continuous drone

Sorry if this is long winded and also hope I have put it in the right section. I cleaned inside my pc and installed a second dvd rw drive. After starting the pc again there was a continuous droning noise. I tried the dvd rw to check if it worked ok and I can play video on dvd, audio dvds & cds and can load programmes ok with my first dvd rw. Haven't tried recording anything yet. Took the pc apart again and checked that nothing had been unseated and checked the drive installation again. Checked all connections at the back of the monitor. Everything ok. Took the new drive out and restarted the pc, still a droning noise. My sound card is a Nvidia 7300 LE, about 2 years old. Could it be my sound card is on the way out, or gone? The only way I can mute the sound on the pc is to use the control panel for my monitor, by muting it. The noise is coming from the speakers and not from the tower. Thanks for reading and in advance for any help offered. hedley

Greetings. Your graphics card is the Nvidia 7300 LE. Are your speakers built into the monitor? Did you try fully removing and reseating the Nvidia card?

Thanks for the reply. Yes, that's the card number. The speakers are on the monitor. I have removed and reseated the graphics card. Problem still exists. I disconnected the line out from the monitor which stopped sound on dvd/cd, but the drone continues. Monitor at fault? Haven't reinstalled graphics card as the disc says the drivers are older than those on the pc. Should I reinstall anyway? I found quite a lot of things under device manager. I have listed them below with the related problem. Under System Devices: Direct memory access controller - No drivers required or have been loaded for this device; Manufacturer: (Standard system devices), Location: on Intel 80801 GB/GR (ICH Family 7) LPC In High Precision Event Timer: No drivers are required or have been loaded for this device; Manufacturer: Intel, Location: on 82801 G (ICH7 Family) LPC In; SMBus Controller - 27DA No drivers are installed for this device: Manufacturer: Intel, Location: PCI bus 0, device 31, function 3 Intel 82802 Frimware Hub Device: No drivers are installed for this device; Maufacturer: Intel, Location: on Intel 82801 GB/GR (ICH Family 7) LPC In; There are 6 motherboard resources given: Nos 1,2,4,5,6 all say: No drivers are installed on this device with the following given above that: Manufacturer: (Standard system devices) Location: on Intel 82801 GB/GR (ICH Family 7) LPC In. No 3 says: Manufacturer: (Standard system devices) Location: on PCI bus Programme interrupt controller: No drivers are installed for this device: Manufacturer: (Standard system devices) Location: on Intel 82801 GB/GR (ICH Family 7) LPC In System board: No drivers are installed for this device: Manufacturer: (Standard system devices) Location: Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System; System board: No drivers are installed for this device: Manufacturer: (Standard system devices) Location: on PCI bus; System speaker: No drivers are installed for this device: Manufacturer: (Standard system devices) Location: on Intel 82801 GB/GR (ICH Family 7) LPC In; System timer: No drivers are installed for this device: Manufacturer: (Standard system devices) Location: on Intel 82801 GB/GR (ICH Family 7) LPC In; There are other devices that relate to Intel, but they are 'working properly'. My cpu is Intel which is bundled with the motherboard, so I reinstalled the drivers from the disk that came with the motherboard. No changes. Having said all that, this maybe has nothing to do with the problem! Just wrote everything that came into my head as I'm not persae with hardware when it comes to device manager. Thanks for the help. hedley

Just to add that since my last post I have disabled the sound on my monitor speakers and connected a set of external speakers direct to the line out. The drone has gone and the sound is perfect. Would this possibly point to faulty speakers on the monitor? I realise there is more to a graphics card than sound, but at least this might eliminate one problem? Thanks for the help. hedley

Greetings hedley,

I would suggest your monitor speakers are at fault but it might be the card drivers.

I have no experience with built-in monitor speakers but your test indicates they are the issue one way or another.

You can get the latest card drivers from Nvidia:

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

If you choose a newer driver you need to remove the old one first via the Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs > Nvidia > Graphics only.

As to all the Intel drivers if there is no issue just ignore them.

I have downloaded the latest driver for my card and everything seems to be ok, better if anything. Thankyou for your time & help. Much appreciated. hedley

Glad to hear it! Let us know if we can help further in the future.