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View Full Version : Soundstorm drivers...


Filburt
02-05-03, 01:31 AM
Well I decided to use my TB Santa Cruz until I could find a remedy. I'm having the following problems with the APU on my nForce2 motherboard (Asus A7N8X Deluxe).

1. Sometimes the sound will go into what I call "crackle mode" where the sound is just WAY overdriven...sounds almost like what happens if you turn up the boost and volume too high on your mic and it's all crackly. Recently had an occurence where in game (Half Life) it was crackly...but if I'd minimize that and play a song...it sounded fine. However the game was still crackly. It will also happen in non-game operations occasionally as well.

2. Rhythmic stuttering in-game. I can fix it by restarting, but it will come back after some undetermined number of hours uptime again. I had heard it had something to do with the SMBus, but someone said it's related to the APU.

3. Game crashes that I never used to get. These seem to most certainly be soundcard related. They are of the same nature as the crashes I used to get with an old SBLive.

Anyhow, I like this board, and I think the APU is a nice piece of hardware...but I'm really really disappointed in the drivers. I'd rate them among some of the worst drivers I've dealt with. I suppose I wouldn't be quite as upset if it weren't a feature I find myself fond of :/.

Nephilim
02-05-03, 10:24 AM
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4700

Filburt
02-05-03, 04:10 PM
I see...

Well then I guess I'll have to wait till nVidia comes up with a fix. Oh well, that's okay. My Santa Cruz has better sound anyhow in music and such. I do find the Soundstorm to be a superior solution for gaming, though...when not factoring in the egregious driver bugs.

Filburt
02-05-03, 05:08 PM
Update...the thing *still* does the stutter even with the APU turned off supposedly. How the heck do I get rid of this!?

I never had this problem until I got this board. This has got to be the most troublesome board I've ever bought. Anyone think this may be a fault in the board? Or is it simply just the drivers?

Nephilim
02-05-03, 06:17 PM
Do you have the latest BIOS?

Did you try disabling ACPI?

Because I have no stutters whatsoever on my a7n8x deluxe. When you installed the board, did you do a fresh install of your OS, or just remove stuff and cross your fingers?

It's funny, on my speakers, everything sounds infinitely better, not just games. Probably has something to do with running in Dolby Digital all the time. Heee

Filburt
02-05-03, 11:50 PM
It's on a fresh install of XP on a completely different hard drive. I didn't disable ACPI, I've never had to go through the annoyance of having it disabled before just to get an extremely expensive motherboard to work.

I have what I thought was the latest BIOS...1002?

Nephilim
02-06-03, 04:00 AM
Hmm...as far as I know that is the latest bios. When you are using the soundstorm, do you have the other TB card in at the same time, or do you take it out?

ACPI isn't that great. I would much rather have everything get assigned it's own IRQ than have more than one device share one. I've had more problems with devices that shared IRQs. It may be worth a shot. Otherwise, I'd say get the board RMA'd and get a new one.

SavagePaladin
02-06-03, 09:45 AM
If one uses APIC, there shouldn't be any IRQ sharing in winXP (Minor exceptions, but nothing significant)

...even with ACPI on.

All I know is the nforce hates anything being in PIO mode, I don't really know these issues (nforcershq forums might help)

Nephilim
02-06-03, 01:30 PM
Originally posted by SavagePaladin
If one uses APIC, there shouldn't be any IRQ sharing in winXP (Minor exceptions, but nothing significant)

...even with ACPI on.

All I know is the nforce hates anything being in PIO mode, I don't really know these issues (nforcershq forums might help)

PIO mode, like drives and stuff? Hmmm...interesting, maybe that's why my DVD drive quit working. I'll have to look into that. As for the IRQ sharing, I've seen things like the sound card video card and lan cards all share one IRQ. It isn't supposed to happen, but sometimes it does. It's worth checking anyway.

SavagePaladin
02-06-03, 03:00 PM
Well it did happen in win2k for me, but not XP (the sharing even with APIC enabled thing)