Hi guys.... really, don't know if anyone can help me with my problem but I guess I just have to randomly ask around hoping somebody has expierienced the same problem I currently have with one of my PCs.
Some weeks ago I moved one of my PCs from one side of the desk to the other. Just made more sense there, and only installed it on the other side originally because some cables were too short. With new, longer cables, I was able to move the machine over. In the Process an audio Splitter adapter* broke, and while I was aware of that, it looked like the adapter continued to work, so I left the PC running like that.
*Reason I need the splitters is that I am running Monitor Speakers and a headset from the same Analog ports on my sound card
Now, a week later or so, I started noticing that SOMETHING would randomly turn up the volume in Windows. At random intervalls, the volume would increase a notch, until it reached 100%, but it still would randomly try to increase the volume further. You can imagine how annoying that is, especially with windows 10 constantly flashing the volume change indicator in your face when that happens. And of course I no longer have faith in using the headset. Windows just might decide to deafen my ears with a random windows jingle ;)
By now I have checked everything I can think of... I deactivated all the settings on all the sound cards in the system that hand over control to applications, deactivated the integrated sound chip on the mainboard (crappy and not needed anyway), I made sure Skype does not control the volume levels on its own, I even took the Sound Blaster card out of the system (Problem was still there with only the sound card of the GPU active), and put it in all the x1 PCI-e slots I have free in my system. No luck.
By now I am pretty certain its not a stupid config setting I missed.
Fun fact is I completly wiped both ssd and hdd and reinstalled windows and all the apps from scratch. Just after the reinstall the problem SEEMED to be gone... the random turning up didn't happen. Until I started reinstalling some apps. I think it was back by the time I started the re-install of 3D Coat.
Now, I am pretty certain that was just dumb luck and has nothing to do with re-installing a specific application. I will certainly test that, deinstall 3D Coat and see if the problem is still there... but how would that even work? How could an app, which clearly has NOTHING to do with audio influence the volume level in windows like that?
At the end of the day all I can come up with to explain the problem is that the broken audio splitter, while still working, did damage some hardware over time... don't know, maybe an electrical spike or something. I have in the meantime replaced the splitter with a new one (and one that will not break as easely anymore), but the damage might already be done. I am pretty certain the sound card is still fine, I get sound from it and the SB Software works fine with it. And the problem is still there when the Sound Blaster card is removed from the system.
I suspect that the mainboard might have taken a small, but irreparable damage to some component. Mainboards have usually been the first hardware component to break in all my years with selfbuilt rigs. How the mainboard could take damage when the sound card still seems to be fine IDK, but that sound like the most reasonable explanation to me.
Anyone that disagrees with my statement here?
Thanks for any help. Before investing another 200 bucks into a new mainboard I am looking into having just a little bit more confidence that I am not totally off here.