Major hassles, can you help?

[Pavil]

To quickly fill in, I did an entire albums worth of work on an old Compaq Presario with an Athlon 900 and onboard sound instead of a soundcard.

It went great but I was limited to what I could do before my computer started stuttering.

So I upgraded to an ASUS A7v333 2100 xp with an Athlon 1700 and 512 mb of ram. And was able to reproduce the cuts I had brilliantly.

However when I go to re-record anything I find that I get a constant whining noise no matter what software I use.

I have checked my input signal and it is as clear as a bell until I open any kind of music software, which is where the noise appears.

As an example in Cubase SX when I record or monitor a constant shrill whine can be heard that cannot be reduced in any way.

Now I am using the ASUS onboard sound and its c-media audio software and the help I need is the following.

1. Is there any way to eradicate this noise with plug ins or software?

2. Would buying an actual soundcard help me or would it be a waste of cash?

Forgive me if the above reads like crap but I am not clued up on terminology so hopefully you can sift through it and make sense of it.

Thanks in advance.

[+Erik.+]

maybe you have some kind of feedback loop going. is the input monitoring on at the same time as you record? have you got an external devices connected to the card that could be causing it?

[E]

Its impossible for us to determine the cause of that noise...

But, to answer one of your questions NO, buying a pro soundcard is not a "waste of money" if you have any intent to put your music on a CD for you and your friends and family to enjoy, or otherwise.

Consumer soundcards cant compare sonically, or functionally to a pro card. Its worth the money for most musicians.

[Carlo]

seems farfetched, but it kinda sounds like you're getting feedback between the mic and speakers. have you tried turning your speakers off and using headphones when you record...or turning down the volume that you're using to monitor while you record?