OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound

[x0847Marine]

Originally posted by handy169
i love my onboard sound .. its 7.1 , 24-bit

Without a DSP, its using cpu cycles (stealing fps) to process sound.

I personally dont like Creative cards, but they do work.

The Turtle Beach Montego is a great sound card, I use the Roadie with my notebook and it sounds outstanding.

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/soundcards/mtgoddl/producthome.asp

M-Audio is more known for the professional line, like the Delta1010, but they make a great PC sound card.. at a price.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Revolution71-main.html

The Fortissimo 4 is probably made at the same factory as Creative:
http://www.hercules.com/showpage.php?swcty=UK&p=104&b=1&f=1

[scottydawg]

Originally posted by Casper1
Are u sure its your sound card locking your machine up?  How do you know this is the culprit?

Just curious

So it turns out it was NOT the onboard sound .  Although there still are problems with the sound (hiccupping on vox mostly), it was the video drivers that were the problem.

Thanks to all for your help and advice.