VIA has indentified and solved the SB crackle matter...

[antimix]

In the Via Hardware site, the engeneers have found the root cause of the sound issues with SB Live and VIA Chips...

Read all from : http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=26

I think the solution described there can be applied even to the ETEQ chipset motherboards. I will reinstall soon my PC and I will check.

Regards.

Antimix

[High_Jumbllama]

The Blame game

I like how they emphasize the fact that the live is not up to specs, but they ignore the fact that the 686B isn't either.

[Wombat]

And no mention of George Breese. He released a patch back when Via was denying there was even a problem. I'm still using that patch.

[The PIT]

It ignores the following.

1) Data corruption also occurs between devices on the same channel.

2) Data corruption occurs with different soundcards.

3) Data corruption occurs with no soundcard installed.

4) Data corruption also occurs with Via drivers installed.

5) Crackling and popping is also due to the debugging code left in dx8a by Microsoft. Turning this off removes the problem and in a lot cases also stops the freezing when playing games.

My own conclusion is there is a flaw with 686b which is amplifed by various factors such as motherboard design Bios settings and other hardware installtion and configurations.
I'm now running on a Epox 8hka which has a 8233 southbridge and it's stable as a rock.