Sound problems... help?

[Guest]

I have a SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 Player sound card. It's a fantastic card - great sound.
I recently changed my motherboard from a GigaByte 7IXE4 to an EliteGroup ECS K7S5A. I have flashed the bios successfully on the new motherboard.
Recently, I've been getting a lot of static on some games, most notably during movies. When I try to play DVD's, a weird crackling sound appears.
I tried using headphones but I got the same result. So I enabled the on-board sound chip and took out the SoundBlaster. Same result.
I tried it again, this time with a fresh format - still the same. There is no intereference from any other device in the house - does anybody have any idea as to what this crackling noise may be?
Sounds that use the WAVE device, such as MP3's or during a game, are fine. So are Audio cd's. But movies on some games (like intro movies) and most particularly on DVD's, I get a weird crackling.

Can someone please help? This is really testing my patience! Should anyone need it, this is my system spec:

1GHz Athlon Thunderbird
ECS K7S5A (bios updated to 02/06/02)
20GB HDD
6GB HDD
3DFX Voodoo5 5500 PCI
SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 Player
Pioneer 106s slot-loading DVD drive
Memorex 12x10x32 CD-RW
Windows98 SE
DirectX 8.1
Lucent V.92 WinModem

 

[FatBurger]

It's probably a PCI thing. What kind of onboard sound is it?

Basically I'm saying it'd probalby work fine with an AGP card, though I'm sure someone has another way around it.

<font color=blue>If you don't buy Windows, then the terrorists have already won!</font color=blue> - Microsoft

 

[Guest]

The manual only says it's AC97 compliant, but it's some kind of SiS thing. No competition for the SoundBlaster.

And I've tried using different PCI slots - all to the same result. I've never had this kind of problem before - help!

 

[upec]

I think Voodoo5 5500 PCI is your problem. Get an AGP card instead.

 

[Guest]

It certainly isn't the Voodoo5 because this never happened before, and the last card I had was a Voodoo3 3000 PCI, and it never happened on that either.

 

[4Ryan6]

Check to make sure your power cables are as far away from your soundcard and the audio cable coming from your CDROM as you can get them. Try, if you haven't already, moving your soundcard as far from the Video card as you can, and do you have any conflicts with IRQ's, that soundcard requires 2 IRQ's one for the emulation.

 

[upec]

Just try a AGP video and see if that is the problem. SB Live need a lot bandwidth on the PCI bus and it does not work will with other device that require a lot of bandwidth on PCI bus.

 

[4Ryan6]

upec is right, although the VooDoo 5500 is fast its still on the PCI circuit, they don't call it an Accelerated Graphics Port for nothing, you have that capability why not use it.

 

[Guest]

Because I don't have an AGP card. Well, I do, but it's a crap Trio 2D/3D 4MB thing.

And besides, I've had the Voodoo5 alongside the SoundBlaster for quite some time, and I've never had any trouble before this

 

[arsend]

The issue is with your board+the SB Live + the PCI Video card. Just because your system in the past had no problems, does not mean that this system will have no problems. I highly suggest that you sell the PCI video card, and buy an AGP card. Also, make sure that the two (Video and Audio) are not sharing IRQ's, this will also cause crackling noises. While your at it, can you give us the Power Supply specs, this board <b><font color=red>MUST HAVE</font color=red></b> at least a 350 Watt, name brand powersupply to work.

If it works for you then don't fix it.

 

[Guest]

They aren't sharing the same IRQ's, and I have a 300 watt PSU, which never gave problems like this before. I tried inserting the AGP card but the problem remains.. any suggestions?