Originally posted by: ^Sniper^
I am far from a newb pal. I realize the problem is the sound card but I was wondering if someone might have any idea if the onboard sound card is just crap, if its a known issue with Epox 8k3a+ board(and WinXP) and if their might be a fix(other than buying a new sound card).
BTW if you don't have something helpful to say please don't reply.
Dude, I don't know why everyone's on your case so much. Then again, I don't know you.. but still. Doesn't seem like that idiotic of a question to me, I've seen faaaaaaaaaaar worse get by without criticism.
Anyways... Yes, it's most likely a sh!tty onboard sound card. I don't know that board well, but on my ECS K7S5A, the onboard sound sucks hard. I get the popping/crackling crap sometimes, but not ever using my standard/basic SBLive card. I think it's just an issue of being poorly integrated into the motherboard, doesn't know how to efficiently share resources or something... like it takes too much, so when the video is being used intensively, or something like that, it takes away from the sound, resulting in the crackling/popping B-S.
I could be WAY off, but that's what it seemed like to me when I had my prob, and your symptoms sound very similar. Best bet is to just use a real sound card, I think. Or get a better mobo... but a sound card is cheaper.