Noise on speakers in ANY game after installing HLDJ

[RisFutile]

Hi,


i got a tricky one for you...
after installing HLDJ, i am experiencing noise on my speakers as soon as i launch any game.

facts:
- the noise definetly was caused by installing/using HLDJ.
- the noise is NOT volume-level dependant. it is still present when i turn down my volume control from windows mixer to 0%.
- the noise is not obviously related to my microphone. there's no echo or anything.
- i disabled ALL audio-inputs that could cause noise. mic, cd, aux,....everything.
- the noise frequency has a certain dependency on the cpu load. so could be pwm'd fan power, core-voltage switching supply, etc. seems to be coupled in to a audio-in...
- i tried de-installing my audio-drivers and deleting pretty much everything possibly related to my sound card. and re-install with no effect.

my system: win2008 server R2 x64. probably not the most common system, still i had no problem with steam games in general so far.

so, the questions are:
- does HLDJ install any virtual audio device that i could delete?
- does HLDJ by default enable any input?
- does HLDJ effect other games by altering certain audio settings?


Dear HLDJ-Gods, please have mercy with me and help,
I'm 1s of noise away from kicking my speakers ^^

Greetings from Germany,
Michael.

[Renegade]

I can assure you it's not HLDJ (i.e. 'no' to all your questions). if noise is present even after lowering volume in software it's pretty likely it's a hardware issue. Anything from a poor sound card to bad mobo wiring can cause interference.

[RisFutile]

Hey Renegade, thanks for you quick answer!

I can assure you it's not HLDJ (i.e. 'no' to all your questions).

Damn! I was afraid you'd tell me just that.

if noise is present even after lowering volume in software it's pretty likely it's a hardware issue.

Yeah, out of question. Some input is picking up noise. Still, I disabled all the inputs of my sound-card and didn't have this noise before.
There's no doubt the cause leads back to something HLDJ did. Not saying that this is HLDJ's fault! It most likely could have been done by any other audio-tool just as well. I just want to understand what HLDJ altered at my system.
I figure sending sound files via steam voice isnt done via some API? Is it possible that HLDJ uses a "stereo mix" audio driver? Does HLDJ register any dll's?

Edit: Does HLDJ change any variables in games?

Thanks,
Michael.

[Renegade]

If you want to see what variables are changed, look through the HLDJ configs; if you want to see what HLDJ does, take a look at the source code (http://hldj.org/downloads.html).
Either way I can assure you it doesn't operate on any level that would cause the problems you are seeing, so I can't help you further with that.