humming noise

I am getting a low toned humming noise in the background of the game. This happens everywhere except the passive skill tree screen. Opening and closing different windows will give slightly different tones. Setting all sounds to minimum volume does not effect the hum. Muting while in background will stop it while in background. Setting my speakers to minimum volume does not stop it. Muting system, device, and program sounds from desktop does not stop it.

I am using a turtlebeach p21 usb headset. The noise is unique to PoE so I am thinking it is not EMI.

Edit-Changing the volume level on my speakers while all other sounds are set to minimum effects the volume of the hum. It is still unique to PoE, I tried internet browser and 3 other games.

Any news on what causes this or how to get rid of it? I get the exact same issue with my Turtle Beach PX22. It seems to be connected to the inline amp, since it doesn't happen at all if the headset is plugged in to the audio input directly (without using the USB port). That really cuts down on functionality for which I chose this product in the first place (e.g. separate volume for chat and game sound), so that's a last resort for me.

I get a faint static noise in other games, but nowhere near as loud or persistent as in Path of Exile. I can drown out the noise with loud music, but it's still really annoying and makes the game hardly playable with this headset.

This is fairly odd, I can think of many issues that will cause headphones to hum with a computer, there are many sources of possible interference. (I get a great hum/digital buzz when I move my mouse, using the front USB port on my home PC.)

Saerileth, does your hum change depending on your actions in game similar to "Opinionated"?

The fact it doesn't happen on the passive screen is strange. There aren't any audio changes when this UI is brought up.

Have you tried updating your audio drivers?

I get that slight squaky sound when I move the mouse as well, that's definitely USB interference and sadly seems to be entirely unavoidable. I've had that with every USB driven headset I've tried so far, and it occurs in any application I run.

The hum is exclusive to Path of Exile though, and it very faintly modulates in frequency when I open/close screens like the inventory or stash. It almost completely vanishes on loading screens and strangely enough in the passive skill tree. It is not affected by the game sound sliders (in fact, it's easiest to hear when all the sounds are turned down completely), but it goes away when I tab out of the game, even when the game sounds are set to play on in the background (which they do).

The hum reacts to the "treble" slider on my inline amp, it gets fainter when treble is turned down completely, but it's still noticeable (I think that's just how the amp works though, it interprets the hum as viable audio input and just scales it up). Global volume control affects all sound, including the hum, so I can make it go away by turning volume down all the way, but then my game is silent.

Edit: I was wrong, the hum is also very pronounced in Skyrim, so it is not caused by Path of Exile. My best guess is that it's some sort of interference from the graphics card that the amp picks up on, that would explain the silence on loading/skill tree screens (since nothing expensive is rendered there). Mystery solved, and I guess I'll either have to live with the hum or do without the inline amp. A pity. For future reference, I'm using the front USB panel - I'll try the back and report whether or not that lessened the problem.

Edit2: The back panel is much better, with music and game sounds on I can't hear any interference at all. The annoying mouse sounds are gone as well, so that's an added benefit! It's a bit awkward because now I can't easily switch between my speakers and the headset (only one audio out in the back panel), but all in all I'm very happy with this solution. Thank you for trying to help, and I am very sorry for bothering the support with something that turned out wasn't caused by your game at all.

Don't worry we're happy to help, glad you found a solution!

took me a year to figure out that it was def. the front panel lol xD

Sorry for necro'ing this, almost a year later - but it's still an issue (as in; only something that I myself, only experience in this game and not any other game).

I'm not using the front jacks, so it's not that.

Tried with a grounded power cord (and without).
Tried with onboard sound.
Tried with dedicated soundcard (Asus ROG Xonar Phoebus) with updated driver.
Tried slotting my GPU further away from the soundcard (as that was something that was mentioned maybe could interfere with the sound).

Still getting this "humming", except when looking at the passive tree..

Heck, I even tried running the game without my GPU, using the built-in Intel HD graphics - still an issue with "humming".

Edit:
To clarify; the "humming" isn't constant. It's not there 100% of the time - it varies.

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Tagger wrote:

To clarify; the "humming" isn't constant. It's not there 100% of the time - it varies.

I get the same thing. It's more like a buzzing than a humming. When I upgraded my Sennheiser 555 to the 598 I could hear the buzzing. It is very faint but it gives me a headache.

I'd rather disable audio entirely, or just straight up not play the game, than have to deal with the buzzing. Varies depending on the zone. I really don't think this has to do with interference, it's the game.

Again it is very faint, but easily noticeable with the right headphones it seems.

The cables and the ports themselves for the front panel USB and audio connectors tend to be poorly shielded from Electromagnetic Interference, often the USB cables and connectors will generate noise that affects the front audio cables and connector.

Most review websites don't test this when reviewing a computer case making it hard to find a computer case where this doesn't happen.

Back when analog CD Audio was a thing, that too could cause interference for audio output, microphone ports can also cause interference and it's primarily recommended to mute any audio ports you're not actively using.

Enabling V-Sync in video options removes buzzing sound.