Audigy 2 Crash Bug - Confirm?

S

Setiri

n00b
Joined
Oct 29, 2005
Messages
51
Hi everyone. My nickname is Setiri, and I own an Audigy 2.

Here's my problem: My games crash.

Background: I've been through 2 motherboards (ASUS and MSI), 2 HD's, two video cards (ATI 9500 PRO and 9800 PRO), onboard networking and 3com networking card, two power supply's (original was a crappy box one, second is a nice Antec True power), and even two OS's (XP Home and XP Pro), many different versions of video drivers and sound drivers and lastly my Kingston Hyper X memory sticks have been memtested 3 times, flawless each time.

Current setup: Xp pro, 3.06 HT processor on an ASUS P4SX-X (the SiS chipset) board, Audigy 2 (non-value, but non-pro, just the regular 6.1 version), ATi 9800 PRO, 1gb Kingston Hyper-X mem.

Software typically run: TeamSpeak (server and client so my friends can connect while we play), the game (usually either WoW, CoH, CoV, BF2, Dawn of War), and occassionally Winamp for when I'm bored with the ingame music of WoW.

Typically, this only happens occasionally in WoW, almost never in BF2 or Dawn of War, and OFTEN in City of Villains (CoV). I mean so often the game is often unplayable. WoW is still worth playing but it does happen 1-4 times a night on average.

The crash: la di da just playing my game and SCREEEEEEEECH so freaking loud it's actually blown a headphone speaker. It's the same sort of sound one winces at when hearing feedback, although it's not feedback. My computer is in full on freeze lock and nothing short of a power/reset button releases it from it's agony.

Tech support: No one has a clue.. everyone tries a hundred things, nothing has helped. Driver installs, changing PCI slots for my soundcard, rebooting :p, etc.

Support Forums: A number of people in CoV have a sound loop crash bug that's similar, but I don't think is the same thing. On the Creative Labs support board however, there are a few threads dealing with what sound exactly like my problem. Some suggestions for a fix are mentioned, but most people find they don't help. They seem to chalk it up to "Audigy 2 series, aside from the ZS, has some screwed up thing in it that's been happening forever and they'll never admit it. Move on." This, makes me sad.

So, here's my problem: Anyone else on here (I trust and respect the the [H}orde here for their technical knowledge) have this problem, or can confirm this? Am I just farked to buy a new soundcard?

The second problem, considering the entire Audigy 2 line is screwed... I want a good gaming soundcard that's around $100, or tops of $150 retail (I'm looking to buy before I get home if I can help it). Help? Any assistance with this problem is greatly appreciated.. it's gone on for over a year (yes, seriously) and it makes me feel dumber every day considering I've built dozens of systems for friends and even clients, and helped with so much general tech support it's not even funny. Please, pleaes help.

-Setiri
...sometimes tech support is fun, and sometimes you just wanna play a game...
 
with a system with the following specs:

asus a8vse deluxe
939 3000+
1 gig geil pc3200
9800 pro
audigy 2 zs

i had a similiar problem. the solution: changing my bios to force the video card to operate at AGP 4x. the system never restarts anymore, and games run normally. i have yet to notice a performance hit in games from this.
 
Try disabling the motherboards onboard sound. Also I am using creaive's beta drivers from their website. (I have the same Audixy 2 as you).

This is what i did when i was having ticks and stuff, but i did not have your exact problem. Id say try my first suggestion before my second, because i dont know how good those beta drivers are for other people. Even if it doesnt help leave ur onboard sound off, you would think the motherboard puts this off automatically, but mine didnt.
 
Misfitsfiend: Strangely enough, I did notice the other day when working with my ATi console that it didn't have my AGP as running in 2x/4x/8x (capable of 8x). So I manually moved the slider over and rebooted. It went back to being 0x in the ATi console so I figured it must be just a display error. I checked the ASUS website but there are no updated drivers for my board relating to that issue. I'll try it when I get home, thank you.

PaintballaXX: I have disabled the onboard sound (I've hated onboard sound since the day it came out, christ, I've always been a huge advocate of having a SB processor take over the sound duties... never understood why so many were so happy with it).

Oh, and yes, currently I am using those new Beta sound drivers from Creative Labs in hopes they'd help but after playing CoV last night and crashing 3 times, it seems they don't.

Please keep the suggestions coming (and again, if it can't be fixed and/or there truly is a bug with that chipset, I need a recommendation on a card that won't break my bank and that will work). I don't need the best sounding card in the world, just something that's compatible and able to process sounds by itself.
 
this is the well known creative screech of death.

solution #1: knock down hardware acceleration in the control panel to basic acceleration

solution #2: use the KX drivers

solution #3: stop buying creative labs products


oh, and if you want a good 'test' game for this, just try playing dragonshard. You'll be lucky to get out of the menu before the screech gets you.

solution #1 worked for me with an audigy 2 zs, fyi.
 
eastvillager said:
solution #3: stop buying creative labs products
Click to expand...

So true.... The very last sound blaster I owned was the SB Live!. I never heard a sound card with so much static or pops. Turn the EAX on and you had static with echos.

Creative said it was a motherboard problem and never tried to fix the cards issues. I gave the card to my dad after I upgraded to a Nvidia SoundStorm a few years later. The card still had problems on a completely different chipset and system. My dad got rid of it and bought a $10 sound card from Best Buy and didn't have any issues.

I will never buy Creative again.
 
Eastvillager: Thank you very much for your suggestion. I did try the KX drivers (little awkward of a menu those things have) and sadly, I crashed within the first five minutes of being in CoV so I promptly uninstalled (that's when I tried the beta drivers next from CL).

I will try turning down my hardware acceleration, that is something I haven't done before. Though doesn't that sort of miss the point of having a sound processor to take the load off my CPU? :/

After having this problem, even though I've had Soundblasters since ...christ, the 80's? early 90's? A really long time anyway... I don't want to buy one anymore, but there's really not much choice out there. I looked at Turtle Beach and the EMU line but those just aren't viable gaming choices from all the opinions I've read. ugh

So does truly not happen with the ZS? I hate to fork over $130 for the exact same card (with the only difference being that I get 7.1 sound instead of 6.1) just to ditch this "bug" but man.. I will if that's what I absolutely have to.
 
I have a ZS. I don't play CoV, but I am an avid WoW and BF2 player and never got this so-called "screech of death" even once in the card's lifetime.
 
Thanks for your feedback TranquilRed. I just revisited the creative forum and not-so-unbelieveably on the first page was a huge thread about the issue now officially called "tonelock". I've read through it again and it seems a number of people with the Audigy 2 ZS are reporting it happening still.

I'm so frustrated... I realize it could just be a high rate of defective chips (ie, the design is fine but the fabrication process shoddy) leading to a lot of people getting crummy cards... and that me simply purchasing a new one I could potentially never have to deal with that problem again, but man.. that's just such a chance to take and such a crappy way of letting Creative out of their obligation to provide quality products. Think about it.. I'm rewarding them for giving me a crap card by... buying a new one? :/

This is killing me.. and yet I'll probably go to Best Buy tonight or tomorrow to pickup a new ZS if I can't play CoV again tonight. /sigh

-Setiri
...too sad for a funny tagline.
 
No complaints here about my Audigy 2 ZS. Stepping up from my AC'97 the ZS was pure bliss.

From previous experiences, Creative is a horrible company to deal with if you do have problems. There seems to be no end of rants that you can find online with no resolution and tech support comes off as a slap in the face afterthought.
 
I was getting screaching, popping crap noises out of my old Audigy X-gamer card. (and lock-up sound loops in UT2004, CS:S, and EQ2). I bought an A2:ZS second hand off of the forums here for around $80, and have had nothing but distortion free, crystal clear, complete audio bliss ever since. And now I have an excuse to buy that 7.1 speaker settup I've been looking at for the past 6 months :D
 
Ummm now im doing some thinking, and i did get a horrible screech twice, followed by a blue screen and then of course, i had to restart. It was due to my video card drivers tho, and i see that u have switched video card drivers a few times.-------uh what the hell this post does no good...i must think harder. I will edit this if i think of something more usefull to say.
 
PaintballerXX, yeah, don't you go getting the same thing. BTW, curiously, you won't get a BSOD if you get this bug. Everything just freezes the second it happens.. what you will get is the crap scared right out of you if you have on headphones or your speakers are turned up at all.

At home now, so I'm going to turn down the hardware accelleration and go turn up the AGP in my bios... let's hope and thanks for the ideas. :)

-Setiri
 
eh, if the kx drivers didn't fix it, reducing acceleration to basic almost definitely will.

kind of blows to have to do that, but oh well.

Here is the step by step dialog box junk to get there from control panel. Even though I'm showing this on a machine with an x-fi, the process is the same---just fyi, x-fi doesn't do the screech of death, so it isn't necessary if you have one of those.

screech_01.jpg


screech_02.jpg


screech_03.jpg


screech_04.jpg
 
makes me kinda happy that I still use a Nforce 2 motherboard with SoundStorm. :p
 
I have th A2 zx and every now and then the sound gets looped in Warcraft 3 and I have to exit or in worst case scenarios, reboot. I hate Creative products, but there's not much substitute if you want awesome surround sound effects. I have the Gigaworks 7.1 surround speakers and I've never felt so emersed in a game in my life. I would prefer to use M-Audio cards but they only do software emulation on EAX :(
 
Eastvillager: Well, it's a new day.. and sadly, new crashes. I dropped my hardware acceleration to basic... crashed. Dropped it it to no hardware acceleration.. rebooted, TeamSpeak was borked in some weird double-sound thing. So now I'm back to basic acceleration and risking crashing again. I've decided to go get a new card today (if it's not too much retail, I think I'll try the X-Fi music card that I saw for $126 online). I'm honestly hoping it's not so much a design flaw as it is just a horrible fabrication process and a lot of cards were just F'ed. Wish me luck with the new card and thank you all again for the help.

-Setiri
 
Are you getting these crashes after returning to standy-by or before. If its only after returning from sleep then your problem may be similar to the one i had. so just see if thats the case or not.
 
Hi Setiri,

I have been having the same problems with my system for quite some time. First time posting at the HardForums, only been kicking around reading here and there, but this caught my eye and I decided to register. I have the exact same problem. I am currently using an Creative Audigy SB 2 ZS. Same problems in all games; very loud high pitched noises and a total system lock up. I've replaced my video card once thinking it could have been a bad vga, but this does not work. Everything is updated, well-cooled, well-maintained yadda yadda yadda. Anyways, I've looked everywhere and gotten no answer. I might be about to get a new soundcard, unless something reliable comes up on that Creative Forum you posted.
 
PaintballaXX: Unfortunately, no, it wasn't similar to that problem. Nothing to do with standby mode, I never use it (though I prolly should to save money these days :p). I say unfortunately cause it'd sure be nice to have solved the issue.

AStraus: I am very, very sorry for anyone else who has this problem. It's the most frustrating computer problem I've ever dealt with in 18 years of playing with computers.

Update: I gave up. I went out and blew $216.00 (after tax) on a Xtreme (anyone else getting tired of the Xtreme!!!11!1! crap lately?) Fidelity X-Fi platinum (wanted the cheaper version but they were out, and I'll be damned if this waits another day) from Best Buy. Yeah, I know, Neweggs cheaper... again, I'm tired of waiting. Sometimes the money is worth the time.

Installing it after I make this post.. I pray I never hear tonelock again.. if I do, I'll curl into the fetal position and cry uncontrollably. And you know, I think I may just call customer support again to try and RMA my old card just for giggles or something... such a waste of money. :/

-Setiri
...Sound Blasted my system alright...
 
Your computer sounds like my skateboard in high school.

Good luck and please let me know what happens so I can take the appropriate actions as well.
 
Update: After about 8 hours total today of testing (yeah, testing... :p) with the new soundcard, not a single blip or problem. Suffice it to say, I have to believe it was bad fabrication on the previous card.. something in the chip that makes it tonelock like it does (and like so many others do apparently). I am happy thus far with my new purchase, and though expensive, it is nice. I find myself enjoying the remote even more than I thought I would.. I have a remove for my altec lansing speakers already, but the X-Fi pro came with a neat little media program that basically is a software front end for a HTPC. Very nice considering I don't have to set anything up myself or bother with Windows XP Media Center.

sigh.. hurt to spend the money, but after a year of that crap, I'm mostly just relieved. Big weight off my shoulders. Have a great and safe Halloween (or I guess now post-Halloween) night y'all.

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions.

-Setiri
 
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