What is emitting this annoying hiss? My PC, Monitor or something else?

thor

I use my monitor's speakers to listen to audio from my PC(audio is onboard on the PC). They are connected by a standard audio cable(cannot remember what it is called though). I have not had any trouble for years but out of nowhere a couple of days ago this setup has developed a hiss coming through the monitor's speaker. The audio cable does not even need to be plugged in for the hiss to be present. I have pulled it out and just touched it onto the PSU casing or any of the screws and I can still hear it.
To check the monitor and audio cable, I plugged in an mp3 player to the cable and did not hear the hiss. So I thought this must mean there is a problem with the onboard audio but when I connected a pair of external speakers to it, the hiss was gone again.
It seems I have ruled out the only 2 possibilities unless someone can come up with others.

Sooler

Double click the speaker icon in the tool tray (bottom right by the clock)

Mute any inputs you are not using, having the Microphone input unmuted can cause hissing.

mr_fishbulb

Could this be causing it?

DatabaseError

turn up the PC volume (via control panel or sndvol32 etc...), having it set too low introduces a lot of noise as you try to amplify it using the monitor - maybe?!

Meadows

mr_fishbulb wrote: »

Could this be causing it?

Spot on diagnosis :rotfl:

davester

but thats a hiss from the base unit not the monitor. So Naaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh