U
Unforgiven
I have a P4S8X-X, and I've known from the beginning that the onboard
soundcard is noisy. Things like hard drive access, moving the mouse, CD
drive spinning up, resizing windows (no, I'm not kidding) would all produce
noise. However, when the 'Phone' input is muted from the Windows mixer, this
is reduced significantly. Reduced enough, that it is not noticable at normal
volume levels. Only when playing DVDs, whose overall volume level is much
lower so I need to set the speaker volume much higher, this is sometimes
noticable, but it was never a problem. Also, a slight buzz is audible
whenever any sound whatsoever is played, but not when there is no sound
playing (DAC chip deactivated perhaps?). I'm also getting a slight 'pop'
every so often ever since I got these new speakers, but I think that's the
driver's fault (see below).
Today I got a 5.1 speaker set, so I of course wanted to try it out, but I
found that when the rear speakers are otherwise silent during DVD playback
(for instance if there is a scene with only centered conversation), the
aforementioned 'slight buzz' is quite annoying. So I need to get rid of it.
I was considering just buying a soundcard, like a SoundBlaster Live Value!
5.1 (those are pretty cheap yet decent). I'm quite certain this will solve
most of the background noise, the only thing I'm not so certain about is
this playback buzz. Could this be caused by something else, or can I rest
assured that a PCI soundcard will solve my troubles?
For the record, I'm running Windows XP Professional SP1 and are using the
drivers that came on the CD with the motherboard, which is version
5.12.1.3533. I know there are newer drivers on the Asus site, but I couldn't
get 5.1 sound working with those drivers at all. I did use those newer
drivers before (with 2.1 speakers), and I believe those don't have the 'pop'
sound I mentioned above. The SiS7012 drivers (which also work) under both
Windows and Linux will also not give surround (but stereo over the rear(!)
speakers) but exhibit the same troubles.
The speakers I use are the Creative Labs SoundBlaster Inspire P580 5.1
speakers.
Thanks in advance for any reply.
soundcard is noisy. Things like hard drive access, moving the mouse, CD
drive spinning up, resizing windows (no, I'm not kidding) would all produce
noise. However, when the 'Phone' input is muted from the Windows mixer, this
is reduced significantly. Reduced enough, that it is not noticable at normal
volume levels. Only when playing DVDs, whose overall volume level is much
lower so I need to set the speaker volume much higher, this is sometimes
noticable, but it was never a problem. Also, a slight buzz is audible
whenever any sound whatsoever is played, but not when there is no sound
playing (DAC chip deactivated perhaps?). I'm also getting a slight 'pop'
every so often ever since I got these new speakers, but I think that's the
driver's fault (see below).
Today I got a 5.1 speaker set, so I of course wanted to try it out, but I
found that when the rear speakers are otherwise silent during DVD playback
(for instance if there is a scene with only centered conversation), the
aforementioned 'slight buzz' is quite annoying. So I need to get rid of it.
I was considering just buying a soundcard, like a SoundBlaster Live Value!
5.1 (those are pretty cheap yet decent). I'm quite certain this will solve
most of the background noise, the only thing I'm not so certain about is
this playback buzz. Could this be caused by something else, or can I rest
assured that a PCI soundcard will solve my troubles?
For the record, I'm running Windows XP Professional SP1 and are using the
drivers that came on the CD with the motherboard, which is version
5.12.1.3533. I know there are newer drivers on the Asus site, but I couldn't
get 5.1 sound working with those drivers at all. I did use those newer
drivers before (with 2.1 speakers), and I believe those don't have the 'pop'
sound I mentioned above. The SiS7012 drivers (which also work) under both
Windows and Linux will also not give surround (but stereo over the rear(!)
speakers) but exhibit the same troubles.
The speakers I use are the Creative Labs SoundBlaster Inspire P580 5.1
speakers.
Thanks in advance for any reply.