Help! System locks up when messing around with MIDI/MP3

[Goi]

I have a C566@850 that runs otherwise stable, but crashes when I'm messing around with MIDI music(playing/editing). I have a Diamond MX300 and a Yamaha DB50XG wavetable daughterboard. I tried switching from the daughterboard to direct MX300 wavetable MIDI sound, but it also locked up, so I don't know if its specific to MIDI music or sound in general. Playing CD audio doesn't lock the system up, but I dunno about MP3s(haven't played them in a while). Sometimes when it locks up, it emits a high-pitched whine that goes on until I hit the reset button. Other times it just locks up without any sound.

In case you're wondering, I clocked the system back to the stock 566MHz, and still the same thing happened. Does anyone have any idea what's wrong?

 

[Goi]

Bump!
btw this is with the latest Aureal drivers, 2048 I think.

 

[Goi]

ok, playing back mp3s caused my system to lockup too after a while. However, playing games with sound doesn't. So I guess its a soundcard problem? Comon, help me out here. Playing back MP3s caused my system to hang before also, but since then I've upgraded the CPU and did a full HDD reformat/OS reinstallation.

 

[LiekOMG]

Hmm, i had a similar problem with my MX300, although I never totally found out what was causing it. Although I think it was related to my Super7 Board. Installing the VIA 4in1 drivers helps a LOT if your using a AMD processor. Unfortunatly, your using an Intel, so i'm not really sure what can be causing it. But here are a few suggestions.

Check your device manager. Look through all of your devices and note what IRQ they are running on. Windows might report that there are "no conflicts", but don't believe it. There can still be a ton of problems if you have your soundcard and something else sharing an IRQ. If there IS something sharing it, try to change the IRQ. If you are low on resources, disable "soundblaster pro emulation" - although this might not directly be conflicting with something, disabling it gives you an extra IRQ that might give room for something else to fit in there. I have a problem right now with my MX300 conflicting with my DSL modem (something that never happened to me before), and i have to disable SBpro legacy emulation to get everything working correctly.

My other bit of advice is to try to format and reinstall windows from scratch. If this is feasible for you to do, give it a shot if nothing else works. Good luck

 

[Goi]

Thanks DOACleric...I don't believe I didn't think of switching IRQs. I'll do that and see if it helps.
Where/how can I disable SB Pro emulation?

As for reformatting/reinstalling, I've already done it...didn't do a thing.

 

[LiekOMG]

Under device managers, goto the the sound controllers section. Your MX300 should have created 4 different things there
1.) vortex PCI audio
2.) gameport interface
3.) MIDI 401 somethingorother
4.) SBpro legacy DOS emulation.

Go into the properties for the SBpro emulation, and the check the box that reads "disable in hardware profile". Reboot your computer, and see if that helps any.

Sorry for the inaccurate descriptions, but i'm not home right now. I hope it helps though!

 

[Goi]

OK, I found out that my MX300 uses IRQ11, which are also used by my D-Link NIC and the Intel PCI to USB Universal Host Controller.

However, I can't seem to change any of those 3 IRQs to other ones, even though I have spare IRQs that aren't used. In Device Manager, I uncheck the "User automatic settings" and try to change the IRQ, but it gives me a "This resource setting cannot be modified" error. How can I force it to change?

 

[LiekOMG]

Try disabling everything except Vortex PCI audio under the drivers i mentioned before, if that doesn't help, then i'm a bit lost. there was another post going around today i think that talked about IRQ's and how to change them. you might want to look into that. I think to get it to work, you have to go into your bios, and set the "PNP OS" to NO, and then you might be able to change the setting in safe mode. but check that thread first for details. good luck

 

[Goi]

Yeah I was at that thread, what a coincidence. I saw the thread title and pounced on it. I've disabled both my D-Link NIC and the PCI to USB controller, and I'm looping midi files and mp3s now, gonna see if it still hangs. If it doesn't, then that's my problem right there I guess...

 

[Goi]

I think that IRQ conflict might have been it. I tried removing the modem that was taking up IRQ10 and shuffling the cards. Now my MX300 shares IRQ5 with only my PCI to USB controller(which isn't used), and I've been looping MP3s and MIDI files for over an hour, still no lockup. Usually it locks up within the first 20 minutes...