Questions
Q1
Why ATI motherboard have noise on Vista SP2 when use HDMI output?

This problem was caused by the Vista SP2 version.

Vista will force to enable AC3 output support.

If HDMI device does not support AC3 audio, then the noice will appear.

Please refer the Microsoft's document for more information.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973590/en-us

Here is the setting for fix the audio noise.