Popping sound on K7S5A & Good replacement mobo?

[cyrussd]

OK, first off here are my current rigs specs:

AMD Athlon XP 1900+
ECS K7S5A mobo
Mushkin 512MB DDR2100
Antec PP403x 400W (245 TCO) and Antec PP303X 300W (180 TCO) PSU's
Diamond Viper V770 Ultra AGP 4x

Myself and a friend are having the well documented popping sound issue with this mobo. I have updated all drivers (AGP, Sound and Display), purchased a SB PCI 16 and disabled onboard sound, flashed my BIOS with the latest and oldest versions, all to no avail. I also swapped my AGP video card with a PCI one, which only made the problem worse. So unless anyone has a resolution for this prob I plan on purcashing a new mobo. I plan on keeping this system for 5+ yrs with no upgrades, and will not do any OC'ing. I also do not need a KT333 board, since my CPU would just be a bottleneck. With all that said, now for the questions

(1) Does this problem happen on any other mobo (ie is it a prob with the AC 97 sound)? I read a review in which a user said he was having this same prob on an EPoX board as well.

(2) The 2 boards I am currently considering are the FIC AN11 and Soyo SY-K7V Dragon+. I was curious if I would still need my 400W PSU for either of these boards, or could I use my 300W with no problems? Also, I searched and could not find any reviews for the FIC AN11 board, what do you guys think about it?

(3) Are there any other boards that you guys could recommend other than these two? I've only heard great things about the Dragon+, but the $150 price tag is a bit much to swallow. If the 300W PSU will suffice I can return my 400W (which set me back $100) and put that towards the board. Therefore any board that could run my specs with the 300W PSU would definately be a bonus

Many thanx in advance for any help, and sorry my first post is so long


peace,

cyrussd

 

[HonestJhon]

i'm sure you COULD run on the 300w, but i would not want to risk it...considering 300w is the BARE MINIMUM suggested by AMD to use on an athlon 1ghz. so you could try and sell your 300w, and take the ecs back (if you can still, or sell it), and get the dragon...which is supposed to be a pretty good board. have you checked ecs' knowledge base for info about the popping sound? there might be a solution in there.
sorry to hear the ecs isnt working...but i think that you should be fine with the soyo...
i think the fic boards will suit you also...especially since you arent planning on doing any overclocking or upgrading ( i bet you will upgrade something) for 5 years.
so you should be ok.
cant really suggest any other quality boards that are going to last the longrun.

-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[Crashman]

Popping sounds are usually caused by the soundcard, speakers, or cabling. AC97 sound is infamous, the SB16 not much better.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[cyrussd]

So does that mean that any board with AC 97 sound will have this problem, and why did I have the same prob when I disabled the onboard sound?

Also, I forgot to ask earlier, but is my RAM (Mushkin 512MB DDR2100) high quality? It's the second best Fry's has, but that's not saying much )


peace,

cyrussd

 

[HonestJhon]

mushkin is pretty good...
and it has the heatspreaders on it right?


-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[dhlucke]

Where is it popping? It might be software and not hardware. Ghost Recon for example pops on any system.

<font color=red>God</font color=red> <font color=blue>Bless</font color=blue> <font color=red>America!</font color=red>

 

[Ncogneto]

I have the ECS board in one of my machines and expeirance no popping. Before dumping the board you might want to try a better sound card, and like others suggested new cabling as well.

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!

 

[cyrussd]

ATTN HonestJhon: You are correct, it does have heatspreders on it So the RAM shouldn't be causing my probs then? I only ask because I've heard this board has probs with cheap RAM.

ATTN dhlucke: It only pops when running a select few programs, but I used to run these same proggy's on my old P233 and never encountered this prob, just slow framerates

ATTN Ncogneto: Sorry for sounding nieve, but what do you mean by better cabling?

Whew!


peace,

cyrussd

 

[HonestJhon]

yeah, your ram is not cheap...that is good ram.
and i know about the popping in ghost recon...just buggy game...when it comes to sound, and getting stuck in a wall...

have you tried moving the sound card to a different pci slot?
SOMETIMES (read a lot of times) that will fix it...as irq conflicts, and whatnot cause problems.
and as for cabling...i dunno...maybe he is talking about the cdrom audio cable? in which case doesnt really apply here...but i dunno...

-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[dhlucke]

Just to eliminate software, have you reformated the drive and reinstalled windows?

<font color=red>God</font color=red> <font color=blue>Bless</font color=blue> <font color=red>America!</font color=red>

 

[cyrussd]

> have you tried moving the sound card to a different pci slot?

I'm currently using the crappy onboard sound (SIS 7012), but tried installing a SB16 PCI and disabling the onboard sound, with no new results (

> and as for cabling...i dunno...maybe he is talking about
> the cdrom audio cable? in which case doesnt really apply
> here...but i dunno...

Yeah, thats what I thought as well and didnt see how this was relevant :-\

> Just to eliminate software, have you reformated the drive
> and reinstalled windows?

Yep, when I built the new rig I formatted and reinstalled everything.

I'm pretty much to the point where I don't expect this problem to be resolved and simply believe this board is a POS. My biggest concern however is if this problem will persist if I purchase a different mobo (currently I plan on getting the Soyo SY-K7V Dragon+), or if it's an issue with any of my other components.

I also wanted to say that I really appreciate all the help you kind folks have lent, many thanx for all your time


peace,

cyrussd

 

[HonestJhon]

have you moved the sound card? the onboard sound was junk, which it basically is. so you put in a new card. but did you try different pci slots? there are 5 pci slots, an agp slot, and an amr.
also, just a random thought, is it your speakers? have you tried diff speakers and maybe headphones plugged directly into the card?
also, if you are using winxp, or have a way to monitor the cpu load, have the monitor running, and then do what you normally do when it makes the popping sounds...that was just a random 1:25 am thought tho...lol...but worth checking out.

-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[dhlucke]

Another idea:

I'm assuming you've tried different speakers already, but have you tried plugging them into a different wall outlet, preferably on another circuit? One of my plugs gives a popping distortion so I have my speakers on another one.

<font color=red>God</font color=red> <font color=blue>Bless</font color=blue> <font color=red>America!</font color=red>

 

[HonestJhon]

ah, good point!

-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[labdog]

bump.


<i>if <b>you know</b> <font color=white>you don't know<font color=black>, the way could be more easy ...<font color=red>