Bizarre sound problem in games - with two different audio cards!

[jdrosen]

I just built a brand new machine for gaming. My build:

Vista 32 bit w. SP1
Asus Striker 2 formula
Intel QX9650 CPU
4G ram (2x2G corsair dominator DDR2)
WD velociraptor 300g drive
EVGA 8800gts video card - 640M factory superclocked

I was using the onboard audio, which is Soundmax using a small PCI card that comes with the mobo. The sound was fine when I installed itunes and played some music. I installed my first game (Crysis), and there were immediate and substantial sound artifacts - almost like a jackhammer sound that gradually got louder and louder and then would gradually fade. I'd also hear cracks and pops and the audio would sometimes crap out completely. I tried a second game (Bioshock) - same problem.

I uninstalled the audio drivers, powered down, put in a creative labs xfi xtrememusic, fired it up, put in the latest drivers - and same problem!

I ran dxdiag, reports no problems except for an unsigned driver.

This seems similar to this thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/249604-28-strange-problem-distorted-sound-playing-games

Though I have not noticed a strong correlation with video settings; I tuned them down in Bioshock and tried again and I had the same problem.

The last post in the thread above suggested also to adjust audio buffers, but my problem is clearly not an audio card problem and anyway I have no idea how to make such an adjustment (found nothing in the creative console).

Help from folks wiser than I is very much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[smalltime0]

Firstly I recommend you get a hold of a 64 bit OS. The one you have is 32 bit, and is incapable of addressing all you physical memory (i.e. the cache on sound/network/HDDs, Video RAM and Normal Ram etc.). Its possible to enable PAE, but this requires good drivers, Ive never tried so I am not going to recommend.

What Power supply do you have?

Are there any cables corssing over you audio leads?

 

[jdrosen]

Understood on the 64 bit OS. I was worried about Vista 64 in terms of driver and game support; most folks are still using 32 bit OSes. I am fine with less than 4G of addressable RAM, and I thought Vista would just end up using as much as was addressable (around 3G). Should I reduce the amount of RAM?

Power supply: Thermaltake Toughpower W0105RU 700W

Cables: internally, there are no audio leads - its just the Creative sound card. The original Soundmax card had audio leads to the headphone jacks in the case, but I have removed that when I switched to the Creative card. Externally, there is the connection to the speakers obviously, which does intertwine with other wires. However I had the same artifacts when I was using the Soundmax card with headphones.

 

[jdrosen]

Some more info on this problem:

It seems to work fine with some games - World of Warcraft and Half Life 2 were fine. So far, Bioshock and Crysis are the only games where this manifests. Though I do notice faint pops during music even; very faint though, hard to tell if its this same problem or just a poor music file.

Also, not sure if its related, but since I built the machine I get period BSODs. They happen at random times when the machine is idle. I always get the same error: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. Its happening a few times a day.

 

[dagger]

It's latency problem. Increase the latency room for your sound component, and decrease it for other devices should help. Also, use onboard sound, they're less affected by this than expansion cards.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=951

 

[hesskia]

I think you need to hook your speakers up to an MP3 player to ensure that they aren't going out the crapper.

 

[smalltime0]

It's latency problem. Increase the latency room for your sound component, and decrease it for other devices should help. Also, use onboard sound, they're less affected by this than expansion cards.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=951

I thought of that, but AFAIK he doesnt have anything that uses the CPI bus, other than his sound card (I think PCIe use seperate bus?). Whilst that would prob. be the problem if it was crowded in this case I dont think it is. Also that PCI latency tool may not work in Vista and is now 3 years old?

 

[jdrosen]

I tested with my speakers and with a separate headset - both had the same problem. So its not the speakers.

I have the problem with both a creative labs sound card (xfi xtreme music) and the little card that came with the motherboard (which I think is a PCI card but not sure). The on-board sound *requires* the card that comes with the motherboard - there is no speaker outputs directly on the motherboard.