Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: scottydawg on July 17, 2006, 07:32:36 PM

Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: scottydawg on July 17, 2006, 07:32:36 PM
OK, my onboard sound has been locking up my machine, so I need a sound card.  Want something WHQL, with hardware buffers.  Any recommendations?

TIA.
:mad:
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: Roscoroo on July 17, 2006, 07:44:23 PM
did you try turning down the sound excelleration a notch ??

Also what sound is it ??? whql  is just a microsoft certed driver it doesnt mean it is always compatable to work in every app .
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: scottydawg on July 17, 2006, 07:49:45 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Roscoroo
did you try turning down the sound excelleration a notch ??

Also what sound is it ??? whql  is just a microsoft certed driver it doesnt mean it is always compatable to work in every app .


Yeah, I turned off DX acceleration, swapped up drivers to latest, played with pretty much everything...  every time I flipped the vox transmission, the screen would freeze...  lately the audio goes into stutter mode, locks up the PC, hard reset is the only way to get out.

It's an AC97 onboard chip on an ASUS A8N32-SLI.  Iit gives me problems in many games, not just AH.  Call of Duty is bad, as is Civ4..

What makes it worse is this is a pretty high-end system, and I'm kinda kicking myself in the butt for skimping on the sound..

I put an old PCI card in (ESS 1992 chip, not much better!) for the time being, but the driver is so flawed (2001) that it goes into 'static mode' half the time.
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: Roscoroo on July 17, 2006, 07:59:41 PM
mine did that on my old gamer ... (ac97 sound) i had to run a 2002 driver on it to get to work correctly .

i'm not shure which one works currently .... perhaps someone esle will ring in with what workies . :rolleyes:
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: whels on July 18, 2006, 11:31:53 AM
Audigy 2s  4s or X-FI are best.

X-FIs are the leading edge right now. you
will gain a few fps too when you get away
from the OB sound.
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: Casper1 on July 18, 2006, 12:47:09 PM
Are u sure its your sound card locking your machine up?  How do you know this is the culprit?

Just curious :)
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: scottydawg on July 18, 2006, 12:52:57 PM
Quote
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 :)


I'm not positive that it is the sound card, but the problems do seem to be related, as in lockups on vox transmissions/playbacks, doesn't matter what version vid drivers, very minimal OS install, shutting down almost all services before running.

I uninstalled the sound card drivers and disabled the devices to see if I could get it to lock up, it wouldn't lock up, so my best estimate is that it is the sound causing the problem.

It's a hard lockup too, no event logs or any other indications.
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: Roscoroo on July 18, 2006, 01:43:54 PM
dual cpu issue ??

did you see the sticky about that if thats the case ?

custom sound pack ?

is asus soundstorm installed ?

speaker setup in the sound panel ? try 2 speakers .

overheat ?

your not trying to run Vista beta are ya ?

ask the guys in tha MA that have the same board and see what there running .
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: scottydawg on July 18, 2006, 02:01:56 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Roscoroo
dual cpu issue ??

did you see the sticky about that if thats the case ?

custom sound pack ?

is asus soundstorm installed ?

speaker setup in the sound panel ? try 2 speakers .

overheat ?

your not trying to run Vista beta are ya ?

ask the guys in tha MA that have the same board and see what there running .


No X2, no sound packs (although I did try one to see if it was stock sounds causing issues), no asus soundstorm, 2 speaker setup, no overheat, heck no on Vista beta (got some funny stories about Vista beta and Office Beta).
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: Roscoroo on July 18, 2006, 02:35:54 PM
A few places to look for ansers

http://forums.pcper.com/forumdisplay.php?f=8 (http://forums.pcper.com/forumdisplay.php?f=8)
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/ (http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/) http://www.ocforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=44 (http://www.ocforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=44)

ill did more later ... also go thru the Asus main site and see what they may say ...i think you already did that though..

the sound on that board looks to be an issue from what ive seen just perusing the forums
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: GunnerCAF on July 18, 2006, 06:44:21 PM
I am using the onboard Realtec AC'97 on my ASUS A8N-E MB with no problems.  Matter of fact, I use the built in sound on all 3 of my computers at home.

My drivers say version 5.10.0.5750 dated 11/17/2004.  It looks like it is Windows Harware Compatible.  I think they are the latest drivers unless something new came out in the past 6 months.
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: [Sg]ShotGun on July 18, 2006, 07:44:22 PM
My OB sound is the same but i have the 5830 drivers dated 05.
I use both win2k (AH comp) and xp pro, (COD2...halflife2)...its fine.

amd fx60
an8sli premo
2 evga 7800 gtx (cept for AH...sli/win2k DONT work:(
2g corsair mem.
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: handy169 on July 18, 2006, 08:23:45 PM
i love my onboard sound .. its 7.1 , 24-bit
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: eagl on July 19, 2006, 06:34:35 AM
The latest soundblaster x-fi cards get great reviews from the audio geek review sites...  Just be very careful about installing anything more than their basic drivers.  Some of the applications are annoying as hell and are difficult to fully uninstall.
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: Speed55 on July 19, 2006, 08:11:39 AM
I'm runnin AC97

Driver 5.10.0000.5490
2/18/2004

Run dxdiag - hardware acceleration set to normal (3/4)
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: x0847Marine on July 19, 2006, 02:38:45 PM
Quote
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
Title: OK, I've had it with this &*@#$ onboard sound
Post by: scottydawg on July 29, 2006, 10:21:00 AM
Quote
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 :o.  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.