SoundBlaster Problems -- Need Help!!!

By GRiM
in Microsoft (Windows)

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GRiM

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------------- SYSTEM SPECS -------------

Motherboard: Asus A7V-133 (266MHz FSB)

CPU: AMD Athlon T-Bird 1.2GHZ @ 266 MHz FSB

RAM: 512MB PC-133

Video: Asus V7100 Pro (Geforce 2 MX-400)

HDD: Maxtor 40GB (Ultra ATA-100)

Sound: SoundBlaster Live! Value

OS: WinXP Pro

--------------- PROBLEM ---------------

I installed WinXP Pro a few months ago and everything worked great with my computer. The other week I started having problems with my sound. When playing MP3's, they sometimes sound like they are skipping when i start up an application, close an application, or basically just do anything with my computer. I have no clue why all of a sudden it started doing this. I have even formatted and did a clean install and my sound still seems to be doing this. I know it is not my Sound Card that is screwed, because i swapped it with an identical one that I know works and i still have the problem. Does anyone have any clue as to why this is happening? Could something be wrong with my Motherboard / RAM / CPU perhaps?

Any information as to the problem would be very helpful.

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GRiM

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Originally posted by [saint lucifer] 

I think it might be an issue between the AMD chip and mother board with the SB card.  I have the same problem.

It's weird, cuz i never had a problem with it at all until just recently. And I had WinXP installed for over 3 months.

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JustinLerner

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One was an old ISA sound card (ESS chipset) and the newer PCI soundcard was also ESS chipset.

I found the sound occasionally noisy and some .wav files and audio playback was muted - on either card. The problems didn't change by changing IRQ's, DMA's, I/O range or even PCI or ISA slots (I use APM not ACPI).

The problem went away and DVD's play audio just fine now by changing some drivers start state. I disabled unneeded drivers (like for IRDA and Smartcard) and since I have two NIC's in this particular PC, changed the boot order of NETDETECT to AUTO from MANUAL.

I also changed the sysaudio to AUTO from MANUAL. (You can only do this in console mode -- be careful, changes made here may make your PC unstartable.)

See this https://www.neowin.net/bboard/showthread.ph...9476#post109476

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Shalayer

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Is the chipset on that mobo VIA? VIA and soundblaster have not got on for a long time.

When i first installed xp i had choppy sound whenever i launched apps or pretty much nething (moving the mouse was one) it improved for me when i used the VIA IDE Miniport driver but in the end updating the bios sorted the problem.

AL

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[SuCraM]

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first make sure you got your sb live in pci slot 3 and irq 5 is reserved for it in the bios thats the most important hardware part on the a7v133 i got one as well and im running an audigy mp3 with no probs hope this helps ya

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GRiM

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Originally posted by [suCraM] 

first make sure you got your sb live in pci slot 3 and irq 5 is reserved for it in the bios thats the most important hardware part on the a7v133 i got one as well and im running an audigy mp3 with no probs hope this helps ya

I have it in Slot 3 and I reserved IRQ 5 for that slot in the BIOS, but i still have the sound problem

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JustinLerner

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Although I believe a BIOS update would certainly fix the problem if ASUS targeted the fix, I still suggest changing the boot order of some drivers, especially your sound drivers in XP. Normally, they start as manual (=demand in the console mode). I believe that changing your SYSAUDIO driver to AUTO from manual will help. Also, change your WDM Audio driver for the SoundBlaster to AUTO from manual.

What this does is causes these drivers to automatically load with some other drivers - before the manual start drivers. By changing from manual to auto, these drivers have priority over other drivers starting as a manual-demand startup. This may help alleviate your problems. I suggest this, because I am convinced the problem is with the ACPI or APM BIOS boot order of your devices and subsequently the boot order in the XP OS. (This also applies to 2000).

Of course, this advice all assumes you already disabled the AC'97 Codec on you motherboard (please double check!!) in addition to disabling the onboard sound.

On my older BX board (not ASUS) it has a nice feature called PCI Device Search Order - which has no effect on boot devices, but only the detect order of PCI devices during boot which affects the ACPI or APM assignment of IRQ's. So I can change detect of PCI devices from first-last (slot #) or change it to last-first (slot #).

BTW, on a board that is fully ACPI compliant and using ACPI, you cannot sucessfully change or set the IRQ's for the devices in BIOS while using 2000 or XP. Changing IRQ's in a BIOS that retains these IRQ settings when using ACPI will cause XP to operate incorrectly because XP does not dynamically reassign IRQ's when using ACPI - it only reassigns IRQ's properly using APM or when not using either ACPI or APM.

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GRiM

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Originally posted by JustinLerner  

I believe that changing your SYSAUDIO driver to AUTO from manual will help.  Also, change your WDM Audio driver for the SoundBlaster to AUTO from manual.

How do I go about changing those?

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JustinLerner

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You must boot into Recovery Console mode.

If you don't have the Recovery Console installed as a boot option at teh startup screen then you have to boot from a CD and choose the repair option and then Recovery Console mode.

To install console mode as a boot option, you need the original XP install CD. From the CD directory with winn32.exe (i386) type the following: winnt32 /cmdcons

Once the cmdcons (Command Console=Recovery Console) is installed, you can reboot and choose the Recovery Console as a boot option.

Once in the Command Console, you type dir for the list of available commands or type HELP. (You will need to specify the installtion of Windows XP and type the Administrator account password. If you don't remember the Administrator account password, reset it to something simple before you enter the cmdconsole.)

Type LISTSVC to see all the services available on your PC. They will only display one screen at a time. To scroll to the next screen, press the SPACE bar or to scroll one line at a time press the ENTER key.

To change the sysaudio driver to AUTO type the following:

enable sysaudio service_auto_start

enable service_auto_start

For reference, read the following:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...b;en-us;Q307654

This also applies to Windows 2000.

If you change anything else, your system may not boot or boot slowly or incorrectly. Make sure to write down any changes you ever make to any drivers, because they can only be changed in Console mode and they may prevent the system from booting. It is usually ok to bump up drivers from manual to auto, but don't assume you can bump them up to system or boot, this could cause many problems with other important drivers and result in an unstable system.

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GRiM

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Originally posted by JustinLerner  

You must boot into Recovery Console mode.

If you don't have the Recovery Console installed as a boot option at teh startup screen then you have to boot from a CD and choose the repair option and then Recovery Console mode.

To install console mode as a boot option, you need the original XP install CD.  From the CD directory with winn32.exe (i386) type the following:  winnt32 /cmdcons

Once the cmdcons (Command Console=Recovery Console) is installed, you can reboot and choose the Recovery Console as a boot option.  

Once in the Command Console, you type dir for the list of available commands or type HELP.  (You will need to specify the installtion of Windows XP and type the Administrator account password.  If you don't remember the Administrator account password, reset it to something simple before you enter the cmdconsole.)

Type LISTSVC to see all the services available on your PC.  They will only display one screen at a time.  To scroll to the next screen, press the SPACE bar or to scroll one line at a time press the ENTER key.  

To change the sysaudio driver to AUTO type the following:

enable sysaudio service_auto_start

enable service_auto_start

For reference, read the following:  

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...b;en-us;Q307654

This also applies to Windows 2000.

If you change anything else, your system may not boot or boot slowly or incorrectly.  Make sure to write down any changes you ever make to any drivers, because they can only be changed in Console mode and they may prevent the system from booting.  It is usually ok to bump up drivers from manual to auto, but don't assume you can bump them up to system or boot, this could cause many problems with other important drivers and result in an unstable system.

This did not work for me :(

I still get the crackling problem when my computer does anything

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JustinLerner

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It's either this or the other audio/speaker cables are wound up and too close to other cables like the power cord, mouse, keyboard, serial cables. Rearrange your audio/speaker cables, move them away from all other cables temporarily to test the audio quality while the PC is on. If you hear a difference . . .

If the above doesn't fix the problem, try the following. When you turn off your PC, disconnect the cable from the CD/DVD-ROM drive to the sound card, then restart your PC and see if the problem is eliminated. If it is, then you need a shielded audio cable for your CD/DVD to sound card connector OR a sound card that does DIGITAL pass through to the PCI bus - without any cable connections.

If this doesn't do it (and your AC'97 Codec on the motherboard is disable along with the onboard sound), then perhaps you should disable some other drivers in the Recovery Console.

I would disable the following drivers if you don't use these. These drivers for Infra-Red and SmartCard (which I'm guessing you probably don't use). Also disable the IRDA and SmartCard in BIOS.

IRDA

IRMON

IRSIR

RASIRDA

SCARDDRV

SCARDSVR

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GRiM

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Well i decided to just go ahead and do another clean install. This time my sound is working fine :)

But now I can't get my game controller to work :(

I have it connected but it says it is not connected :cross:

Here is a screenshot:

controller.jpg

Does anyone know how to solve this??? :mad:

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Hellafax

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I get the same problem with my box, however it has nothing to do with the sound card, or cables or whatnot...well, maybe cables.

Double check the transfer rate on your HDD - it may have switched back to PIO mode which would cause MP3 skipping and other system lag.

If it turn out that it has switched back to PIO, rather than UDMA - simply uninstall the primary IDE and reboot -- that should fix the problem.

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Dessimat0r

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You call THAT a better driver?

I have tried that driver, it sucks

loads of sounds dont play properly, it cant handle 2 sounds with different bitrates playing at the same properly, it runs as a VXD, it still gave me distorted sound in UT

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GRiM

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Originally posted by Hellafax  

Double check the transfer rate on your HDD - it may have switched back to PIO mode which would cause MP3 skipping and other system lag.

If it turn out that it has switched back to PIO, rather than UDMA - simply uninstall the primary IDE and reboot -- that should fix the problem.

How do I go about doing this?

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