Are you sure the noise comes via your PC speakers and is not coming from the CD-drive?

If it does really come from the PC-speakers, likely there's some sort of interference between the drive (or another part of the PC, likely the PSU) and the card that causes line noise. First try another drive and other (better quality) cables, then try another PSU.

for sure coming from the speakers or headphones. I have a new audio cable coming in the mail so I will be trying that once it comes. I’m also going to remove the older cdrom drive since it uses its own controller card and leave just the newer IDE drive installed (once I get the new audio cable) If that doesn’t work, I’ll try a new PSU next. Thanks!

*Update*
I didn't want to wait for the cable to arrive so I made my own. Same issue still. I completely removed the other cdrom drive, I tried 3 different drives and all the same issue. I tried another slot for the sound card and still the same. I don't have another Sound Blaster card to try or power supplies, so looks like I'll have to track those down and see if it's one or the other.

if anybody else has any ideas for me to try meanwhile, I'd be happy to try anything 😀

I remember having a similar issue back in the day with my Pentium 100. It's just electrical noise coming in, and it's the way things were back then. This is why it was such a big deal when the Sound Blaster Live came out, as its noise floor was way lower than any mainstream card that came before. Today we're spoiled by how quiet and clean the audio output is!

The only solution is likely to be different, more modern sound card or possibly a different motherboard (if the noise is coming in through the ISA bus).

I changed out the power supply on my Pentium 90 system to an Athena Tech AT40. All of the thinking noise and sounds it would make when moving the mouse stopped completely. I can't believe how quiet my AWE32 output is.

Change your PSU is my suggestion.

Thanks for the suggestions, I bought a Awe64 card with SimmConn adapter on ebay today so I’ll have another sound card to swap out and test with. If it’s still making noise I’ll get a new power supply + ATX to AT adapter next