Garbled audio

[pentium]

My system has a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum installed and since day one it's given out garbled sound. I reinstalled the drivers and that did nothing so I'm assuming it is a hardware issue and I don't think it is a noisy PSU issue either unless Corsair quality has taken a nose dive.
Is there really much I can do to diagnose the card?

[washu]

Re: Garbled audio

I would try in order:

- Changing your output method. IE, use Waveout if using directsound and vice versa.

- A different music player.

- Try putting the card in a different PC, preferably with an Intel chipset.

- Try a Linux live CD.

- Try a different MAJOR version of windows. IE, if you are using Vista/7 use XP/2000 or vice versa.

If it fails all that then it is probably toast. The Linux test will probably nail it, but the drivers for most newer creative cards are sketchy in Linux so the last test is to be 100%.

Also, check your MB chipset. If you have a VIA one (or pretty much any non-intel chipset) there is a good chance you are screwed no matter what you do.

[Wizard]

Re: Garbled audio

Pentium, is your mainboard VIA based?

Cheers, Wizard

[pentium]

Re: Garbled audio

I would try in order:

- Changing your output method. IE, use Waveout if using directsound and vice versa.

- A different music player.

- Try putting the card in a different PC, preferably with an Intel chipset.

- Try a Linux live CD.

- Try a different MAJOR version of windows. IE, if you are using Vista/7 use XP/2000 or vice versa.

If it fails all that then it is probably toast. The Linux test will probably nail it, but the drivers for most newer creative cards are sketchy in Linux so the last test is to be 100%.

Also, check your MB chipset. If you have a VIA one (or pretty much any non-intel chipset) there is a good chance you are screwed no matter what you do.

1: I don't know how to do that
2:It's not in a music player, everything sounds awful from midi playback to those sounds windows makes when you plug a piece of hardware in.
3: No other system to test with unless I want to tear my room apart.
4: Impossible. The Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 AGP is not really liked under any live boot distro of linux. I just get a blank screen and I'm not going to hassle with it.
5: Are you implying I rip out the hard drive, put in another one and try that? No. Again, it's too much work.

EDIT:
Now it's completely garbled. Any sound output sounds like trash.

[Wizard]

Re: Garbled audio

Pentium, you have not answered the question about mainboard chipset.

PC built into part of house? Seriously?

Cheers, Wizard

[370forlife]

Re: Garbled audio

Unfortunately pentium, when you have a computer, specifically a custom built computer, you are going to have problems one way or another. And you're going to have to open it up to do some basic troubleshooting.


>>And you're going to have to open it up to do some basic troubleshooting<<

>>open it up to do some basic troubleshooting<<

>>basic troubleshooting<<

[kikkoman]

Re: Garbled audio

unless you are seriously into gaming, use the kX drivers.
they may be confusing a bit first but they're superior in every way (except EAX support).

[pentium]

Re: Garbled audio

...
Ugh, I'm getting too old for this.
I'm being 100% honest here but I literally gave it an evil look and call it a piece of crap and it's working again!
Okay, so I guess there is something flaky going on here. I think I can start troubleshooting it from here.

[washu]

Re: Garbled audio

Given that it started working presumably without any action on your part it sounds like a chipset issue. Creative cards are VERY picky about the MB chipset. VIAs are the worst but pretty much anything non-Intel can have problems like this with Creative cards. It is very likely that it will break again.

But as 370 said, you are going to need to open your box to troubleshoot it properly.

[pentium]

Re: Garbled audio

I'm slowly making a pattern here but it still feels a little erratic.
If I power the system off for a while and then power it back on, the garbling goes away until I reboot, at which point it returns. A shutdown followed by an immediate reboot does not clear the issue either. So it appears something has to discharge first before the sound works but what I do not understand is why I'm not gradually getting garbling while the system is on.
I'm almost quite tempted to open the case up and pull everything I don't need installed and then keep plugging stuff in until I get the garbling again.

[Wizard]

Re: Garbled audio

Um watch out for bad caps and certain chipsets. I do not build computers into a house except wirings/network. Computers do have to be broken down once a year or so to clean up and upgrades and for any repairs if something failed so need for ease of access. Computers in a closet or on a table or under is perfectly fine.

Cheers, Wizard

[ratdude747]

Re: Garbled audio

mine did that a lot... the machine is not in use but when it is, i hope a linux fix i found cures it.

[pentium]

Re: Garbled audio

It's still flaky but it's cleaned up a lot now. I think that purging the drivers and doing a few other things (including reseating the card) cured it.

[370forlife]

Re: Garbled audio

How hot does the inside of your case get?

If it was not in all the way, it may have been heating up and expanding, pushing it out of the slot....

maybe....

[pentium]

Re: Garbled audio

During the summer in my old case the inside ambient temp was hitting 45c but now in the fall and with a new and much more ventilated case I'm about 30c.

[pentium]

Re: Garbled audio

It came back with a vengeance.
I was in the case again inspecting why my Ageia card was detected by the system but not responding (turned out to be the fan actually fell apart and possibly cooked the card unless these things have a thermal safeguard and was disabling the chip) ) as well as plugging in a hard drive so I could move data off it and all the reboots after that resulted in trash audio with no improvement.
Okay, so I have replaced drivers, reseated the card and run the system with some (but not all) of my hardware unplugged and it is still more unreliable than...uh...Well I don't know but it's being unreliable.
I know the PSU isn't being noisy as it's a nice Corsair 450W unit and the motherboard is nicely populated with Rubycon, Sanyo, and Nichicon caps.
I don't know.

[Toasty]

Re: Garbled audio

Sounds like an IRQ conflict. Something sharing the IRQ with it?

Change slot.

BIOS update?

What is the mobo?

[pentium]

Re: Garbled audio

If it was an IRQ conflict, wouldn't the system be very explicitly telling me so in the form of something like a lockup?
I'm in the midst of a drive recovery right now so I'll go see if anything is sharing resources with the sound card once it is finished.
The BIOS is up to date and I'm using the MSI 865PE Neo2-P motherboard. It's quite nice even though I had to forcefully reprogram the BIOS to accept two floppy drives.

[Toasty]

Re: Garbled audio

>>MSI 865PE Neo2-P<<
http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=pr...=&prod_no=150#

...and with that piece of info we now know it's an Intel chipset, not VIA. Answers several previous posters questions...

>>wouldn't the system be very explicitly telling me <<

Like the garbled audio??

I had problems long ago with sound (Creative Audigy), a network card, and a serial port all deciding they wanted the same IRQ. The network card suffered from dropped connections in the office network. There never was a "conflict" showing. No "flag" or anything of that nature. The system just said that x-y-z were sharing the IRQ.

I spent a lot of time chasing it down thru Windows until one day I needed to fix the fan on my video card. In the process I moved the network card down a slot so I could fit a slot cooler. After a few days, I noticed I hadn't had any problems from the network. Speed was good and it was always available. What the....? It dawned on me the only thing that had changed was the network card position. I moved it back as an experiment and right away had network problems. ah-HA! Investigation showed the IRQ of the network card changed when I moved it to the other slot.

I didn't discover the fix. I accidentally fell into it. You take what you can get some days.

Could the BIOS "forced reprogram" have screwed with something that is messing with the sound card? We've all seen BIOS updates to specifically address sound issues.

Is it OC'd in any way?

Chipset drivers update?

Is onboard sound disabled in BIOS?

Just some spitballing of ideas...

Toast

[Solder Boy]

Re: Garbled audio

Well here's an idea you might want to check out... check the caps on the sound card for lousy ESR.. that might also be a culprit