Help! Noise on sound card line in/mic in.

[Kaduchi]

Hey, I'm new to this forum =). I figured I'd post this problem here since it seems to be the correct place to probably get some help.

In the last few days I've been trying to record my guitar directly, using my Realtek audio card (yeah I know, it's total CRAP) built-in on my Gigabyte GA-M68M-S2P motherboard (my guitar connected on the line-in) + the asio4all drivers + Guitar Rig 4.

For a couple of days, I could record and play pretty good (for a crap sound card like mine) with virtually no latency and no noise (thanks to asio4all).

Now, since yesterday I've been getting some terrible noise/hiss/whatever on my sound card's line in and mic in, even with nothing connected in them.

It's almost impossible to get a decent tone with this noise (even clean a noise gate and stuff), and it gets a LOT worse with a distortion. I didn't changed anything on my sound card's configuration nor my software's configuration. I didn't move my PC and there's nothing electronic near it.

...and sadly, I can't afford any kind of USB/firewire recording interface/good sound card right now (I just bought a new guitar). But I know, I need to get one as soon as I can.

Any ideas?

Thanks a lot.

pd: I have sound samples but I can't post them here because I'm new to the forum.

 

[mjbphotos]

I'm surprised you got any good signal before - electric guitars need a good preamp - what you need is an interface that will also act as your new soundcard.

 

[Kaduchi]

I'm surprised you got any good signal before - electric guitars need a good preamp - what you need is an interface that will also act as your new soundcard.

Yes I know, but in the meantime I would like to get back to that good signal...

 

[ocnor]

Try uninstalling the asio4all drivers and then reinstall them.

 

[TimOBrien]

40cents worth of chips (and probably a dodgy plug causing a lot of that random noise.)
Onboards need to be replaced asap and you can do it for $40-100 or so.

Good start: Audio Interfaces and Soundcards

 

[T.Perpendicular]

Try adjusting the levels of the preamp and the line/in rec levels of the pc. Try raising the output of the preamp and lowering the sound card record level or lowering the preamp level and raising the soundcard record level.