Scratchy sound XP Home & Creative

msw_01_uk · 06-05-2005, 12:19 PM

Recently I have upgraded my husband's system with an MSI (MS6378) motherboard, an Athlon 1900+ XP CPU and 1GB of RAM. He's using his existing hard drives (with a fresh install of XP Home), CD and DVD drives, 3Com Ethernet PCI card and Creative Soundblaster Live Platinum card with LiveDrive.

Since the installation the sound from the soundcard is very distorted...screeching and scratchy...when playing music (mp3's, waves and when using SoundForge etc...) and we have tried everything we can think of to fix it. Being a sound engineer it's imperative to him that the sound isn't distorted in any way.

We've changed PCI slots, installed upgraded drivers (from the Creative site), changed IRQ settings in the BIOS and uninstalled and reinstalled the card and all the drivers, all to no avail. The onboard sound isn't causing a conflict as the drivers haven't been installed and it's been disabled in the BIOS. We've also checked for an updated version of BIOS from the MSI site and tried a PCI Latency patch. We've tried using just Windows XP drivers, also KX Project drivers (from a third party site) and have made sure the speakers and cables are not damaged!

I used to have the MSI (with VIA chipset) motherboard installed on my old computer and used a SoundBlaster Live card with no problems and have run out of ideas now. Can anyone please help before we end up putting everything back onto his very ancient (and very slow!) Jetway motherboard!

dai · 06-05-2005, 12:24 PM

try it without the front panel fitted into the bay

msw_01_uk · 06-06-2005, 06:09 AM

Right, we've tried some more things now so will update on the problem. We've disconnected the live drive, which made no difference at all. We tried all the other PCI slots, which also made no difference and there's nothing wrong with the speakers or cables.

We've now swapped sound cards. I have the Platinum card in my system and it's working perfectly (so it's not the card that's the problem). The Soundblaster card that I used to have on the MSI motherboard is now back on my husband's PC (where it was originally installed when I was using the motherboard, with no sound problems, so not a motherboard conflict) and we're getting the scratchy, screeching problem again. The only thing we can think of now is a software conflict somewhere...any ideas?

dai · 06-06-2005, 10:43 AM

not coming up with much searching found this
Quote:
Do a clean install of your card. By that I mean go to Add/Remove Progams and get rid of all that Creative stuff.
Then go to Start/Find/Files or Folders... and do a search for Creative and dump that.
Power down and pull your card.
Power up without the card in so that Windows "sees that there is no card in".
Power down.
Reinstall your card.
Power up.
Let Windows find it.
Then using your original installation CD, select Custom and just put in SurroundMixer/AudioHQ/drivers. Uncheck everything else.
Then go to Creatives site and download any updates by date issued.
Then install updates in the order issued and reboot after each install.
I've used that procedure for every Creative card I've had
check the first one here
http://dmzweb3.europe.creative.com:8...,Case=obj(6516)

jimscreechy · 06-06-2005, 12:18 PM

You say the onboard soundcard is not causing a conflict! Does this mean you have disabled it in the bios, bcause if you haven't this could be the cause of the problem.

msw_01_uk · 06-26-2005, 12:12 PM

Just to let you know that I have now sorted the problem...by installing a new graphics card of all things. Everything's now up and running as it should be, with excellent sound and of course, great graphics.

dai · 06-26-2005, 12:15 PM

thanks for posting your fix,glad you got it sorted

06-05-2005, 12:19 PM	#1 (permalink)
msw_01_uk Registered User Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 3 OS: XP	Scratchy sound XP Home & Creative Recently I have upgraded my husband's system with an MSI (MS6378) motherboard, an Athlon 1900+ XP CPU and 1GB of RAM. He's using his existing hard drives (with a fresh install of XP Home), CD and DVD drives, 3Com Ethernet PCI card and Creative Soundblaster Live Platinum card with LiveDrive. Since the installation the sound from the soundcard is very distorted...screeching and scratchy...when playing music (mp3's, waves and when using SoundForge etc...) and we have tried everything we can think of to fix it. Being a sound engineer it's imperative to him that the sound isn't distorted in any way. We've changed PCI slots, installed upgraded drivers (from the Creative site), changed IRQ settings in the BIOS and uninstalled and reinstalled the card and all the drivers, all to no avail. The onboard sound isn't causing a conflict as the drivers haven't been installed and it's been disabled in the BIOS. We've also checked for an updated version of BIOS from the MSI site and tried a PCI Latency patch. We've tried using just Windows XP drivers, also KX Project drivers (from a third party site) and have made sure the speakers and cables are not damaged! I used to have the MSI (with VIA chipset) motherboard installed on my old computer and used a SoundBlaster Live card with no problems and have run out of ideas now. Can anyone please help before we end up putting everything back onto his very ancient (and very slow!) Jetway motherboard!

06-05-2005, 12:24 PM	#2 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,637 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	try it without the front panel fitted into the bay __________________

06-06-2005, 10:43 AM	#4 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,637 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	not coming up with much searching found this Quote: Do a clean install of your card. By that I mean go to Add/Remove Progams and get rid of all that Creative stuff. Then go to Start/Find/Files or Folders... and do a search for Creative and dump that. Power down and pull your card. Power up without the card in so that Windows "sees that there is no card in". Power down. Reinstall your card. Power up. Let Windows find it. Then using your original installation CD, select Custom and just put in SurroundMixer/AudioHQ/drivers. Uncheck everything else. Then go to Creatives site and download any updates by date issued. Then install updates in the order issued and reboot after each install. I've used that procedure for every Creative card I've had check the first one here http://dmzweb3.europe.creative.com:8...,Case=obj(6516) __________________ Last edited by dai; 06-06-2005 at 10:57 AM.

06-06-2005, 12:18 PM	#5 (permalink)
jimscreechy Registered User Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: UK Posts: 372 OS: xp	You say the onboard soundcard is not causing a conflict! Does this mean you have disabled it in the bios, bcause if you haven't this could be the cause of the problem. __________________ []Intel Q6600 []2GB Samsung DDR3[]EVGA 790i Motherboard[]2 x Asus Geforce 8800GTX, Thermaltake Duorb VGA coolers[]OCZ 850 GameXtreme[]Adaptec 3805 Raid adaptor A Custom made car is always better than its production alternative.

06-26-2005, 12:15 PM	#7 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,637 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	thanks for posting your fix,glad you got it sorted __________________

06-06-2005, 06:09 AM	#3 (permalink)
msw_01_uk Registered User Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 3 OS: XP	Right, we've tried some more things now so will update on the problem. We've disconnected the live drive, which made no difference at all. We tried all the other PCI slots, which also made no difference and there's nothing wrong with the speakers or cables. We've now swapped sound cards. I have the Platinum card in my system and it's working perfectly (so it's not the card that's the problem). The Soundblaster card that I used to have on the MSI motherboard is now back on my husband's PC (where it was originally installed when I was using the motherboard, with no sound problems, so not a motherboard conflict) and we're getting the scratchy, screeching problem again. The only thing we can think of now is a software conflict somewhere...any ideas?

06-26-2005, 12:12 PM	#6 (permalink)
msw_01_uk Registered User Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 3 OS: XP	Just to let you know that I have now sorted the problem...by installing a new graphics card of all things. Everything's now up and running as it should be, with excellent sound and of course, great graphics.