P3V4X and Soundblaster 16 <- crawling sound.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Skybuck Flying
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Skybuck Flying

Hi,

I have a Asus P3V4X motherboard with Apollo pro 133a VIA chipset, if my
memory is correct.

The sound that comes out of the boxes makes a crawling sound.

I know it's related to the VIA chipsets etc.

I am wondering if there is something that can be done about it...

Oh how nice a asus newsgroup ! :) I'll add that too ;)

On a side note:

Do other newer/current via chipsets have the same problem or is this problem
solved ?

Are there any other problems with current via chipsets.... for example
missing pixels on video cards...

In other words...

What is todays quality of via chipsets compared to say intel chipsets ;)

Bye,
Skybuck.
 
Hello Skybuck,

I've been there with VIA; But there are other things that could cause
the problem you mention.

Make sure that ALL tour IDE devices are DMA enabled.
Under BIOS; Let it autodetect IDE devices and verify they all can support DMA.
Under Win98,
Go System Properties->DEviceManager
Identify the CDROM / DiskDrives, and click properties (For all) and Settings;
Check the DMA...For each; And then reboot or reboot each time the system suggests.
Under Win2k/XP; Device Manager; You go right to the IDE controlers (not devices);
Then it will indicate the devices hooked, and specify if DMA is enabled or not.
It should be again for ALL devices..

(* This is important in many other aspect of the system performance. Even if it does not
fix your sound glitches; Make sure it's working DMA. You should do some tests with
simultaneous filecopy from devices to devices, then Xdiff32 to check binary equivalence.
I once had an odd conflict between a WD and a Quantum drive.. If two drives are causing
data corruption with DMA enabled; You could make them use the lowest DMA (UDMA1,2,3,4...) )

Then make sure you've got the latest VIA patch from VIA's site.
This virtually fixed the glitches on my CUV4X;.. Yet under some stress conditions sound recording
would glitch, even though the Drive STR was plenty enough.

Under Win98, sometimes two devices using the same IRQ can become 'sluggish'.
Try to avoid setting the SB16 in adgacent PCI slot to the AGP... Go for IRQ 5 if you can.
(I think it's default slot3 assigned.)

SB16 is a rotten card my friend...
Once I installed a AUDIGY-1; Most of my 'sound glitches' or stutters were gone.
Only one exception remained.. Using USB modem along with sound recording would glitch.
Even with latest VIA patches.

I think you can do a lot of experimentations with my suggestions... Best advice would be to
go right for a now very affordable Audigy-1.

PS.. The ZERO Latency patch would work (extreme VIA solution), but eventually would
lock-up the machine in various states.. Mostly moving files around the IDE drives,,Unstable fix.

Ultimate fix everything.... GO FOR INTEL CHIPSETS. Or Nvidia's or SIS.
IMHO Intel still tops.

Qualitywise; most people don't push enought their machines to notice a difference.
Only when you do gaming/multimedia that the (older VIA) would run jerky.
I cannot speak for new VIA chipsets with High DDR bandwidth. They might be excellent.

Regards,
Forgive all the typos and such.. I'm rotten in any languages but C.
B
 
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