Sound problems and compatibility

[lizardking66]

Hi,

For about the past 2 months, the sound on my pc has started popping and crackling and has gotten much worse. I have a dell dimension desktop with the original sound card and altec lansing ada890 4.1 speakers. I would really like to keep my speaker system as it was originally pretty expensive and am hoping the problem is with the sound card. Another web site said to try using the headphone jack on the speakers as a test. I did so and the pops are still there. Does that verify that it is the sound card? Either way, can someone recommend a sound card that would get good quality out of my speakers and be compatible? I see that some of you guys use some pretty serious equipment. I'm just looking for a basic setup for listening to mp3's and watching video that's at or under about $50. For instance, there's three on this page at tigerdirect, but I don't know the first thing about compatibility or if the sound quality will be what I'm used to.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=2768&

Thanks

[itsplayed]

You can't beat the price of this consumer card for what your getting....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829120103

That said, you could try and troubleshoot the cause of the popping and clicking, unless your looking to upgrade your soundcard anyway.
If you do decide to upgrade, be sure to uninstall the software for your current soundcard and disable it from within the BIOS before installing your new card.

Welcome to audioforums lizardking66

[I.T.]

You know I was experiencing such problems. If it began several months ago, it seems that the roots of evil are in OS. Besides, popping is usually caused by software. Check your drivers (try to delete your card from Device Manager and then let Windows recognize it again), if it will not help, reinstall Windows.
How it’s happening… Some program, driver or game makes some adjustments in registry – and here we are – the device begins to work wrong. Therefore I never install unverified apps on the studio PC.

[lizardking66]

Thanks for your input. Since my speakers are 4.1, is there any reason to get a 4.1 soundcard over the 7.1 that you linked to. Will either work better with my setup or are 7.1's basically backwards compatible to smaller speaker setups?

Thanks again

[itsplayed]

Thanks for your input. Since my speakers are 4.1, is there any reason to get a 4.1 soundcard over the 7.1 that you linked to. Will either work better with my setup or are 7.1's basically backwards compatible to smaller speaker setups?

Thanks again

Your welcome lizardking66......There's no reason to go with a 4.1 soundcard, the 7.1 card will work with your current speaker setup. The card I linked to uses a very good audio chipset and it's specs are far superior to any of those you have linked to.

Update: I have learned that Chaintech no longer supports this card...odd(probably the reason for it's super low cost). Anyway, updated drivers for it chipset can be had on VIA's website. That said, here's another card worth taking a look at....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829111001