Snap Crackle Pop, and no its not my cereal

[confus-ed]

Ooooo ! ... another thing - is all the soundblaster 'bloatware' installed ? That has one hell of an impact !

You never answered ... you can't 'zap' most of this out of task manager, you have to stop the 'services' ... how good xp runs is very often about services !

[Platypus]

it got worse and worse over the evening

This can be a pointer to a memory leak, at least for part of the problem. See if this patch applies to your installation:

http://www.mmoghell.com/news/1/23.ht...44e56d38e01b32

Likewise, make sure all other updatable things are up-to-date, like the drivers for the controller card.

[eedmond]

You never answered ... you can't 'zap' most of this out of task manager, you have to stop the 'services' ... how good xp runs is very often about services !

When I installed the internal card I only installed the drivers. The NX I Installed just the drivers and it's Equalizer, volume controle, speaker setup type stuff. I never install their programs.

-Eric

[eedmond]

This can be a pointer to a memory leak, at least for part of the problem. See if this patch applies to your installation:

http://www.mmoghell.com/news/1/23.ht...44e56d38e01b32

Likewise, make sure all other updatable things are up-to-date, like the drivers for the controller card.

Being a MMORPG if you even attempt to log in it patches to the latest version.

-Eric

[imagoon]

I still recommend the Hercules Game theater XP. That was the fix from my creative sb issues. I did do live --> audigy --> Game theater XP <-- Fix!

I have asus A7N8X rev 2 with a Athlon XP Barton 2500.

~Chris

[NooNoo]

just a thought are the l1 l2 caches turned on in bios?

Also despite the "yes it does" "no it doesn't" argument
What is your SecondLevelDataCache set to in the registry?

[eedmond]

just a thought are the l1 l2 caches turned on in bios?

Also despite the "yes it does" "no it doesn't" argument
What is your SecondLevelDataCache set to in the registry?

Both Cache's are on.

The SecondLevelDataCache is 0X000000 (0)

-Eric

[eedmond]

I already returned the Audigy NX and am thinking about going ahead and returning the Audigy 2 internal and buying a Terratec Aureon Sky 5.1 reviewed here by Tom's Hardware http://www.tomshardware.com/video/200308211/index.html Has anybody had any experience with these cards? The Sky 5.1 was just a tad slower than the Audigy 2.

The Hercules card mentioned before is Soundblaster Live 5.1 level. I want a newer card than that.

Any other suggestions on other brands that are equal to Audigy 2?

-Eric

[imagoon]

The Hercules card mentioned before is Soundblaster Live 5.1 level. I want a newer card than that.

Any other suggestions on other brands that are equal to Audigy 2?

-Eric

?? What? That hercules card is rated better than the audigy 2. Even has a better SNL.

~Chris

[confus-ed]

?? What? That hercules card is rated better than the audigy 2. Even has a better SNL.

~Chris

There's a few Hercules xxx sound cards I bet he's confus-ed !

I'd say they are about 'equal performance wise' (with sound as opposed to in windows ) ...
Hercules Game Theater XP soundcard review

Conversely, if you’re considering the SoundBlaster Live!/Audigy Soundcards given the extra connectivity provided by the Live!/Audigy Drive then you’ll find the Game Theater provides similar In/Outputs, albeit at a much lower cost. Other than that the Game Theater XP has excellent Audio Output modes over most other Soundcards & a nice clean sound quality for both 3D & 2D audio sources. It still remains to be seen whether or not the SoundBlaster Audigy range will provide a more attractive purchase though

Anyway whatever I think about soundblasters ... something isn't right here, audigy 2's don't really suffer from all this (PCI latency issues), wasn't it a '1' when we started ?

I never noticed the 'change' ... my advice would be different now ! but this is already a saga ! ... now it just looks like a 'dirty' windows install ...

[gutted]

Just as a matter of interest, did you try installing your suspect card into one of your friends' PCs? That way you can test whether it is a card/game problem. If the problem goes away then you know for sure that the card is ok and that maybe it is a game setting - either that or there is a dodgy setting somewhere in the OS. At least you could then rule out faulty cards or game incompatibility or whatever.

You also mentioned that the crackling only seems to happen when the HDD is being accessed. If you're sure about this, then perhaps it's a problem with either the IDE/SCSI cables or maybe even a problem with the HDD iteslf? (I don't know much about this sort of thing, but I guess it must be at least possible for HDD to cause interference...)

Dan.

[eedmond]

?? What? That hercules card is rated better than the audigy 2. Even has a better SNL.

~Chris

Tom's Hardware review in 2001 of the card. Comparing it against a SBLive.
http://www6.tomshardware.com/video/2...ocards-01.html

Unless it was several years ahead of it's time or the Audigy and Audigy 2 are really just minor upgrades.

Just as a matter of interest, did you try installing your suspect card into one of your friends' PCs? That way you can test whether it is a card/game problem.

Actually I have no friends within 100 miles of me to test it out. Just my mom's computer which is too old to attempt it in.

As for the HD it is brand new less then 3 months old. I would hope it isn't failing already. Same with all the cables.

I am right now reformatting the HD and reinstalling windows to see if that solves the issue and to fix my Disabled PS/2 Ports (stupid Microsoft Mouse).

Will let you know what happens. If after a clean install the Audigy 2 still does it I am returning it and getting the Terratec Card. If the Terratec Card does it as well then that only leaves one solution it is a game issue.

-Eric

[eedmond]

Bah, I just reinstalled and this is what I did Exactly:
Reinstalled Windows XP (clean formatted HD)
Installed Norton Systemwork 2004 (I know, I know but if this causes the mess up then I would rather have bad sound. Only running AV and PWM.)
Installed DX9.0b
Installed Horizons

Launched Horizons and put it into windowed mode and snap, crackle, pop. In the process now of reinstalling all my software and settings from File and Settings Transfer Wizard.

Going to buy the Terratec card and pray that it works. If not then I know it has to be a game issue.

Recap:
Audigy 1 had problems.
Audigy 2 had problems.
Onboard Sound had problems.
Audigy 2 NX (external) had problems.

-Eric

[eedmond]

?? What? That hercules card is rated better than the audigy 2. Even has a better SNL.

~Chris

Please post a review that compares it to the Audigy 2. All I have seen are reviews from 2001 when they compared them to the Live.

-Eric

[imagoon]

Unless it was several years ahead of it's time or the Audigy and Audigy 2 are really just minor upgrades.

They are actually. The EMU101K is the same chip on all 3. The code from the the audigy can be loaded on to the live card and the card then appears as audigy. Also the pin outs for the live drive and audigy drive is identical. I have a sblive, optical card from hoontek installed on the audigy with no mods. So I really must ask you what are the real diffrences from the live, audigy and audigy 2? The firmware on the card. They added a few signal filters on the card to but logic wise nothing. It is annoying me because I can find the page where they showed this. They removed a small 16(?) pin eeprom from the card (upper left I think) and loaded audigy code into it. Reinstalled. They did it with several diffrent versions. Things of note: All of the "new" sampling rates on the audigy where enabled, ie 24khz, 44.1 khz, 96khz etc that was not available on the live worked fine. All of the new voices worked fine, all the enviroment effects worked, the point was the entire card was 100% logically an audigy. So compare the card to the live. The audigy is the same card. Look at the part number on the main CPU (EMU101K) and note they are the same.....

Also to top it all off, linux uses the exact same driver to drive the cards.

This showes all the creative type cards from the value to platnum live as identical:

http://www.ilikediy.com/product/soundcard/sound1.htm


~Chris