Help me solve my Via + SB Live! + Win2k sound problem.

[Skot]

Specs:
Thunderbird 800
Asus A7V (686A Southbridge) Rev 1.01 - BIOS 1007
256MB Corsair PC-133 CAS2
45GB IBM 75GXP on Promise ATA-100 controller (on board)
13GM WD Caviar on primary IDE channel
Kenwood 52X TrueX on secondary IDE channel
Voodoo5 5500 AGP
SB Live! Value (~2 years old, latest drivers from Creative) - PCI slot 3
US Robotics Winmodem - PCI slot 4
3Com FastEtherlink XL 10/100 (3C905b) NIC - PCI slot 5
Win2k SP2
Via 4in1s 4.32

Problem:

My sound cuts out/crackles momentarily while playing mp3s in Winamp. I don't think it happens during games, or at least I haven't noticed it. It happens a lot when I'm scrolling up and down webpages with my wheel (Razer Boomslang).

Background:

This did not happen in Win98 on this same system. Sound in games was screwed up with Win98 (crackly all the time), but no cut outs/crackles at all in Windows. When I first installed Win2k, there all of a sudden popped up an IRQ conflict with my on-board Promise 100 controller and my PCI slot 2, in which my SB Live! resided). In fact, I got a message at POST telling me that there was a conflict. So, I moved my SB Live! down to slot 3, problem solved.

Failed attempts to resolve issue:

I figured it was an IDE channel issue since I'd heard about a lot of problems with Via Southbridges, so I copied some mp3s to my main drive, the one on the Promise 100 channel. I still got the momentary cut outs/momentary crackling.

Tried the Win2k SB Live! drivers from ntcompatible.com. No luck.

Changed from ACPI to Standard PC. No luck. (It may have helped a little, but not much). Since it didn't help all that much, I went back to ACPI. [As a side note, all of my devices are listed under IRQ 9 (normal in Win2k), including my Promise controller.]

Disabled Plug and Play OS in my BIOS, which Microsoft recommends doing regardless.

Disabled 'Game Port for Creative SB Live!' in device manager.

Used Win2k IDE drivers. No Luck.

I've tried different output plug-ins/configs in Winamp.

I'm now disabling USB error detection to see how that goes.

I figure it's the SB Live! hogging the PCI bus bandwidth.


Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Modus]

How about newer drivers for the V5? Since the problem happens while scrolling windows, it sounds similar to a problem with some older Diamond Stealth cards which also hogged the PCI bus like the Live does. Too bad 3dfx is in the tank. Do you have another video card to try it with? Couldn't hurt to eliminate that variable.

Modus

 

[SlingBlade]

As you'll probably notice, I've been having the same problem, as have others on this board :/ My problem isn't crackaling, but rather that periodically it will "skip" very quickly for a second repeating the same sound. This is annoying both when playing music and games, because the machine temporarily freezes. If you're just about to get that headshot, it really annoys you. So far I have looked into all kinds of solutions, and yet to find one. However, I've just found what I THINK might be the problem. Check your program > Accessories> System Tools> System Information. Then go to Hardware Resources > IRQs. See if your SBLive is sharing its IRQs with a lot of other devices. My SBlive is sharing IRQ 9 with FIVE other devices! It is sharing the same IRQ as the vide card, network card, 2 USB hubs, and "Microsoft ACPI Complaint System".... whatever that is. Check out the post I'm about to post if you have problems like I am changing the IRQ numbers.

 

[bria55]

there are some fixes that are unofficial at viahardwarebut note they are not official and use them at your own risk just follow the links from there front page ..no guarantee there work but its thought ..


cu

 

[SlingBlade]

I've looked at those fixes and I could only find one, for the 686B southbridge set. It will only let you install it on 686B southbridge motherboards. I think Via is a dead end fpr 686A users.

 

[freefoo]

I had the same problem and it was a compatibility issue with the KT133 chipset and Creative Live! cards.

I mailed Creative tech about this but they denied almost everything. I removed the Live! last week and bought a Hercules GTXP instead. Great card with Win2K but not entirely compatible with DirectX 8. Games like MS Train Sim and Flight Sim (actually only MS games in my case) will crash unless I disable hardware acceleration. I hope Hercules 'll release some new drivers soon...


Foo

 

[SlingBlade]

Well I don't have the KT133. I have the KX133. And OMFG I just listened to the music on my computer (I haven't listened to it much, and not on my headphones) and I notice the crackling too now. DOH. kgsfjgkldsgj So I just have an extra cool little freezing problem to boot.