Hello,
I'm having some strange issues with my optical audio. I normally run a wire on the outside of my room so it's out of the way, and near it is a sliding door mirror among other wires (if that helps). When I run the cable to the back of my receiver, I get no audio signal. My sound card AND my integrated sound unit on my motherboard cannot send a signal. When I hook it up to the front port of my receiver, it works, but the sound makes clicking noises every few seconds. I took the same cable, and made a straight path from my computer to my receiver on the front port, and so far everything sounds fine (besides my onboard audio sounding like the crap that it is :P). I bought the standard Toslink cable from MonoPrice, the audio card is an Auzentecn X-Plosion DTS, and the motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L. Is the cable getting interference from the other stuff around it? I need this cable to be on the sides of the room, so leaving it the way it is is not an option. Would buying a cable with more shielding help me?

Thanks!

EDIT: I tried it with my sound card, and it does not work at all. The sound cuts in and out or it does not work altogether while the onboard sound works. However, the regular sound cables work fine on the sound card.

If it's an optical cable, I can't imagine it's picking up interference from anything. Light pulses tend to be immune to that stuff.

Is the cable kinked?

Not really kinked, but there's little indents on the cable. They're still pretty tiny though, so I'm not sure if they're related or not. The cable is about 1/4 inch thick.

Optical cables cannot take sharp bends. It will greatly reduce the amplitude. I am not sure of the TOSLINK spec, but I think 3 inch radius is safe. There are some new very expensive glass fibers that can do pretty tight turns, but you won't find them in consumer audio. Only cheap plastic that has a much lower transmission ratio to start with.

As far as sounds. It is not "interference" It more the totally unpredictable results of dropped bits if the amplitude at the receiver is too low. Typical digital.

Might try a coax instead. Plain old RG-79 TV cable with RCA ends on it. It takes sharp bends better.

That explains it pretty well, thanks! Unfortunately, I do not have any more Coaxial ports left on my receiver; would a heavier duty cable possibly do it?

how long is the cable? You might look for a glass one. There used to be a person on ebay selling good glass cables for a decent price. Don't know if they are still there. You might need a repeater if your cable is over 20'

That explains it pretty well, thanks! Unfortunately, I do not have any more Coaxial ports left on my receiver; would a heavier duty cable possibly do it?

You might try a long coax cable, a converter, and a short optical cable close to the receiver. Monoprice has all three.