Advice on new soundcard

[andosmaximus]

Hi all,

My Sound Blaster Live value is getting a bit long in the tooth and I'm thinking about upgrading it, mainly cos the hardware acceleration causes more harm than good :frown:

I don't want to spend too much money (£40 max) so I'm not looking at something cutting edge, more cheap and cheerful :lol: ...

I mainly use my pc for gaming and listening to music.. can anyone recommend a decent budget sound card? Or is it worth spending a bit more on, say, and Audigy 2?

 

[merk]

i have the same card as you, and i was wondering what problems you get from the hardware acceleration? My system has 1 or 2 odd problems which i am trying to track down ... just wondering if you are getting the same problems. if so maybe my sound card is the cause.

 

[andosmaximus]

My problems are mostly with specific games. I pretty much always have to set 3D sound to off to make games work. The card seems to cause crashes to desktop in Morrowind, amongst other games. I have tried updating the driver and turning acceleration off but to no avail!

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Accept that some days you are a pigeon and some days you are a statue....

 

[merk]

hmm, weird. I dont have any problems in any games. Problem i have though is system wide ... computers occasionally freezes for a second or so and then goes back to normal. Happens in or out of a game.

 

[blah]

If you are using XP it is a 'normal' behaviouere ov eet.

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[merk]

yes i am using xp and no that is not a normal behavior for xp. I have another desktop machine and a laptop, both running xp, and neither of them have this problem.

I think its something hardware related, but i'm not sure what. And as of yet, i've been too lazy to pull individual pieces out of my machine till i find the one thats causing it. The only thing i can rule out is my video card since i replaced that and the problem still persists.

 

[skligmund]

I feel your pain with the CREATIVE product which you so happened to get stuck with.

Try a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. Should be able to find one of those cheap/on sale somewhere.

I too once had money, then I got into computers...
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[blah]

100% guarrantee - put w2k on it you'll have no such problem (and if it eez so, it is 100% XP related, which makes my statamento 100% pazitiv)

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[merk]

why do you think its a problem with XP? i've have several other machines with XP on them and they dont have this problem. in any case, putting win2k on the machine isnt an option.

thanks for the advice

 

[blah]

""why do you think its a problem with XP?""

read above, "when you put w2k on it, you'll have no such problem", so the conclusion is - XP.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[merk]

thats really not much of a conclusion ... how do you come to that conclusion? You are telling me i should completely reinstall my system with an older OS and you arent telling me why you think XP is the problem. Did you have this same problem? If you had the same problem and putting win2k solved it, it could also mean there was a bad driver somewhere and the one for win2k worked better. I'm guessing if this was some built in problem in XP then a lot of people would be complaining about it. So i can only assume its either some software i have installed or my hardware configuration.

again, i have other machines with XP on them and none of them have this problem.

 

[blah]

i did not tell you that you have to reinstall, all i've said was that if/when you do it, you'll see. it is completely up to you.

""then a lot of people would be complaining about it""

actually they do.





..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[merk]

can you show me where other people have had this same problem? maybe some of them discovered a solution other then installing win2k, thanks

 

[blah]

the other solution is to reinstall XP, it will help for a little while, then it comes back again, gg

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[merk]

a complete reinstall? i.e. format the drive, or just reinstall it on top of my existing xp?

I'd be willing to try this to see if it does fix it. I'm doubtful since i still think its a hardware issue. But i'd be willing to put another hard drive in there and test it.

 

[r2k]

merk, just ignore 'blah' (or you'll be discussing crap the rest of your life). He's known to come to all sorts of weird conclusions just because he wants to be the worst kind of troll ever which he ain't...

 

[merk]

i was wondering if that were the case, especially with his 'french' accent at the begining. But i was trying to be open minded.

thanks

 

[blah]

you like puking pooop about good people as I see, never mind, you'll get what you deserve, which is hell if you'll stay away from Jesus. anyway, I am telling him the REAL thing here, I was testing XP since the beginning, so you are no body to judge my conclusions about XP's problems.

Heck, you say I am stupid, ask around if any body can set ME work right, no body here ever did it, I did and do and will, caz I can, so XP is nothing in comparison with ME, cake, and still I use w2k caz I like it more than stupid XP.


..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[blah]

you can wonder (like now for several days, sheesh..) and keep on getting stupid remarks about pipel that are telling you the stuff, and do nothing, or you can play with stuff and learn it, so next time you'll know if some stupid body like myself is telling you the stuff.

i don't understand what is so freaky about reinstalling windows, it takes 1 hour max with today's hardware, why is that every one holds on to it as it were their last hope for survival? heh..

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[merk]

one hour to reinstall windows ... plus the time it takes to back up your data. then the time it takes to reinstall all the applications/programs you had. Reinstalling xp takes many hours before everything gets back to close to the way it was before. Several days at least before the system is about what you had before the reinstall. And, after all that time an effort, you have to hope it fixes the problem.

 

[blah]

""Reinstalling xp takes many hours.. Several days at least before the system is about what you had before""

gg, why was I even talking to you.. Ghost takes 20 min for me to have WHOLE system back if I wish to have it fresh in case of virus or for the heck of it, data gets ALWAYS written into different partition than OS to begin with. You are either too small to understand stuff, or just plain faking it.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[merk]

If you make a ghost copy of your system, then that is NOT reinstalling xp. Thats just making a copy, which is pointless. I'd have to reinstall xp, which will take 40-60 minutes, and then I have to start reinstalling all my applications. using ghost would be a complete waste of time in this situation.

 

[blah]

LOL, bwahahahahahaha, sheeez, you know how to make pipel laugh, lol.

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