Strangest sound-related issue EVER.

[magitek]

I've been getting hard lock-ups (requiring power off-power on reset) in UT2k4, Far Cry, FEAR, and Rome:TW ever since I put this box together. I tested a bunch of stuff, but it turned out to be my sound hardware was causing the problem, both my Audigy and onboard (realtek ac97). If I disabled it I had no problems. Of course, I also had no sound.

I tried a 4-year-old driver I had from the machine the Audigy came out of. I had no problems, but the sound quality was terrible (screeches, twitters, etc.). I decided to try my onboard instead (it was disabled thru bios before). To my surprise, the problem is still there. Other stuff I've looked at:

I'm not overheating
My RAM is okay (tested once with each stick in by itself, in a different slot)
Hard drives are ok
PSU, at least according to the extreme load config, is okay
I *think* I have the latest drivers for everything.
I shuffled the audigy to all the pci slots
EDIT: I also played around with the hardware acceleration to no effect.

My specs, everything stock:

AMD 4800+ X2
450w Fortron Source PSU
4gb Corsair XMS
Biostar n4SLI-A9, has Realtek ac'97 audio onboard
WinXP SP2
Radeon x1900xtx, w/Catalyst 6.2
DX9c

I should add that this problem is partially predictable. UT2k4 gets it randomly, as does FEAR. Rome almost always locks up on the second turn, and I have a checkpoint save in Far Cry that produces the lockup within 3-4 minutes without fail.

Anybody know what the deal is?

 

[jaykemurd]

i can't help you any but, I have the same Biostar mobo and seem to be experiencing the same problems you have. FEAR drops out randomly, which blows a lot!!! I have the same onboard sound as you, PLUS a good M-Audio PCI audio recording card, which I use for all things sound......

this is odd..... :?:

 

[fluxpunk]

this is a common problem with this motherboard, the only ways i have seemed to fix it is shut down pc take out your sounds and grapics carda and swop them with a differnt slot(may not be poissible for you video card) then windows will ask you to reinstall the drivers, download the latest ones and do a FRESH reinstall dont change any default settings.

Let me know how you get on

 

[TabrisDarkPeace]

Update / Downgrade drivers, etc (as stated above).
- If that fails

In BIOS for the slot the sound card is in set PCI Latency to 128 (or 80 in hex, depends what it lists as options). (May require Ctrl+F1 at BIOS main menu or other 'secret' keystroke to to get Adv Chipset Config and PCI latency, usually per slot or per IRQ dedicated to slot)
- If that fails

Try forcing APIC or PIC mode (whichever you are not doing now) in the BIOS, Reset ESCD (Ext Sys Config Data), Force to redo PnP crap at next boot, Force OS not to change BIOS settings if possible.

Try in Device Manager, Computer, <ACPI Multiprocessor PC>, changing that device to 'Standard PC' via the 'Driver Update' button and manually installing the driver (should be on HDD already).
- If that fails

Disable the onboard Audio device and remove it's drivers.
- If that fails

Reinstall Windows XP to remove the onboard audio drivers, in an 'easy' manner, keeping onboard audio disabled in BIOS the whole time.


Finally, enjoy the new working sound.