Audio Issues Through HDMI?

I've got an M17x R1 with the 280M cards in SLI and the 9300 processor chip. I have generally plugged my external speakers into the headphone jack when playing games, but I recently got a new Dell HDMI equipped monitor (2409W I think it is) that has an audio pass through. So, I decided to plug the speakers in through the monitor. Everything is fine until there is silence. When there is silence, after a short time I will suddenly start hearing loud white noise on the line, kind of like a static hissing sound. I'm starting to believe it is an issue with the laptop, because I can reset the audio parameters on the monitor and the noise is still there. Is this a known problem with the laptop, and is there a driver fix? I'm currently using the P06 driver as it's the only thing that's been relatively stable for me.

This laptop is such a royal pain in the %ss. Thanks for any help.

 

Following up today, I ran some tests on the audio output from the HDMI, and I noticed that I get a ton of crackling when trying to test for 192KHz also (the test where you hear the little ringing tones). I'm wondering if my motherboard may have some issues with audio -- maybe this has been causing me all my crashing difficulties in games. Of course, I have the current IDT drivers from Dell. Don't know if there are any more recent. I have uninstalled, cleaned, reinstalled several times with no luck.

 

Guess nobody has had this problem?

 

Fezziwig,
I have the same problem after 18 months of no problems. Dell HDMI enabled monitor 2408WFP, new Sony laptop VPCZ12. Checked the mini jack out which is connected a portable Bose speaker. Mini jack from monitor to another laptop works fine. My next step is to trade out the hdmi cable. Have you tried that?

 

well not the hdmi cable

 

I have no issues at all with the HDMI might want to try another cable.