Choppy direct3d sound

[Antimatter]

PIII500
Tekram P6PRO-A5(VIA Apollo Pro)
128Mb generic PC100(2x64DIMM)
Leadtek Geforce2MX
SB PCI64
Win98se

The sound skips and chops in Ceasar's Palace and Diablo2. It seems to be a mobo-video card issue as it gets worse when there's anything scolling.

I've so far tryed swapping all the hardware except mobo, upraded bios, installed 4-in-1 4.29. Also changed the PCI latency as recommended elsewhere and changed the primary sound buffer for a slight improvement in sound quaiity. Changing directsound setting doesn't seem to have any effect either. Changing the video card to TNT2 had a slight effect.

[Ruslan]

Originally posted by Antimatter:
<STRONG>
The sound skips and chops in Ceasar's Palace and Diablo2. It seems to be a mobo-video card issue as it gets worse when there's anything scolling.

</STRONG>

First of all,I would delete Ceasar's Palace and Diablo2 and forget about that problem. <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0"> Why so many problems caused by games? <IMG SRC="smilies/wink.gif" border="0">
Seriously saying,I'd try replacing memory sticks first (good PC133,for example).
Stupid question,but did You try antivirus soft?
Did You try monitoring CPU usage? May be somewhat hogged PC resources?

[MacGyver]

I'm assuming the sound is built in the motherboard. Did you try a quality sound card instead?

[Antimatter]

Ruslan: I'd like to sort it out if possible as it's for a customer. I've tried different RAM and done a Virus scan. There's nothing else running in the background.

Originally posted by MacGyver:
<STRONG>I'm assuming the sound is built in the motherboard. Did you try a quality sound card instead?</STRONG>

Sorry, should have put that in. Soundblaster PCI 64. I've tried a genius SM-32 and Creative AWE64 ISA also with no real effect on the problem.

[Ruslan]

Did You try installing another version of DirectX? What DirectX is installed,by the way? I've seen some problems with DirectX 8 and some configs. <IMG SRC="smilies/confused.gif" border="0">

[Antimatter]

Originally posted by Ruslan:
<STRONG>Did You try installing another version of DirectX? What DirectX is installed,by the way? I've seen some problems with DirectX 8 and some configs. <IMG SRC="smilies/confused.gif" border="0"></STRONG>

It has directx 8 installed.

The main problem is when there's text scrolling in diablo2. The sound quality goes really bad(crackling and skipping). If the text display is disabled the sound quality improves a lot. The impression I get is that the mobo chipset is having some kind of timing issue with the video card, causing the sound distortion. I'll try another version of directx. I think I'll try an older version of the 4-in-1 driver and older video driver also.

[Darren Wilson]

Originally posted by JMM:
<STRONG>This may be far off track, but Windows 2000 with no SPs can cause major DirectX problems. Get SP2.</STRONG>

WAY OFF TRACK!!!!!

Especially when the poster states he is using Win98SE

[scout970]

anti i'd try reinstalling and only using dx7 i myself have seen issues with 8 and tnt2's that would be a place to start anyway
also jmm please read the messages before you reply it states in the first message he's running 98se so why even post concerning w2k and sp2 other than to waste space

[Antimatter]

Originally posted by RoccoSiffredi:
<STRONG>

WAY OFF TRACK!!!!!

Especially when the poster states he is using Win98SE</STRONG>

My fault. I edited my first post to include soundcard and OS. Sorry guys.
<IMG SRC="smilies/redface.gif" border="0">

[Antimatter]

I've done a clean windows install with 4.24 4-in-1 driver, manufacturer video and sound driver. The sound is now crackling and skipping in the windows environment.

Something else that's wierd is that ambient sounds and music don't work in the Ceasar's palace game with any drivers.

[Shard92]

I agree with Ruslan and some of the others, I've had sound problems with certain apps ever since I installed DX8. By the way isn't there a utility to remove DX, or do I just need to upgrade to 8.0a and hope for the best?

GLSmith

[Antimatter]

Ended up running out of time without resolving this one completely.

Directx8 was running better than either 6.1 or 7. Changes to some BIOS settings made changes to quality of sound. In particular disabling IDE threshold. Some web pages I looked at while chasing up this problem indicated there's loads of such problems associated with this mobo chipset. Fixes usually involve memory and bus settings that can be altered with patches and utilities.

If you're looking for info on similar problems, check these: http://www.viahardware.com/download/viatweak.shtm http://www.networking.tzo.com/net/so...014_readme.htm

Unfortunately they didn't work for me this time. <IMG SRC="smilies/frown.gif" border="0">
Thanks for all your suggestions anyway.