Hello,

I recently purchased the components to build a desktop, and two of my friends built it for me. Everything works great, except for one small problem. Currently, when any sound comes out of my speakers, it sounds very crackly and staticy (if those are words). I can hear what I intended to hear, but the other noise is very annoying. It gets worse when I turn the volume up. I am currently using my mobo's onboard sound, while I am expecting a friend to give me his Audigy after he gets an Audigy2. My question is this: is the onboard sound causing my problem because of its non-real-soundcard nature, or is there another piece of hardware or software to blame?

I have ruled out that my speakers are the problem, as I have tested them on my laptop computer and they sound fine (it seems that the laptop's integrated sound is better than the desktop's!). I have also tested my other, less quality speakers on my desktop, and they sound fine. That struck me as odd.

System specs:
Asus P4S8X motherboard
Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz, 400 mhz FSB
Powercolor Radeon 9500 Pro
Integrated sound ("C-Media AC'97 Audio Device")
512 MB Corsair PC2100 DDR RAM
Toshiba SD-M1712 16x DVD-ROM
Plextor PX-W4824A 48/24/48A CD-RW
Western Digital 80 GB 7200 rpm HD
Maxtor 80 GB External Firewire HD
100 MB Iomega Zip Drive
Generic Floppy
Logitech Wingman USB Gamepad
Standard IBM Keyboard
Microsoft Intellimouse Optical
Samsung SyncMaster 765MB 17" Flat Screen CRT
Logitech Z560 4.1 Speakers (the ones I'm using right now)
Integrated LAN
Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 1
DirectX 9.0

All of the latest drivers for all of my hardware, all of the latest Windows Updates installed

Currently, my sound driver is the following: (latest version off of Asus' website)
C-Media Inc.
8/20/2002
5.12.1.22

Thanks for any help anyone can give me.