Soundblaster Z weird sound feedback

[Mike Sierra]

Hey guys,

I'm running a Soundblaster Z on a Windows 10 client and have the latest driver from Creative installed. In the control panel I turned on the "crystal voice" feature, which supplies a "acoustic echo cancellation" switch for a better overall recording quality when using the mic.

Whenever I turn on the "acoustic echo cancellation" I can see that my headset mic (which is turned off) all of a sudden records some sort of echo feedbacks as long as any kind of sound is played on the pc. When I turn the "accoustic sound cancellation" off everything is ok.

This is kind of annoying and right now I can only solve my problem by not turning AEC on. Does somebody probably run into the same problem and was able to fix it?

I should add that I use only the connectors directly on the backside of the soundcard. Headset and mic are not connected via front connectors or anything.

Thanks.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

See if this goes away by lowering the mic volume, while the mic is turned off via headset switch.

Most mic switches are a mute, not a power off. Leaving the possibility to still perhaps be able to pickup some noise in the line. This sometimes be due to the motherboard or sound card leaking noise. See if any loose screws for the motherboard mounting points, as this can mess up the grounding for it. If sound card is near gpu, try moving it much much lower slot if you can. Disable the motherboard onboard audio in bios.

And is any other mic present such as Webcam?

[Mike Sierra]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

See if this goes away by lowering the mic volume, while the mic is turned off via headset switch.

Most mic switches are a mute, not a power off. Leaving the possibility to still perhaps be able to pickup some noise in the line. This sometimes be due to the motherboard or sound card leaking noise. See if any loose screws for the motherboard mounting points, as this can mess up the grounding for it. If sound card is near gpu, try moving it much much lower slot if you can. Disable the motherboard onboard audio in bios.

Thanks for your reply. If I lower the mic volume and mic boost (+10%) I can see that the recorded feedback fades and gets to 0 if I basically turn mic volume and boost to 0. When I put it back up the recorded feedback returns.

Unfortunately I can't move the soundcard to a different slot as it is a mini atx board. I try to turn off the internal soundcard next.

[Mike Sierra]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

See if this goes away by lowering the mic volume, while the mic is turned off via headset switch.

Most mic switches are a mute, not a power off. Leaving the possibility to still perhaps be able to pickup some noise in the line. This sometimes be due to the motherboard or sound card leaking noise. See if any loose screws for the motherboard mounting points, as this can mess up the grounding for it. If sound card is near gpu, try moving it much much lower slot if you can. Disable the motherboard onboard audio in bios.

And is any other mic present such as Webcam?

Turning off the onboard-sound in Bios seems to be the solution. There is still some flickering noticeable but I think that could be due to the fact gfx-card and soundcard sit nex to each other. When I record the mic-input with Audacity I can see some frequencies from inside the pc bleeding into mic input, but the signal is way too weak to be recorded.

Thanks for your help ^^.