Sound Problems

[arclight84]

Hello Everyone, new to the site but looking forward to getting to know you all, got a bit of a problem that has been going on for about a month and a half now and I'm hoping someone here has the know-how to lend a hand to resolve it. Anyway first things first my system specs:

AMD Athalon 2.6ghz
1gig of Ram
Ati Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb Video Card
Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro
Running Microsoft Windows XP Home edition

Okay so here is my problem, I first noticed the problem about a month and a half ago, it started out as some random pops and crackles when I was watching a movie, nothing too horrible but still annoying, after a while it became worse, then I tried to pop open an old video game I haven't played in a while and BAM all I hear is crackles and pops when it comes up, while I play, no matter what I do! It's still popping and crackling on movies too but mainly I'd like to hear some in game sound from my games (I've since tried about 6 other games and each is having this same problem).

Now so far I've tried moving my Sound Card to a different slot on my motherboard to no avail, as well as searching every place I could think of to find an answer but nothing yet, I'm hoping someone out there can lend me a hand to solve a problem that's been annoying and aggravating me for weeks now!

Note: I've also checked my speakers to see if they are the problem, plugged them into my laptop and they work fine, even tried another pair of speakers and they make the same crackling/popping sounds.

 

[gamerk316]

Sounds like the Creative SCP (Snap, Crackle, Pop) problem at first glance. Whats your mobo?

If i'm right, your only options are onboard sound or a non-Creative sound card.

 

[arclight84]

ASuSTek A7N8X-LA

Thats my Mobo, not sure what else I should give you regarding it, still new to the technical side of computers... I really do hope its not something with my SB card, tried disabling it today and re enabling the Mobo on board sound and it wouldn't work, any ideas on this would be helpful too. Thanks for the reply.

 

[gamerk316]

You need to re-download the drivers for your onboard, and select it as your primary sound driver from the control panel.

 

[captaincharisma]

how long have you had this sound card? i would also try uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers, sound card could be going. i have had a audigy 2 for almost 5 years now and had no problems with creative products

 

[gamerk316]

how long have you had this sound card? i would also try uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers, sound card could be going. i have had a audigy 2 for almost 5 years now and had no problems with creative products

The SCP issue has been around for almost a decade now, and no one seems to know exactly what the cause is...Biostar/nforce mobos seems to increase the chances of distorted, crackly sounds, but the root cause is unknown (buffer overflow is my current guess...). Even the titanium is not immune, as every Creatve card is known to have issues with certain setups.

Now, it could be the card is going, but i'm thinking its SCP, especially if it is worse in games then in movies, which seems to rule out a dieing card. Re-install the drivers, but if the issue reamins, you might as well get another (non-Creative) card.