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General discussion

I BET yo ucant solve this problem. Its for the ages.

Nov 24, 2004 10:07AM PST

Here goes. (if you have ANY ideas PLEASE POST!!) The other night my friend and i were blasting music out of my 200W ALtec Lansing ADA995 5.1's. That same night i bought a 200gb harddrive. So after we were done listening to music i proceeded to take out my 60GB harddrive and install and format my new 200gb. All is great. I get windows XP with sp2 loaded up with all my driver etc. My speakrs make this hissing sound out of my rear speakers now. And when i turn them up they crackle really bad. Only on bass notes. (did not do this 45mins prior, before i installed new drive) So i updated drivers, no luck. Reformatted, no luck. I will now list everything i have tried

replace sound card with AUdigy 2 - same hiss and no sound out of rear speakers at all with this card.

try generic (no surround) sound card - works fine but of course so surround sound.

Tried taking out new HD and using my old 60gb - no change.

tried installing my sound card in another computer - works great!

tried on-board sound - works fine.

tried without SP2 - no change.

unplugged unneccasary cards and drives thinking it mihgt be power issue - no change.

tested speakers on generic sound card to make sure i didnt blow them- didnt blow them sounded crystal clear.

tried moving to different PCI slots thinking maybe i had a couple bad ones - no change!

Done every update possible - no change.

Reformatted and done no updates - no change

Not a heat issue i have a very well ventilated case 4 fans 2 exhaust 2 intake

i work on computers for a hobby and have built or re-built probably 50 or more computers. Yet this cursed problem i CANNOT fix. The ONLY thing i can even imagine it would be would be my PCI slots BUT my firewire, wifi, USB cards etc. work perfectly. What i dont get is how a brand new sound card (the audigy 2 i bought and tested) can not work either. Yet it not be the PCI slots because everything else works! This has truly honestly 200% stumped me. Oh and yes im sure my onboard sound is disabled. Ther are no errors or conflict in device manager. and i have all bios updates and mobo driers installed and have tried them NOT installed as well. :mad:

Here are my specs.

350W PS
AMD Athlon 2600+ Barton
MSI K7n2 Delta
Radeon 9600XT
Audigy LS
60GB maxtor
200gb Seagate
generic cd-rw
generic DVD
1GB generic ram
generic ieee1394 card
10/100 LAN card
netgear 802.11b/g wifi card.

Discussion is locked

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Bet I can't.
Nov 24, 2004 10:20AM PST

1. 350W PS

Puny.

2. Athlon based with sound issues.

My Audigy behaved badly too. I moved it to another slot, it would work for months. One day the motherboard capacitors turned out to be from that bad batch so I changed motherboards and the problem went away, never to return.

In closing, many debate power supplies. I won't but call your power supply rating a poor idea. It's unlikely the root cause, but I wouldn't build on such.

Bob

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Re: Bet I can't.
Nov 24, 2004 12:21PM PST

Hmm, interesting. I again took a sound card out of a working compy and put it in to mine and it worked fine. Took my poopy soundcard out and put it in the other compy and it also worked great. So its like the MOBO and audigy arent workin good together even though they were just a week ago!!

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Re: Bet I can't.
Nov 24, 2004 9:29PM PST

Even though you did an install of XP OS, you still need to install any mtrbd. drivers which usually are more compatible besides any "native" XP ones. Dig out your mtrbd. CD and use its install s/w., etc.. This should have been the 2nd CD used to complete the install. Then proceed to any other install s/w for sound, video, etc. if required. While, a power supply can be iffy, 350W of a good maker should be enough, as Robert mentioned, alot of times a new device can break the camel's back, so don't rule it out. Recheck all harneses, cables, etc. for good connection, resest anyways. If none of this works, try Ghosting or copying old HD to new as a last resort.

good luck -----Willy

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Exactly what was happening to me.
Nov 24, 2004 10:39PM PST

All I could ever theorize is the failing capacitors were part of the evil brew that motherboard was made of. There were services or I could have changed the capacitors myself, but the board was not 100% stable from day one so I tossed it out.

Your story was my story.

Bob

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Re: Exactly what was happening to me.
Nov 25, 2004 12:13AM PST

Very interesting. Glad to know im not the only poor sap out there that cant figure this one out. =)
Well i guess ill just try taking it all apart and putting it back together again. ugh. Also i have tried installing the most updated MB drivers before my SP2 install and sound card software install. THanks though!

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Re: Exactly what was happening to me.
Nov 25, 2004 6:33AM PST

Increase the wattage of your power supply. The speakers are receiving less power than required.

Swisse

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Re: Exactly what was happening to me.
Nov 25, 2004 1:07PM PST

really? You think its that? I tried unplugging a harddrive and a cd-rom and taking out a couple of cards. You think it oculd stil be the PS? I was running it a week ago just fine.

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The edge.
Nov 25, 2004 1:13PM PST

The PSU is certainly less than what I fit on 1+GHz machines, but you freed up 20 Watts at least on that test. However, the Athlon does take power in deep gulps and an aging supply can't keep up. You have to put an OSCILLOSCOPE on the supply to see the issue. The problem is that such a device is thousands of dollars and a new 450 Watt (discount model) PSU is in the 20 buck range.

I will NOT debate the power issue since I know this area too well. Its your choice to skimp here. Its also your headache, but I can't say that's your root cause. A test of a big PSU could tell, but you seem adverse to that.

In closing, all I can share is that the Athlon SBLive issue is well discussed in news groups so I leave it here for you to discover that such was a well known headache since it may work, then not, then you move the card, it works, then not again...

Bob

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Re: The edge.
Nov 25, 2004 1:47PM PST

Hey im in NO WAY adverse to a new power supply. If you think that MAY be it then ill give it a try. I have a Fry's real close. SO others have problems as well eh? Hmm, well ill give the power supply a shot then and see what happens. I cna alwyas take it back right? =)

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Speakers have their own power supply
Nov 25, 2004 10:35PM PST

Your speakers should plug into the wall. They only receive a line level signal from your computer which is low wattage. The speakers have their own amplification and do not depend on your computer power supply output for blastage.

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Re: I BET yo ucant solve this problem. Its for the ages.
Nov 26, 2004 2:15AM PST

Okay try the following. Disable any other device that has access to the sound card. This would include modem. Try again. If this doesn't work, you have nothing on the new drive so start over and reformat and install XP. Don't however let it install modem, other video or sound cards other than the one in question. Basic items such as CD ROM drives are fine. Try again. I suspect (from experience) that drivers or some other artifacts from these devices is screwing with your sound card. Been there done that. EXTREMELY frustrating I know. Try this and let me know if it works. If so, go ahead and one by one install the other devices with the latest drivers and check after every install to make sure nothing gets messed up. If it does, go back one step or start over and don't install the offending device the next time around. Good Luck!

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Re: I BET yo ucant solve this problem. Its for the ages.
Nov 26, 2004 4:03AM PST

i have the exact same problem, as well...but only occasionally...it usually happens after i've had to re-boot...i have a sound blaster card...new speakers, which i never turn up loud...sometimes the problem stops when i re-boot again...i don't know what gives...sorry