Problem with GA-8PE667 Ultra 2

Ecwfrk

Junior Member
Mar 3, 2001
3
0
0
I have a strange sound/system problem with the Gigabyte GA-8PE667 Ultra 2.

Using onboard ac97 (tried both the 2.94 drivers that Gigabyte has posted and the 3.42 at realtek)
P4 2.4Ghz 533FSB
Corsair PC3200 DDR
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro w/3.2 Catalysts (also tried newest Omega drivers)
Windows XP Pro (with and without SP1, Default installation)
Never overclocked
IAA is not installed. Intel .inf not installed (have tried with both though)
Tried DX8 and DX9
Also tried setting everything in BIOS to fail safes. Only thing I haven't done is disable RAID or other necessities. I also haven't tried downgrading the BIOS to the latest posted on the Gigabyte site (the board came with F3 but the latest on Gigabyte's site is F2)

When playing BF1942, mp3s in Winamp, or movies, after an hour or so the sound will cut out system wide.
In BF1942 it'll come back after awhile but if I exit the game while the sound is off it'll either still show up in the processes list and can't be terminated until it shuts off itself after a a variable amount of time, from between 15-45 minutes, at which time sound will return or the computer will hard lock and I have to power down.
With MP3s in Winamp 2.8 and 2.9, sound will cut off and the only way to get it to come back is to reboot. Winamp closes down fine though.
When playing movies (DVD and Divx) with BS Player or Windows Media Player (8 and 9) after an hour the sound will die and then the program will quickly freeze and it can't be terminated. It will stay on forever using every bit of processor it can get. I have to power down to get the machine back in order.

I've checked the processor, ram, & vid card in a seperate computer (Asus P4B w/soudblaster PCI512) with no problem. The computer can take Prime 95 coupled with CPU burn for hours with no stability problems and 3D Mark loops aren't a problem either. The CPU is running at around 40C (46C under full load) and the case is at a constant 25-27C It's remained stable throughout everything else I do. It's just when I use sound for an extended period of time that problems crop up.

Anyone have any idea of what's left to check or what the problem might be? Could it just be a bad board? I still have plenty of time left to RMA it if all else fails.
 

BuddyLove

Junior Member
Apr 21, 2003
2
0
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I'm using 667 Ultra. The solution for the problem with disappearing sound was found when i disabled the TOP PERFOMANCE option in BIOS. As far as i understand all this option does is rising FSB on 3MHz but built-in AC97 codec is very sencitive for FSB frequency. Try this...