soundblaster live static

[samoo]

does anybody out there using the sblive card (i have the x-gamer card) get static-y sound coming from their speakers? cd's and mp3's are fine but in games where there is explosions or sudden loud noises, i get what sounds like static or popping or crackling noises with the sound. i've got all the latest drivers and nothing seems to help. any info would be appreciated!

 

[interchange]

More than likely, any static you are receiving comes through the speakers or the cords and magnetic interference from other devices. That does not mean your sb live! is defective at all. As a matter of fact, it is even possible that speakers that are ok in weaker sound cards can't handle the extra channels and bass, etc. provided by the live.

I would make sure your speakers are quality and re-inforce weak areas of any wires with electrical tape if necessary. I've heard complaints just recently about static in a particular model of the Cambridge Soundworks speakers. If you update with your speaker brand/model, maybe we can help you more.

 

[samoo]

I have the altec lansing acs(54?) i'm not exactly sure of the model number at the moment but it looks like the one on their website. 4 speaker, 1 subwoofer setup. i've uninstalled drivers and reinstalled them, i usually have to go into the sblive speaker setup and jump around in there, like choose 2 speaker setup, press test, then choose 4 speaker setup and test and that seems to help, but why that helps i don't know.

 

[Bling Bling]

i have the 54's too. they have a staticy sound when they're on and nothing's playing. but when they start to play music, they're bad ass.

 

[samoo]

yeah music great on these, but when i'm playing unreal and there are explosions going on and it starts popping and crackling all over the place, it really sux big time, the thing was i switched from a regular sblive value to the sb x-gamer, thinking i would have the added digital out when i needed it, but it ended up that the value card sounded alot better because the sound came out clean from that card!

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Some suggestions:

- You're overloading the speakers. Never run the volume on the speakers over 75%. Also never run the master or WAV slider in the Windows Sound mixer at full volume.

- Try listening with headphones. If it breaks up in the phones too, it's nothing to do with the speakers.

- The SBLive is prone to PCI IRQ channel sharing problems (not the same as an IRQ conflict). This usually causes random lockup or reboots, but on some systems it can also cause static. I discuss the problem in detail here along with a fix: http://www.voodooextreme.com/flypenguin/glfaq5.htm#5_9

- If you have a bad cable or loose contact between the sound card and speakers (floating ground), the volume will be lower forcing you to raise the volume to compensate. However this will overload the speaker causing distortion.

Hope this helps...