Electric Speaker Hum

After loading MSFS2020, my speakers begin to sound a very annoying hum. This hum is worst when at the actual Main Menu and all its options except World Map. If I click on World map the hum is significantly reduced and the pitch is slightly different. When I click on Fly the hum is mostly gone but still noticable.

Even when turning off/muting the sound card this hum is present. When I switch my PC sound output from Bluetooth Headsets I do not get any hum via the headset but the external speakers still hum. Only way I can get this hum to stop is to unplug the speakers or terminate MSFS. These speakers do not hum under any other application I run.

Any ideas what may be causing this and what I could try to reduce this sound

This is not something that has been posted about, so it may be something in your system that doesn’t get along with MSFS.
What are you using for sound drivers?

It could be originating from your video card. Have you made any changes to cables that connect to it? May also need to be reseated with the power off.

I can go into Device Manager and disable the sound card but the hum persists.

Then it will be RFI, i.e. radio signals generated by your hardware that is picked up by the speakers as somewhere in the soundcard to speakers is acting as an antenna.

Could be due to the graphics card, CPU or PSU being under load when running MSFS. Could be WiFi router, network card, etc. due to large data transfer.

I had a similar issue more generally, solved by putting an old PC case lid between my WiFi router and speaker amplifier.

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Not sure I follow. You mean the video card interference is causing this hum over the speaker? The sound is definitely coming through the speakers even with the sound card disabled. I even installed magnet sleeves over all my speaker and audio and power cable. If I disconnect my speakers and just use the headset, no problems.

Has this been an ongoing problem since you first installed and used the Sim, or is it something that just started happening?

I havent been using MSFS for about 6 months. I am pretty sure this hum was not there before that time however…
In between the last 6 months I got new speakers. After reading some of the comments above I thought I would check my speaker cables once more. I noticed that the main/right speaker had a volume knob on it which was dialed to maximum. When I turned down this knob the hum was reduced and eventually disappeared. To compensate for the reduced volume settings on the physical speaker, I simply increased the sound card volume and viola… No hum

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I have to wonder if that Hum is the same frequency as your FPS ?

Do you have an Audio card in the PC, or is the sound on the Motherboard,

If an Audio card, try moving is to the furthest slot away from the video card.

You may need so additional screening, grounded – but be careful not to short anything out !

Checking your grounding is also important too. Getting to having proper grounding can be a science in its own. As said before, incorrect grounding can result in having it acting as an antenna to RFI coming from your GPU, switched per supplies, etc.

You can start by making sure your powered speakers are on the same power source (outlet) as your PC. In my set up I had to use ground isolation plugs on my powered speakers to eliminate it.

Good luck.

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Yes, Ground Loops !!! Should only be one common ground point

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