X-Fi Fatality PCI, When ASIO in Use, Touched sound card and got a BSOD?!?!

C

cide_

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 3, 2004
Messages
235
Okay, Okay. I know its not the smartest thing to do... But please; Read on!

I had my guitar plugged in, Through my DI to mixing board, Mixing board to quarter Inch front panel on X-Fi connector drive.

It was set to ASIO, at 2MS latency, I got no clicks, Pops anything. I was very surprised because this 2ms latency I wasn't able to obtain on my old machine. I believe it has something to do with the PCI slot on my new motherboard not sharing any resources with any other hardware.


ANYWAY, I was playing, so impressed and happy with the tone I was getting through Peavey Revalver III's Tube amplifier simulator, That I wanted to touch the heatsink on the card to see how hot it was, Doing such a good job.

Well, I touched, and basically (Not sure if its so sensitive, or got shocked or what?) but the ASIO audio, and sound suddenly stopped working. I was like oh shit!!. I tried playing back a MP3 File through normal audio and got no sound.

I shut down the computer, rebooted it, and all was fine - Audio was working again.

This time I wanted to see if It was able to be reproduced. So, instead of actually touching the heatsink or other on card components, I GENTLY Tapped the edge of the card, By gently I mean barely touched it, While ABSYNTH 4 was playing a evolving pad note at ASIO 2MS latency.

WEll, This time the Sound started to distort the moment I touched the PCI Card, followed by a BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH. the first one Ive seen on my rig.

I am wondering!!

Is this because ASIO at 2MS latency is so delicate, So fragile and so intense on the PCI bus that the slightest interference interrupts it?


Will I have damaged anything on my motherboard, or sound card? It is working properly and I get audio... Although it seems there is a little bit of clicking or popping at 2MS latency, But that may very well have been there before as it occurs in Absynth 4 and I have never really tested it at 2MS Latency with headphones on. I know my guitar software works fine... But I tend to wonder if I have caused it to be less performing, or damaged something.


AM I okay guys? What the heck happened? Has anyone seen this before?

Thanks for the replies in advance.
 
Did you at least ground yourself by touching the metal on your case before you stuck your hand into your computer and started touching stuff?
 
You are probably giving the soundcard a static shock.
Not a good idea.

Try again but this time hold the PC case on bare metal while touching the card so there cannot be any static worth mentioning.
If it still happens, you have a ghost.
 
I was drunk when I did it, So not the first time,
The second time, I touched the PSU Metal, But it still caused a BSOD.

I will try the other attempt.

Im more concerned about any permanent damage I may have already caused? Or was it just an innocent self protecting crash?
 
If static is the cause, it is possible that no damage is being caused.
On the other hand it can also cause serious damage, it depends where the static propagates to.
Often the damage cannot be seen and appears to have no effect but it can weaken a component such that a future shock may finish the job.

Some things that make static worse:
Thick carpet
Wearing shoes/socks as these isolate you from the ground. Leather soled are better conductors than plastic/rubber soles. Barefoot is best.
Wearing plastic based clothing. Cotton is best for reducing static (or no clothes at all ;))
 
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