Went overseas for one month, came back to hissing/crackling X-Fi

[mrSHEiK124]

Never had any X-Fi crackling/hissing problems like some with nForce4 boards have reported, and the computer has been on since I left and is also plugged into a UPS. I tried playing some music and got loud hissing and crackling with the music, tried changing modes in the X-Fi panel but to no avail, then restarted the computer. I thought it might be my speakers gone bad, but they work just fine with my iPod plugged in. Absolutely nothing has changed as far as software, hardware, or drivers goes in the past month as I have been away from the computer; is it possible a power surge took it out?

 

[corkyg]

Try it bypassing the UPS. You could have had a storm surge/lightning strike in your area. That can travel in via the Internet cable too.

Whenever I go on an extended trip of 2 or more weeks, I unplug everything - including the Internet cable.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

I cranked the music loud for 5 minutes and the hissing went away as unexpectedly as it showed up. Weird...

I did disable my IDE hard drive though, found something on Google about IRQ conflicts, but I've had that hard drive for at least 2 months now.

 

[ronach]

mrSHEIK124,
Would you temporarily hook your IDE drive up again and verify if it is a cause of your hissing and crackling problem. Thank You.

 

[jdoggg12]

She cheated on you while you were gone. She finally hooked up with that hot little audigy down the street and now has a virus.

 

[potato28]

It could've been just residual static from some ungrounded portion of the PC. X-FI's make a virtual ground when started and connected, so it could take sometime to fully dissipate the residue.

 

[Peter]

As much as there is to be googled about IRQ conflicts, it's all bull. Some people just never moved on from their ISA knowledge. (Yes that includes manufacturer's FAQ pages.)

Don't waste your time pursuing that route.

Much rather, given how the X-Fi range is designed with /perfect/ availability of the PCI bus in mind, make sure you have no other bandwidth hogs on low speed busses. Prime candidates are USB webcams, storage controllers on the PCI bus, PS/2 mice with ridiculous poll rates, that kind of stuff.

Finally, while you were away (why did you leave the machine on for a month with nobody using it anyway?), the machine may have downloaded updates and patches that affect what I've written in the previous paragraph.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: Peter
As much as there is to be googled about IRQ conflicts, it's all bull. Some people just never moved on from their ISA knowledge. (Yes that includes manufacturer's FAQ pages.)

Don't waste your time pursuing that route.

Much rather, given how the X-Fi range is designed with /perfect/ availability of the PCI bus in mind, make sure you have no other bandwidth hogs on low speed busses. Prime candidates are USB webcams, storage controllers on the PCI bus, PS/2 mice with ridiculous poll rates, that kind of stuff.

Finally, while you were away (why did you leave the machine on for a month with nobody using it anyway?), the machine may have downloaded updates and patches that affect what I've written in the previous paragraph.

World Community Grid, and so I can Remote Desktop to any files I need. I'm gonna re-enable the IDE drive and see if the problem comes back or not, the only updates my computer can download unattended are AVG updates which I don't exactly think would cause driver conflicts with my X-Fi.

 

[Peter]

Again, this isn't "driver conflicts" or any such support drone's favorite null advice. This is either damaged analog circuitry on the card (has there been a thunderstorm in the area?), or a lack of available bus bandwidth. 99% of all "my X-Fi crackles" complaints are the latter.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: Peter
Again, this isn't "driver conflicts" or any such support drone's favorite null advice. This is either damaged analog circuitry on the card (has there been a thunderstorm in the area?), or a lack of available bus bandwidth. 99% of all "my X-Fi crackles" complaints are the latter.

I live in Florida, I'm sure it rained a whole lot while I was gone. It gradually cleared up 5 minutes after I restarted the computer.

 

[Canai]

Funny enough, the same thing happened to me this past week. I just got back from Sydney and my X-Fi crackles now. My comp was off the whole time too!

Last Creative card I buy

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: Canai
Funny enough, the same thing happened to me this past week. I just got back from Sydney and my X-Fi crackles now. My comp was off the whole time too!

Last Creative card I buy

Blast music for a while and see what happens. Note: invest in earmuffs while trying this.

 

[Peter]

That's (excuse the upcoming pun) starting to sound like corrosion in the connectors. Does unplugging and replugging the cables, multiple times, help?

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: Peter
That's (excuse the upcoming pun) starting to sound like corrosion in the connectors. Does unplugging and replugging the cables, multiple times, help?

I didn't notice it having any direct effect but while it was broken I unplugged/replugged, on the speakers' end, twice to test with two different iPods.

 

[Peter]

I'm thinking more about the CARD end of the affair.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I'd pull the card and examine the caps for any leakers or swollen caps that are going bad.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: Puffnstuff
I'd pull the card and examine the caps for any leakers or swollen caps that are going bad.

My untrained eyes can't spot any bad caps, although I did notice them immediately when a friend brought me a busted computer last year. Card's been fine since the issue went away though, this is weird.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Crackling is randomly back...

And unplugging the cables from the card fixed it.

 

[mrblotto]

Originally posted by: Canai
Funny enough, the same thing happened to me this past week. I just got back from Sydney and my X-Fi crackles now. My comp was off the whole time too!

Last Creative card I buy

Seconded...............

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: mrblotto

Originally posted by: Canai
Funny enough, the same thing happened to me this past week. I just got back from Sydney and my X-Fi crackles now. My comp was off the whole time too!

Last Creative card I buy

Seconded...............

Try unplugging/replugging the cables, it worked for me.