Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (
More info?)
"Travis King" <Anonymous@none.com> wrote in message
news:w1mCd.614949$wV.541857@attbi_s54...
> "P2B" <p2b@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
> news:%0gCd.3876$7n1.260656@news20.bellglobal.com...
>>
>>
>> Paul wrote:
>>
>>> In article <e1b89825.0501030549.3cc9d103@posting.google.com>,
>>> mt334no@hotmail.com (Mark Taylor) wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Hi,
>>>>When playing analogue audio on my P4P800s se i
>>>>intermittently get pops and clicks (seems to be a common
>>>>problem to do with clipping) and I also get a constant low buzzing and
>>>>noise when for example the HDD reads, I
>>>>minimize a window or move the mouse.
>>>>
>>>>I wanted to know that if I bought a digital receiver and speakers and
>>>>used the S/PDIF output would these two problems not appear because the
>>>>digital signal is just being
>>>>passed through and not touched by the soundmax?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Thanks
>>>
>>>
>>> Onboard sound chips can support multiple analog outputs, like 5.1 for
>>> example. Analog output is transparent in
>>> the sense that no licensed software solution is required
>>> to produce the sound.
>>>
>>> SPDIF is a two channel solution. It is basically stereo.
>>> Dolby labs created a compression scheme (AC3), to compress the
>>> redundancy out of a 5.1 audio stream, so that it could be
>>> fitted in the bandwidth of the two available SPDIF channels.
>>>
>>> What this means is, you need a way to get a Dolby licensed
>>> compression solution, if you want to use your digital receiver
>>> for everything (5.1). Some of the new motherboards with Azalia
>>> high definition audio chips, come bundled with Dolby software
>>> to create AC3. If you play back DVD movies, there is an AC3
>>> soundtrack that is sent unmodified to the SPDIF connector,
>>> to achieve the same end. Software solutions produce perceptable
>>> delay, which means if a Windows desktop alert sound went
>>> through the compressor, the delay could be a second or so.
>>>
>>> In short, your digital receiver idea is not a seamless
>>> solution. A cheap sound card (Soundblaster or similar) will
>>> give you multiple analog channels of output, without the problems that
>>> seem to plague onboard sound. At least the
>>> buzzing and humming should disappear. About the best you can do inside
>>> the computer, is stop using
>>> the CDROM analog cable, from the CD drive to the motherboard
>>> CD header. (Use the DAE option, which extracts digital samples
>>> over the IDE cable from the CD drive instead.) Any audio cables
>>> strung inside the computer function as antennas, and the
>>> interference is aliased down to voice band frequencies, and
>>> that is a potential source of humming or buzzing.
>>>
>>> Also, make sure when using the mixer panel, that any unused
>>> analog inputs are muted, to eliminate them as sources of noise.
>>>
>>> I get the occasional pop from my AD1985 soundmax solution, but
>>> haven't traced down where they are coming from. The pops
>>> don't correlate with loud output, so it probably isn't clipping,
>>> but could be due to some kind of sample rate mismatch, or a
>>> data overrun/underrun. The pops are not delivered at a constant
>>> rate.
>>>
>>> Sometimes bugs like this are due to the Southbridge. I think
>>> there is an errata against the ICH2 for example, where the AC97 input
>>> will miss an occasional sample. There should not be
>>> a reason for that to happen in the output direction. The motherboard
>>> with my Soundmax solution is not overclocked, so any problems cannot be
>>> blamed on that.
>>>
>>> So, I'd recommend a separate analog sound card. It doesn't have to be
>>> expensive, to provide basic audio without fanfare. The
>>> noise floor for audio recording should be much better as well.
>>
>> FYI, I found fabricating a grounded steel box to enclose the sound card
>> lowered the noise floor by about 10dB. Moving the sound card to the PCI
>> slot furthest from the power supply was good for another 5dB.
>>
>>> And the sound card could be cheaper than buying a digital receiver.
>>> Check the sound card documentation carefully before
>>> buying, to see if it has bass/treble adjustment, as some
>>> users are disappointed to find that doesn't work or doesn't
>>> exist. Some onboard sound solutions have an adjustable equalizer, but
>>> the time to check for that feature, is before
>>> you buy.
>>>
>>> HTH,
>>> Paul
> I'm not a fan of onboard myself. I had to use my onboard sound on my
> A7V333 for a while, and man, anytime you were printing and playing music
> or scanning something, the sound would do nothing but pop and make static
> noises. As the other person said, if you install an internal sound card,
> try to keep it as far away from other devices as possible, as long as it
> causes no hardware conflicts. My mom's computer has the Soundblaster
> Live! 5.1, and it wouldn't work in certain PCI slots. We ended up putting
> it in PCI slot 3 I think. If you get external, it will cost you more $$$.
>
Oh, and on a side note, I no more than got my Audigy soundcard installed and
my Logitech Z-560s started having problems. Guess I'll have to get
something else. The volume control on them quit working properly and it
caused them to make severely loud pops and static noise every time you'd
adjust the knob.
Computer specs.
Aspire X-Dreamer II case with upgraded PSU (400w)
3 case fans
Logisys meteor case lights (2) blue
Asus A7V333 motherboard without RAID revision 1.xx BIOS 1017
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
Kingston HyperX PC-3000 512MB (Yes, PC-3000 exists)
NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti200 128MB DDR video card (Yes I know, it's old.)
Creative Audigy ES sound card
Linksys 10/100 Networking card
Memorex 52x32x52 CD RW drive
Lite On 16x DVD drive
Panasonic 3 1/2" floppy drive
WD 80GB 7200RPM HD 2MB cache (IDE)
WD 120GB 7200RPM HD 8MB cache (IDE)
Creative Inspire 2500 (Temperary replacement to the Z-560s)
Proview 19" monitor (Yuck)
Canon i560
Logitech MX-510
....And other things not worth mentioning
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