New nvidia soundstorm drivers = sh*t?

[Cyclone187]

So I installed the latest nforce drivers and it installed some newer sound drivers. Every since the install, my sound has had a bit of distortion in it which is driving me crazy. I've verifyed it's not my speakers but plugging my headphones directly into the board. I've messed around with all the settings and nothing has changed. Anybody else having this problem? I have an NF7-S board.

 

[FanZ]

it might just be the shitty realtek codec since you're using analog. Soundstorm applies to digital out only.

 

[Matrices]

Just get rid of the sound drivers. Uninstall them manually and reinstall the old ones using device manager.

 

[IdiotInCharge]

it might just be the shitty realtek codec since you're using analog. Soundstorm applies to digital out only.

Right on the shitty realtek part. Wrong on the Soundstorm part; Soundstorm is the processing engine behind the sound, whether it goes through the DD encoder and out digital or to the realtek and out analog.

 

[zone_86]

from my understanding _ the processing capability of soundstorm is only used when you use rca, or optical out. It get's entirely bypassed when a soundstorm capable board uses only analog jacks and is done with the alc650/655 codec exclusively. soundstorm is what differentiates the mcp from the mcp-t apu (along with raid/sata). for instance the sound with an an35n ulta is the same with analog jacks and cans as the abit nf7-s, or a7n8x-e if analog jacks are used. yes_ soundstorm is available on the board, but again_ if the analog jacks only are used you don't get anything processed with soundstorm as it is defined, or as it is physically and electronically on the mainboard.

 

[slpaulson]

from my understanding _ the processing capability of soundstorm is only used when you use rca, or optical out. It get's entirely bypassed when a soundstorm capable board uses only analog jacks and is done with the alc650/655 codec exclusively. soundstorm is what differentiates the mcp from the mcp-t apu (along with raid/sata). for instance the sound with an an35n ulta is the same with analog jacks and cans as the abit nf7-s, or a7n8x-e if analog jacks are used. yes_ soundstorm is available on the board, but again_ if the analog jacks only are used you don't get anything processed with soundstorm as it is defined, or as it is physically and electronically on the mainboard.

When you use analog on a soundstorm board, those codecs are only used as DACs. The mcp still does the sound processing.

Back on topic, are you sure you don't have the volume maxed somewhere? Sometimes that can cause bad distortion.

 

[zone_86]

When you use analog on a soundstorm board, those codecs are only used as DACs. .

exactly what i said in a round about and the same thing i have in acticles i wrote about soundstorm. your exactly right. as far as sound distortion on soundstorm board or non-soundstorm boards it happens to both. there are three main culprits, the biggest one is the SW IDE driver. when you install nVIDA unified drivers (like 3.13/4.24) you should say "no" to installing the nVIDA SW IDE driver - many people still miss that. when you install that "sometimes" - lets' say many times .. you will hear sound events in games that happened 3-5 minutes ago (delayed reaction) or crackling. second culprit is: ACPI - just do a keyword search at nforcershq with "ACPI' and you'll see a plethora of soundstorm posts and how to set up without ACPI enabled. third issue: heat, this is one that also comes directly into play if you overclock, and it's a big one. if you are running an overclocked soundstom capable board try adding an active cooler to the southbridge - this solved the issue for several of my high end customers that were overclocking, and even solved it for a few that didn't overclock (as well as not installing the nVIDA ide driver 'sw').


*lastly don't overlook simple things like slpaulson recommended to you - go through all of your settings one by one and test them. you can always revert to default settings anytime you want to, however i have been able to use volume at full capacity on the boards i built without distortion and crackling, but this is only after installing nforce2 drivers in the correct order eg:

os
lan (browse your CD and point to it)
xp sp1/2
direct-X 9.0b
nVIDA (without sw IDE)
ati/nVIDA video adapter drivers
direct-x again
defrag
possibly turn down hardware accell down one notch in dxdiag 'sound hardware accell

good luck .

 

[slpaulson]

I only had problems with the volume maxed in kmix under Gentoo linux. I never had that problem in Windows but I figured I'd throw it out there.

 

[Paragon]

So I installed the latest nforce drivers and it installed some newer sound drivers. Every since the install, my sound has had a bit of distortion in it which is driving me crazy. I've verifyed it's not my speakers but plugging my headphones directly into the board. I've messed around with all the settings and nothing has changed. Anybody else having this problem? I have an NF7-S board.

Is this during mp3 playback? If so, you may have to select hardware acceleration if using winamp [within the output plugin config through winamp]