PC sounds issues

[charleyphogg]

Hi all,

Hope I don't make this to confusing. I don't know where to start without over complicating things.

The problem varies, sometimes it sounds like what I would think is jitter, other times it sounds like zippers, sometimes it's like you were listening to an album that has pops and static. The worst part is sometimes it's like feedback ( best way I can describe it ). This happens when my CPU spikes to 50%, which is 100% of 1 core. It's never done that before.

It does all of this in analog and digital.

Awhile back something happened and I forget what it was. Then about a month back, maybe, I updated foobar to the latest release. Then I installed ASIO4ALL. After that the sound would messed up when I opened a browser or something. I also couldn't get it to play gap less. So I uninstalled Foobar and ASIO and it seemed to clear the problem up.

This is where the problems I'm currently having as explained above.
Cant recall when it actually started again, but it wasn't until last Saturday that I was able to work on it.


First I updated my sound card drivers. That didn't help. So I then uninstalled WinAmp and the software my sound card came with. I also removed my sound card and put it back in, then reinstalled the sound card software, and then installed a clean version of winamp.

After spending about 6 hours of trying to get it to mess up by opening and reopening winamp, throwing file after file at it every way i could. It ran flawlessly. So then I installed ASIO4ALL and was able to get that to finally work.

Everything ran smoothly until this Am when it started doing the same old shit all over again. At least not its not so consistant...... yet.

For some reason I think this whole mess started from an update, I'm not sure if it was a Windows update, or my security suite.

Buy now I'm wondering if my sound card maybe dieing.

Or could it be related to my C drive being too full. It's partitioned with 157GB and has 41.78GB free which equates to 26%. I'm about ready to just say screw it and reformat and reinstall Windows and start from scratch. But that opens up a whole hornets nest since I have over 300 GB on this drive, it has 3 partitions, and nowhere to go with it.

I assume if I reformat the C drive and reinstall windows, that I take a chance of loosing my other 2 partitions. and it may be tough for me to get a hard drive to transfer to, not to mention a pain in the ass if it isn't my problem.

I doubt there is a way for me to verify if it's my sound card or not except by process of elimination.

So I guess my question is, how can i find out whats going on with my software.

Any help would be grately appreciated.

OH, when it was doing it last week, the pops and static were consistent, I think the zippers and feedback also.


Thanks

[kittenyberk]

Jun 3, 2008 7:23:29 GMT @charleyphogg said:

I assume if I reformat the C drive and reinstall windows, that I take a chance of loosing my other 2 partitions. and it may be tough for me to get a hard drive to transfer to, not to mention a pain in the ass if it isn't my problem.

The other partitions should be perfectly safe. but reinstalling stuff has risks (I've used partitions for years without issue, but there's still risk)

As far as troubleshooting stuff goes, do you know your system specs?

There also seems to be reports of the Azentech X-Plosion crackling and such, maybe worth trying newer or older drivers.

It's probably also worth remembering that it's getting warm, so it could be a heat issue (take the side off your case, apply desk fan to test)

only other thing that comes to mind is that as (IIRC) the x-plosion uses the CPU to do a lot of the work, that higher system loads could be breaking stuff

maybe look at the processes tab of the task manager to see what's eating the cpu?

oh, and back in the day, soundcards used to be picky about what PCI slot they were in, sometimes worth moving them about to troubleshoot.

[charleyphogg]

I built it a little less the 2 years ago. It has an Asus P5W=DH motherboard. I think the E6400 Core2Duo, the one that is 2.1 Ghz, I have it overclocked at 3Ghz wihtout breaking a sweat. 2 GB DDR2-800 ram and winxp2. Also has a 620 watt power supply rated at 85% efficiency, seperate rails for graphics cards then sound card and I think something like 52 total amps

I've checked the cpu temps and they're normal for my heavy usage, @ 50c.

I've never had any issues at all with my X-Plosion. The only reason I tried the new drivers for it, was to see if somehow the old drivers had been corrupted.

I wasn't aware the X=Plosion used the cpu, in any case, in the past with playing music, surfing or playing games, and d/l'ing and up/l'ing at most I would see 10 or 11 % cpu usage. Only after this problem started it will spike to 50% briefly and lock up when amp for a second, not even sure if lock up is the right word cause it only freals out for a seconf or two, then goes right back to playing.

It shows everything normal in process, at least by the time I can click onto it from the performance tab, it shows idle process @ 99%

Since it acted up this last time it hasn't since then, that was a few hours ago. Before that it was acting up and I rebooted to see if that would clear anything up, and it screwed up as soon as I played my first song.

I have my graphics card in the first PCI-e slot, and my sound cards in the bottom pci slot. I have never had an issue with anything else running off that same slot. I mean as far as getting those yellow warning signs in device manager.

Would a driver issue cause my cpu to spike? What is the proper way to update drivers? maybe I did something wrong there?

I forgot to mention before, after I uninstalled everything, I used a register cleaner tool,forgetthe name, and removed any left over traces of winamp,foobar and the software to my sound card. And I habitually reboot in between steps to avoid any problems.

Thanks

[pagan]

Do you have auto-update on?
It may have got a windows update that conflicts with a driver.

It might have a virus/worm/trogan etc

"maybe look at the processes tab of the task manager to see what's eating the cpu?"

best suggestion yet.
task manager to find what program is using so much.
(on one core?)

do a search with the name of the program/process thats spikeing.

[charleyphogg]

No, I do my own updates, but my Kasparsky Security suite does it's own updates.

I have ran 2 different on-line scans in addition to the one on my pc and nothing shows up.

Yes, it's only on the one core. I Have left the task manager open and on performance and by the time I get to it to switch to process, everything is normal. I'd think I would see some number that was unusual by the time I got there. I'll leave it open on precess this time.

I'll do a search.never thought of that.

Thanks

P.S. I had been trying to think when my very first problem started. For some reason when tou mentioned windows update I recalled writing something here and at Graham's site. So I checked Grahams site as it would take to much to fins here.

Feb 22

"Windows had an update that I had to reboot my computer and when I had it turned off I had forgot about the update and tried installing another hard drive. I tried connecting it to the external SATA connector and somehow it messed up my sound so all I got was white noise. It ended up basically didn't see my soundcard and I had to remove the software and my soundcard and reinstall them."

I also wrote some other stuff about a fatiguing issue , and removing Foobar helped it. How embarrassing, I hate not thinking first .





After looking in my mb manual, gee, who does that ;D ... I found that pci slot 3 is shared with the SATA drives

So I am assuming what happened then was that it did the update, then it saw the new harddrive and for some reason freaked out my sound card. I had to unistall the software and I pulled the sound card and put it back in, then reinstalled the software and everything worked fine.

So to summerize, Feb issue, my screw up. Problem took care of. (?)

April issue, Foobar and Winamp didn't like ASIO. SEEMless play wouldnt work, and opening something would cause a pause till opened. Fixed by removing players and ASIO and reinstalling players.

That brings us to present issue. Which to me anyhow, seem unrelated to the otehrs.

Just to exclude the SATA/sound card on same IRQ assingment.
My harddrives are almost running constantly since I do alot of up/downloading. So I think if that was it, this would of cropped up long time ago.

Thanks

[fanboi]

A couple of thoughts Charley, firstly multiple partitions give the functionality of separate drives EXCEPT WRT disc access - the hardware is physically incapable of simultaneously reading from two partitions.
For this reason, for maximum flexibility it is worthwhile having your operating system on a different physical drive (and if IDE rather than SATA a different connector/channel).
When your OS runs out of RAM (not necessarily physically) for operations it swaps out unused portions to the swap file on the hard disc, when these portions are called again from within the program they must be reloaded into memory, the OS will demand exclusive use of the drive while this occurs. After a period of use, it is possible that the page/swap file will have become fragmented - this will increase the amount of time that the OS uses when swapping in and out of memory, if this conflicts with read requests of realtime applications (sound output for example) then there will be glitches.
If the file being played resides on a different drive from the OS this is less likely to be a problem.
Suggestion, defrag the pagefile, there used to be a freeware program from Winternals that could do this or download the trial version of Raxco Perfectdisc, pagefile defragmentation must be done during bootup so once you instruct the program to do it it is necessary to reboot to allow this to be done.
Next suggestion, put all your music on a separate drive and install your soundcard where it will not conflict with HDD.
Lastly, it is possible, with multicore (or even hyperthreading) CPUs to assign a particular process to one core or the other and IIRC to assign a priority for it, this may be worth a look if the problem persists after the other avenues have been followed.
By the bye, one of my ASUS boards has done a few strange things with channel assignments when I have added SATA drives and I have had to swap leads around to sort it out.
Worth watching the channel assignments of SATA devices in the POST screen after adding drives and be ready to pull the plug if it looks like it is confused.

[charleyphogg]

Thank you much for the info, fanboi. I've been trying to get another HDD to put the OS on, but every time I get a new one it ends up being used for storage.

Since I was last on, I have traced the problem down to the software for my soundcard. When ever I switch the output eihter from anolog to spdi/f, or spdi/f to analog, is when it screws up on me.

It took me forever to figure it out. It doesn't do it right away, so by the time it acted up, I'd forget what forget all about switchn it over.

Guess I'm gonna be in the market for a new soundcard after I get a new HDD

[pagan]

Jun 10, 2008 17:04:44 GMT @charleyphogg said:

Thank you much for the info, fanboi. I've been trying to get another HDD to put the OS on, but every time I get a new one it ends up being used for storage.

Since I was last on, I have traced the problem down to the software for my soundcard. When ever I switch the output eihter from anolog to spdi/f, or spdi/f to analog, is when it screws up on me.

It took me forever to figure it out. It doesn't do it right away, so by the time it acted up, I'd forget what forget all about switchn it over.

Guess I'm gonna be in the market for a new soundcard after I get a new HDD

Ask(email) azentech about the problem.
I think I have seen the problem referred to before.
It was on a forum somewhere.
and it was resolved.

If I find it, i'll link the thread.

[charleyphogg]

Good idea pagan, worth a shot.

Thanks

[merton]

get a new card. chaintech av-710 is good for the money.

[charleyphogg]

While the chaintech is a great card for the money from what i hear, it's not for me. I also use my pc to watch movies and play games on, but thanks.

I've emailed auzentech, hopefully I'll hear something back from them, if not I'll just suffer through the inconvenience until I can get a new card. Sure hate to scrap a good card just because of a damn software issue though.