Dodgy sound with win xp

[nightwish]

Hi,

I have a really annoying problem with my PC. Whenever i play any music (MP3, Wav
etc.), the sound periodically glitches. It distorts for a short period, then its
fine again. This happens 10-20 times on a normal MP3 or Wav. What's more, when
i play a MPG or DivX, the picture "hops" along with the sound! It freezes up for
the duration of the distortion.

Now, i've tried the following :

- 3 different creative soundcards (im currently using a PCI 128 card)
- All the current driver updates for the cards
- Current driver for my GeForce2 card
- Current driver for my Motherboard
- Reinstallation of WinXP Pro
- Reinstallation of the MP3 codec

The problems with the sound started when my motherboard with a built-in soundcard
stopped working. I exchanged it with the BX-133 RAID (along with a new CPU as the
old one was fried), which has no in-built sound.

I have a P3 800MHz PCU, ABIT BX133-RAID Motherboard, Geforce2 64MB Gfx card and
the CT4750 model soundblaster PCI card and i use WinXP Pro.

I'd really appreciate any help you can give me, as this one is a headscratcher for
me.

/NW

[nutsadamus]

HI,

I guess one thing to check for is if you have any IRQ conflicts.

Start-programs-Accessories-system tools-system info.

If your audio card is sharing an IRQ, try reseating it in a different PCI slot and avoid putting any card in the 1st slot right below the AGP card.

Good luck

[reverbnut]

I think it's your sound card , I have the same problem with sonarxl on my office computer wich i use to test things before i install on my daw system at home, it's deffinitely a compability problem, did you try it on a more recent card or try to get latest driver for xp(for the 128) , good luck. Oh yea nutsadamus I just saw your post that could be the answer , good call.

[This message has been edited by reverbnut (edited 02-08-2003).]

[nightwish]

Hi,

Thanks for the prompt replies guys.
The thing is, ive tried three different
sound cards, and they've all had the same
problems. As far as the IRQ goes, it's currently shared with the PCI to USB Universal Host Controller. I've tried to juggle the PCI cards around ( i have only 2 cards - Ethernet and soundcard), but ive gotten a shared IRQ no matter what slots i use so far. Is there a trick to get the soundcard to have its own IRQ, or do you just have to fiddle around a bit?

/NW

[nutsadamus]

For troubleshooting purposes, leave the ethernet card out of the loop and find the soundcard its own IRQ. Then determine if sound playback is improved. IS your ethernet card a 3com? Because they sometimes don't play nice with sound cards.

A few things to try to free up an IRQ or 2 ...

If you have no USB devices, disable USB support in your BIOS.

If you have no serial or parallel devices, these can also be disabled in the BIOS.

If you need all of these ports, and you have no other choice, have the ethernet card share an IRQ instead of the soundcard.

That being said, my system has onboard sound that automatically shares an IRQ with my USB host controller. Nothing I can do about it because I need the USB, but since sound playback is glitch free, I don't much care.

Also, you can try some of the tweaks at www.musicxp.net (http://www.musicxp.net) and see if they help.

That's all the tips I got for you short of buying a more up to date soundcard(avoiding sounblaster due to common issues like you're having in XP)

[tatsujin]

Is there a trick to get the soundcard to have its own IRQ, or do you just have to fiddle around a bit?


have a read up on "ACPI under Windows XP", this will give you ideas of how to assign individual devices their own IRQ.

[nightwish]

Hi,

Turns out, the IRQ isnt the problem, the Ethernet card is! When i removed it, the sound was just fine. I didnt even consider that the ethernet card could pose a problem.
Thanks alot for the help guys http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif I feel a bit stupid for not trying this earlier though, but i was sure it was a software problem (yeah, yeah, lame excuse...)

Guess i can choose between listening to music or surfing the net now http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

-NW

[bubba freaktree]

don't feel bad, computer troubleshooting can be completely non-logical.


Thanks alot for the help guys http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif I feel a bit stupid for not trying this earlier though, but i was sure it was a software problem (yeah, yeah, lame excuse...)

Guess i can choose between listening to music or surfing the net now http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

-NW[/B][/QUOTE]