Hi Everyone,
I recently installed a MadDog Multimedia Preadator 5.1 DPS audio card.
The card seems to do very well, Except when I have a large sound going.
Large means loud?
I play EVE online, and when I have something going, or a major event,
IE explosion or gunfire, The Audio begins to pop/crackle
What do you have plugged into it, the speakers or amp,
headphones with or without amp or ??
It is not meant to directly drive unamplified speakers, or
if you have very low impedance headphones they might need a
headphone amp inline (or you can't turn the volume up as
loud and may lose some dynamics).
Is there anything I can do to help this? Or do I need to switch back to
my Onboard audio driver?
Popping and crackling can also be a game bug, you might
fiddle with the game sounds and seek game patches. You
might also see if the sound card has different settings for
(including enabling/disabling) the Sensaura (3D mode)
surround sound (or however they're wording it).
What sound chip is on your card? Try the newest driver from
that sound chip manufacturer rather than from MagDog (who
only repackages products, is not a manufacturer).
PCI bandwidth and latency issues can also cause sound
quirks, but it wouldn't be isolated to only sounds with high
volume. That is, if you can turn down the volume and play
the exact same sounds fine, it is not a PCI bus issue. If
it were a PCI bus issue you might adjust PCI latency in the
bios or Google for a "PCI Latency Tool". One of the more
common tweaks with such as tool is to ajust down the latency
time for video cards, as mentioned here,
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=951