disruptive noise

[okeee]

(win xp, Asus P5Q-E, motherboard sound installed)

There is a short, disruptive noise coming from the sound speakers every 5-10min, for any application with sound (games, etc). But when sound is disabled, there is no disruptive noise. It sounds like garbage, static noise.

When surfing, the noise is constantly, whenever the mouse is over a link/ lots of text/ loading a page/ using the "back" button. When using win explorer, there is some sort of "echo" garbage noise whenever a folder is opened.

[kiosk]

Has the problem appeared just recently?

Mainboards with onboard sound have had a nasty tendency to pick up electrical noise from other components and amplify it into audible sound from the speakers.

Reinstall drivers, or better yet, do yourself a favor and get a real sound card.

[okeee]

Yes, the speakers are properly installed, they worked fine for a long time, but suddenly there were these noises. I didn't install any new software or hardware, and I'm quite sure no other changes. I reconnected the cables, but it's still the same. There are no other devices in the neighbourhood, mouse is wired. I'd rather not get an extra soundcard, and the motherboard sound did work just fine.

[kiosk]

How old is the mainboard?

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that a few capacitors in the sound amplifier are going bad - or - capacitors which are supposed to prevent electrical noise from reaching the amplifier. Since the problem is intermittent, the capacitors are probably looking okay physically for the time being, but your mainboard could be on its way out. I'm just guessing, though.