<rant mode: on>OMG, no salvation!

[rubank]

So, tired of some troubles with my soundcard (SB pci128) in winXP and finally blaming the platform (Via/AMD) I bought some new Intel stuff.
ASUS P4P800 Deluxe and P4 2,6 should eliminate, I thought, all the hassle.

It didn´t. Now my soundproblems are even worse. The SB card still won´t record in stereo in winXP, and now listening to any wave file gives a lot of pops and cracks! In winXP, that is.
In win98se everything is o.k. just as before.
The same problem with pops and cracks happen if one listens to a CD record, unless one deactivates digital playback. Analog playback works.

Yes I did (had to do) a fresh install (oh, I really hate that) of winXP. (No need to reinstall win98se, just update the drivers and uninstall the Via stuff, love that).

The moral of the story is, the Intel platform isn´t inherently trouble free and superior to the ridiculed Via offering. Or so it would seem.

(As a sidenote: my voltage modded and overclocked Ati 9600pro won´t run with AGP8x, 4x works fine. Not that it really matters, but the fact in itself irritates me).

rubank

PS. Maybe I could throw in a Q: could there be any special running service in XP that causes these pops?

[bsdgeek]

NOTHING is trouble free if you're using a Creative card.

Use the onboard sound?

[The PIT]

I heard they're some problems with that motherboard so perhaps you're joining the lemon buyer league.

[Dr Mordrid]

Intel had problems with AGP8x on their Granite Bay and 7505 chipsets due to a bad AGP implementation, so who knows what's leaking out of their labs these days?

Crackles, chirps and pops during playback are a sure sign of the PCI bus overloading.

As for the SB PCI-128 specifically; you need to call that one by its real name: AudioPCI. After Creative bought out Ensoniq they sold off the AudioPCI chipset inventory in the PCI-128 and PCI-64.

This was financially nice for Creative but not so great for the consumer as the AudioPCI's are PCI bus hogs of the first order. Those with the 1370 chips were a bit better than the 1371's, but neither were that good.

This behavior would certainly be at its worst on a VIA based system because those chipsets only have about 2/3 the available PCI bandwidth of Intels and the SiS and AMD chipped Athlon systems, but moving to one of these better platforms isn't necessarily a cure.

You may well have had better results under Win9x using VXD drivers, which is what those cards were designed for. Running old hardware like this in newer OS's is another matter.

Yes, I had a PCI-128. No, I didn't use it any longer than to confirm I'd been screwed and return it.

IIRC Matrox even put a notice in their Marvel G400 capture driver release notes that AudioPCI based cards were not compatable because of their high bus utilization.

Some old tips for optimizing these slugs follow, but I don't know if they'll work in 2K/XP;

1. Disable any "Legacy devices", "DOS compatible modes", or "Soundblaster 16 Compatibility" modes.

2. Disable any "Virtual Audio Device"

3. Under the Properties for the AudioPCI entry, there is a "Legacy mode" checkbox that must be disabled.

4. Also under the Properties for the AudioPCI entry, uncheck any checkbox that "locks" a waveset of any kind.

5. You may also have to un-mute your microphone to record audio.

Good luck.....

Dr. Mordrid

[Gurm]

I've been telling people "buy SiS" for like a year or more now, rubank.

Gurm_

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup, the AudioPCI did do nice AD conversions for its day. Problem is getting the sound out to the speakers :-P

Recommendation: my usual of a Santa Cruz, GameTheater XP etc. etc. Basically those mid to upper market cards with the Cirrus Logic/Crystal DSP's.

Dr. Mordrid

[Gurm]

Unless you like playing games from Bioware.

Gurm_

[Admiral]

Creative cards on newer Intel chipsets just don't seem to like sharing IRQ. Had my share of problems with my Live 5.1, though now that it has its very own IRQ not sharing with anything else, everything seems to be fine (even in ACPI mode).

That doesn't mean I'm not thinking at getting it replaced with an Audigy 2 or other card when I'll have the resources.

[Gurm]

Yeah but the PCI128 isn't REALLY a Creative card, it's based on an Ensoniq reference design.

Gurm_

[DentyCracker]

the ES1370 chips were definitely better than the 1371 or 1373 chips. I had no problems with my AudioPCI, but they had severe routing problems in win98se in certain configs.

[Dr Mordrid]

Originally posted by Gurm
Yeah but the PCI128 isn't REALLY a Creative card, it's based on an Ensoniq reference design.

Gurm_

You know that. I know that. The average consumer sees the Creative name on the box and doesn't know that you could buy virtually the same reference design at an OEM dealer for $20.

Dr. Mordrid

[rubank]

Thank´s guys. I´ve already tried a lengthy answer but took too much time writing it and when submitting was kicked out. *sigh*

Let me just say, I´ll retire the PCI128 and go with the onborad AD SoundMax. It´s actually reasonably clean and quiet and it works.
It´s just "line in" and "line out" for me, and inbetween processing and mixing in s/w like WaveLab or SoundForge and subsequent CD burning, the heavy CPU overhead is no major worry. All other essential h/w is external.

Eventually I´ll have to shell out the cash for more professional equipment.

rubank

ps. The P4P800Deluxe is really a nice piece, I´m not sure the AGP8x thing is a shortcoming of the m/b, and it´s hardly a vital feature.

[Kurt]

If you're running it on a LAN, it might as well be the cheap 3com PCI Gigabit Ethernet card causing you the trouble (that's why Intel came up with the CSA port to not saturate the PCI bus).

Try setting it to 100MBps instead of auto (even if you're not on a LAN -you never know...).