a metal part of the case and see if it goes away while doing that.

Thanks for the replies =)

Well, I gotta thank fireberd, patrickt and torrentg for their responses. Giving me the brief history of sigmatel audio was nice AND now im reassured that someone with windows 7 x64 is having no problems with this board so i guess the sound drivers are alright.

It might be poor power as torrentg mentioned which maybe is causing problems because the source which i plugin the PC power is using an extention and I connect both the monitor, cpu and the modem which could maybe cause interference. Darn, I never thought of that so torrentg has my thanks and I'll try to move the cpu to another power source in the house, as for the touching part, it had no affect and the sound is not constant. It comes only from using internet applications which I think the modem is causing due to the same connection line I use for both the cpu and modem.

Thanks again and I'll try to experiment with the power and come back later to say if the issue is resolved or not.

Also, my home is full of computers like maybe 5 of them are new and work fine with no issues on other power sources in the home so I guess I'll try to get the cpu in my dad's room and see if i still have the problem.

Be right back in a few minutes!

Bad luck

No luck, tried another power source w/o the modem and still have the same high pitch sound coming from the cpu and headphones .

I really need help here, I've got a few clues to where it comes from, I tried keeping my ear near the psu and heard nothing coming from it except the fan whizzing and got to the processor - no sound except fan, videocard - faint sound, got down and heard it very clearly. As i mentioned in the first post, the videocard is alright and i tried another old pci videocard from nvidia and the problem was still there so I took off the card and found the beeper near the soundchip which i strongly think might be the cause.

It or the PSU but for the psu i used another old 300w psu and still had the same issue. So, it might be a board problem which is the beeper and the onboard soundchip is very near to it and maybe causing an interface which i hear in the headphones clearly.

Im really frustrated and tired on this problem and it got me a full month to figure out what is causing it and i fail to find it. Right now, in summary, the problem might be from the board but in windows vista i hear no such thing. It's gotten real weird and I'll be glad if someone gives me a valid solution or if im not clear about the problem i'll gladly answer the questions.

Thanks.

Install the latest bios:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sea...Desktop+Board+DP35DP&OSVersion=OS+Independent

and install the latest chipset drivers:

Intel® Driver Update Utility

It's up to me now..

I've done all of them already and still have this darn issue. Well, I guess It's all up to me now.

This issue is very weird and I'll try to get to the hardware components and check carefully each one of them, which, I hope will find the culprit or maybe get it to a technician to make sure the board is okay.

So, I thank all of you guys to help me in this problem and have been very co-operative in solving this issue and due to this issue going into a high-level hardware problem it's impossible to solve by altering the software so i guess that's pretty much it.

Thanks again for all your responses to this thread i started which is my very first one in this forum. Wish me good luck!!

Man what the hell?

Okay, I take that post back. For some weird reason, when i removed one of the RAMs the sound stopped, I don't know that what happened but one thing for sure is that there is a problem with the motherboard as I'm using a pair of identical kingston 800mhz 2gb RAMs with a timing of 6-6-6-18.

Very less often I hear the sound after the removal and there has been some performance gain for a weird reason, Can somebody explain what is going on in this board?

Thanks

Good+Bad NEWS GUYS!!!

FINALLY!!! FIGURED OUT THE PROBLEM!

Check the first post.

PCI Simple Comm.Controller and Sigmatel/IDT Audio

I was surprised to learn that Intel indicated that the DP35DPM board is Window 7 compliant. Intel neglected to post a driver for the "IDT audio" chipset and for the "PCI Simple Communications Controller". Here is a trick and it will work, provided you have the original disc that came with your board. Place the disc in the drive, then enter your device manager. Look for the "PCI Simple Communication Controller", right click, and choose "Update Driver". Set it to browse the drive where the disc has been inserted. If memory serves me correctly, these drivers are also included in the "Intel Desktop Utilities" program as well.

In reference to the default audio driver that is included in Windows 7, does absolutely nothing but provides sound. The reason for this, what I call screw up is because they are eliminating the "Stereo Mix" feature. Why you ask, because apparently some people are making digital recordings and selling them for profit and naturally this violates copywrite laws and goes against RIAA. So the only way to get this feature back is to either revert back to XP or Vista? No, you can have it in 7 as well. Download the driver from the Intel site for Windows Vista. Click on the auto exec file. It will ask you where you want to extract files, usually the c: drive. Instead, choose to download those files to your "Download" folder. After that, you stop the install. Go into your device manager, choose the "High Definition Audio". Right click on it, and and choose "Update Driver". Again, browse for the file, located in the "Download" folder. Once installed, reboot. After reboot, the IDT control panel will pop up. Do not attempt to change any settings in the IDT control panel. Instead, click the "Hardware and Sound" in the Windows control panel/ and select "Sound". Make you adjustments there. The IDT control panel is good for volume settings and turning Dolby Digital on and off. Now I did this prior to the installation of the SP1.

I have spoken to legal represtation on how Intel neglected fullfilled their part of the obligation in reference to this particular product. Trust me, I will keep you posted on the outcome.

The DP35DP is an "old" motherboard that came out before Vista. But, it works with Vista and the Vista drivers so it will also work with Win 7 (I have Win 7 64 bit installed on my DP35DP). This is just about the end of it though, for my recording studio applications. I'll be upgrading to an i7 capable board early next year.

This Intel board apparently is made by Foxconn (who also makes some Apple hardware and some Dell motherboards). The first DP35DP I had went bad during the warranty period and Intel replaced it with a new board and the blank in the CPU socket has "Foxconn" on it.

Let have a history lesson. Since I was a beta testor for Vista and that was back in 2005, the final release was supposidly to hit retail shelves in the month of November, 2006 before the Christmas rush. But for some reason there was a delay, and hit the shelves on January 30, 2007.

The Intel DP35DP in reality designed for Windows Vista 32/64 version. The first BIOS release was on 05/30/2007, and the version was 0216.

Back in 2005, I built a system using a MSI_865PE_Neo2 board with a Realtek audio chipset. I currently have Vista on that machine. It works really well, and Realtek released a driver that has no limitations as far as the "Stereo Mix" feature. To be honest, I'm hesitant in purchasing a board that is going to have limitations. I've read quite a few reviews were people are upset because of this feature being elminiated. It places a damper on ones' creativity.

I too had an issue with my first DP35DPM board. The NIC chipset malfunctioned, and luckily it was under warranty, so they replaced it. Don't you think it's odd for a board that at the time, was only a year old and the NIC went bad??? Makes you wonder if you should buy an Intel board. :shock: