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Sound Card Advice

  • Thread starter Deleted member 143938
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Deleted member 143938

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Creative is having serious problems with Crackling sounds it seems, my ZS 2 crackles like crazy on my new system and it's all over their boards, it seems to be having problems with nForce4 chipset.. the problem is present in the X-FI series as well.. that leaves me with the best brand out. I was thinking of getting Turtle Beach montego but for one it looks cheap, and second they don't have 64 bit drivers, and I'm running x64.. so can some people recommend a good brand?
 
:eek: Mine doesn't crackle and I have both....hmm. Sound like a grounding issue. Or possibly not getting enough power? or are you just making this statement w/o owning one? I have nForce4 Chipset with the ZS 2 platinum and am having no interference at all....
 
what psu are you using and what do you have connected to your computer and sound card ?

i have an older creative audigy along side the nf2 sound storm for a while now..

also allot of other audio hardware ... it's ALL in the grounding of the components ..

just hooking up a catv coax line to the tv tuner of your computer can affect your sound even when your not watching the tv! not to mention your speakers...

so far my setup is doing ok, 2 sound cards, external pre-amp and fm-tuner mic booster / mixer setup for doing shoutcast streaming and recording of numors things.. including my 9600xt aiw for catv recording.. just gotta watch the grounds and put in filters when/where needed
 
Everything is in my sig... the computer is in the exact same place using the exact same connections my older computer used to use, so it's not a grounding issue
 
I dont know what to say. It wasn't that I didn't believe you, its just that you didn't state that you used nor did I see your sig at the time....

That is a bummer...do you think it was a big batch of bad hardware?

We have almost identical setups...almost! That is nerve-racking though to pay to get better sound only to get crackling :mad:

Well best of luck to you on finding a sound card that works for you. ;)
 
tried swaping pci slots ?
is it a plat. model ?
> if so have you tried uninstalling the drivers and disconnecting the external bay (i dont remember if that can be done) and then reinstalling the drivers so it looks like a reg model?
 
Had a very similar problem with an Abit NF-7 nForce2 mobo and Audigy 2 ZS. I put the new card in and it worked fine. Moved my desk around a few weeks later and had buzzing, popping, and the whole works. I spent hours trying to figure it out moving cables, swapping cards to various slots, tried insulated cables, ferrite loops, EVERYTHING! Then made a startling discovery that the sound changed when I repositioned the case! And also changed when I put the power cord into a different socket. With a bit of this stone-age-era technique and a little chanting at the full moon on a tuesday at low tide, whilst holding a freshly picked mushroom, the crackling went away.
Being serious though, just moving my case around, and trying different wall sockets got rid of the noise. What the hell was causing the interference?...I have no idea. Best of luck.
 
Servant of Shodan said:
Had a very similar problem with an Abit NF-7 nForce2 mobo and Audigy 2 ZS. I put the new card in and it worked fine. Moved my desk around a few weeks later and had buzzing, popping, and the whole works. I spent hours trying to figure it out moving cables, swapping cards to various slots, tried insulated cables, ferrite loops, EVERYTHING! Then made a startling discovery that the sound changed when I repositioned the case! And also changed when I put the power cord into a different socket. With a bit of this stone-age-era technique and a little chanting at the full moon on a tuesday at low tide, whilst holding a freshly picked mushroom, the crackling went away.
Being serious though, just moving my case around, and trying different wall sockets got rid of the noise. What the hell was causing the interference?...I have no idea. Best of luck.
Click to expand...
Um interesting.. The thing is that my case is in the exact same position my older case was in, same outlet, same everything except the components themselves..
 
Viper16 said:
That is a bummer...do you think it was a big batch of bad hardware?
Click to expand...
I don't think that's the case. This is a fairly well known and widespread issue, but only affects some NF4 users. I would imagine that it's a very software related issue, which would really come as no surprise.

My only suggestion is to experiment with BIOS revisions. Any hardware changes you might make (new PSU, different rail, different wall outlet, different PCI slot) would likely have no effect. I think it's more likely that there are certain BIOS revisions that unintentionally break or fix this issue.

My best guess is that it could be directly attributed to PCI bus clocking. Before doing anything else, I would make damn sure that the PCI bus is clocked correctly in the CMOS, and failing that, trying new BIOS revisions.

I'd check out the Sondigo Inferno 7.1, the Auzntech/HDA Xplosion or the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 or 7.1 if you'd rather just be done with Creative's nonsense.
 
phide said:
I don't think that's the case. This is a fairly well known and widespread issue, but only affects some NF4 users. I would imagine that it's a very software related issue, which would really come as no surprise.

My only suggestion is to experiment with BIOS revisions. Any hardware changes you might make (new PSU, different rail, different wall outlet, different PCI slot) would likely have no effect. I think it's more likely that there are certain BIOS revisions that unintentionally break or fix this issue.

My best guess is that it could be directly attributed to PCI bus clocking. Before doing anything else, I would make damn sure that the PCI bus is clocked correctly in the CMOS, and failing that, trying new BIOS revisions.

I'd check out the Sondigo Inferno 7.1, the Auzntech/HDA Xplosion or the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 or 7.1 if you'd rather just be done with Creative's nonsense.
Click to expand...
I tried looking for PCI clocks in my BIOS and couldn't find anything, just PCIX. Though I changed it to 64, also tried 128, 0 in a PCI changer program, didn't work. I have the latest BIOS and I really don't want to mess with that just for silly Creative.
I looked into AuzenTech, it sorta looks like a cheap generic company... right now only Creative and Turtle Beach seem to be the main companies, and Turtle Beach doesn't offer 64 bit drivers :mad: :confused:
 
Try setting default FSB and set in game and mixer volume settings to 75%...the crackling will disappear completely.
 
BBA said:
Try setting default FSB and set in game and mixer volume settings to 75%...the crackling will disappear completely.
Click to expand...
FSB=Front side bus? I haven't OCed anything, it's at stock.. mixer I tried, same thing
 
Its a known problem with NF4 boards and its not just creatives cards either NF4 is having problems with many different sound card manufacturers right now. The AuzenTech Xmystique and Xplosions are both incompatable with many NF4 boards right now. Looks like some bios updates are needed from manufacturers to fix this.
 
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