Need Some Sound Help
coil
Amateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance. Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Amateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance. Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">weird stall bug with win2k</div> System specs:
PIII 800MHz
384MB PCI-133 RAM
Windows 2000 Pro SP 3
Soundblaster Audigy Gamer
Twin monitors (GeForce2 GTS 32MB AGP primary, Voodoo Banshee PCI secondary)
I've got the latest drivers for my video cards, sound card, and the latest Windows Updates.
This has been an issue since I upgraded (don't kill me, MonsE, please) from Win98 to Win2kpro (I was running only one monitor at the time). Yes, I should have done a format and clean install, I realize this. However, since installing Win2kpro, my sound is intermittantly - and frequently - interrupted by high-pitched blips and other "stalls," as if my CPU is maxing out and breaking up playback. This interrupts Winamp, wav files, sound effects in games, anything. I run several small background programs, but have tried disabling all of them and still get these sound issues.
One of the background programs I run causes Matrix-style code to fall down my desktop (coolest. program. ever). When my sound stalls, I noticed that the falling code *also* stalls. Additionally, attempting to record one of the sound "blips" using Sound Recorder failed - SR also appears to stall, and the wav it records ends up being a perfect recording with no imperfections. So it appears that *everything* my computer is doing locks up when this happens.
Any ideas what might be causing this, or how to fix it? /: Or should I reformat, reinstall, and hope for the best?
Thanks in advance.
PIII 800MHz
384MB PCI-133 RAM
Windows 2000 Pro SP 3
Soundblaster Audigy Gamer
Twin monitors (GeForce2 GTS 32MB AGP primary, Voodoo Banshee PCI secondary)
I've got the latest drivers for my video cards, sound card, and the latest Windows Updates.
This has been an issue since I upgraded (don't kill me, MonsE, please) from Win98 to Win2kpro (I was running only one monitor at the time). Yes, I should have done a format and clean install, I realize this. However, since installing Win2kpro, my sound is intermittantly - and frequently - interrupted by high-pitched blips and other "stalls," as if my CPU is maxing out and breaking up playback. This interrupts Winamp, wav files, sound effects in games, anything. I run several small background programs, but have tried disabling all of them and still get these sound issues.
One of the background programs I run causes Matrix-style code to fall down my desktop (coolest. program. ever). When my sound stalls, I noticed that the falling code *also* stalls. Additionally, attempting to record one of the sound "blips" using Sound Recorder failed - SR also appears to stall, and the wav it records ends up being a perfect recording with no imperfections. So it appears that *everything* my computer is doing locks up when this happens.
Any ideas what might be causing this, or how to fix it? /: Or should I reformat, reinstall, and hope for the best?
Thanks in advance.
Comments
You probably already know enough about windows for this entire paragraph to be old news, but by default, this program's CPU usage priority is set to "idle." Not just "Below normal" or "Low" or "Lowest," but "Idle." At least in theory, it only does calculations with spare CPU cycles not used by any other programs. If it's stopping when sound is stalling, you may be very correct in thinking it's a problem with CPU usage maxing out.
Someone here (perhaps MonsE, if for some reason he decides not to rag on you for not doing a clean install in the first place) should be able to tell you how to use some of Win2k pro's Administrative Tools functions to log CPU usage, program memory consumption, and the like. Unfortunately it's not something I'm familiar with myself, but there's got to be a way to find out which program is causing the bottleneck....
[edit] I think I found it. Start>Settings>control panel>administrative tools>performance should get you a window with a left sidebar that has two tabs, "tree" and"favorites." On the same height of those tab markers is some menu bar full of pictures, one of which is for "add" (it's about in the middle.) Should be able to find plenty of things to track.
As for how to keep track of a specific program using that, I'm still looking.
i suggest watching the task manager for programs jumping to 100% cpu use, and you might see that some little program you didnt know about is acting up. if it turns out it is a service, then you can only try to disable them one by one to see if the problem goes away.
also, try older sound drivers, the newest is not always the best when it comes to drivers that are updated frequently like the nvidia detonators are.
although you probably wont like this one, the way i fixed all of my strange bugs was to change from win2k back to 98 (then later i went to xp). personal anecdote: xp hated running videos and always crashed and rebooted the computer when i tried to run a streaming video or even some of the fancy new banner ads. it also didnt recognize my cd burner and there were no other availiable drivers, so i had to change to 98 to utilize my 300 dollar drive... (back when an 8x burner was fancy). win2k seems to have been designed for server machines running standard hardware and only stable business programs.
one last note, i have/had nearly the same system specs.
Running Winamp *by itself* produces no problems.
As soon as I try to run another program simultaneously, however, this "stall" bug reappears in horrific form - it freezes my computer, playing the "beeeep" of the stall until I hit the reset button. If I start up Winamp with other programs running (And I'm talking my little background programs, like my alarm clock and ZMatrix), it will play 5-15 seconds of whatever song I select before freezing up.
The machine also occasionally locks up during startup, mid-way through my "start windows" sound effect. It has also locked up when I right-clicked something to bring up a menu (which also creates a sound effect).
Obviously, I can't do jack spooey on my machine with it behaving this way. Does anyone have *any* advice?? I'm going to try reinstalling my soundcard. Ugh.
-edit- reinstalling the card had no effect. Note: I moved home today, a 3-hour car ride with my computer in the back seat. Could it be a hardware problem, like I hit a bump and actually *broke* something?
Borrow one from a friend or some thing see if the same thing happens
Remember there is all ways an option of formatting <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Problem 1: Computer would frequently glitch, bleep, bloop, and the screen would glitch a bit before restarting. I found that something as simple as using the scroll button on my mouse would cause the computer to lock up. Playing games like Half Life would cause the system to lock, the sound to repeat (or simply squeel) and either it would bring me to a blue screen, or would simply freeze.
Resolution: That blue screen had some vital information on it. I found out that my memory had actually corrupted! Anything that used more memory than standard Windows chores would cause the computer to shut down. Replaced memory. Computer still locked. Replaced sound card to Sound Blaster Audigy. Computer stopped locking.
Problem 2: While playing Half Life, I would get frequent static and other mechanical sounding glitches from my sound card.
Resolution: Updated sound card drivers, problem was solved.
Problem 3: While listening to MP3s, Winamp has a tendency to skip or mangle portions of a song if a memory intensive program is running a process.
Resolution: I have yet to find one, besides shutting down every non-essential program while running Winamp. I don't want to do that. I also don't want to buy more memory.
Hope that helps.
After uninstalling the sound card's drivers and physically removing the card from the computer, the computer now *refuses to boot* if the sound card is connected to the motherboard. It runs fine if I don't attach the SC.
Or
Did you try another SC your SC could possibly is on the way out
After uninstalling the sound card's drivers and physically removing the card from the computer, the computer now *refuses to boot* if the sound card is connected to the motherboard. It runs fine if I don't attach the SC. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Oops. Your getting to the point where in the long run starting from a clean install might possibly save you more grief in the long run. I've always had problems when changing Windows versions from anything but a clean install. The main probelm I found is you end up with (in your case) win98 drivers for devices whcih won't work under win2k and need win2k specific drivers.
On the other hand a fresh install is no good if it's a hardware problem. In a situation like this a good friend and his/her PC are invaluable. Try swapping your dimms (memory problems manifest in loads of different ways) between PCs. Same with sound card. Are your system temperatures OK ? Have you got onboard sound and is it disabled ?
Gave you PC a good clean out physically, I know it sounds stupid but i've had problems with dust clogging up PCI slots before now.
The trick is to keep eliminating possible problems.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Problem 3: While listening to MP3s, Winamp has a tendency to skip or mangle portions of a song if a memory intensive program is running a process.
Resolution: I have yet to find one, besides shutting down every non-essential program while running Winamp. I don't want to do that. I also don't want to buy more memory.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It seems that either memory or rather the lack of it is the problem. If you have 256mb or less in win2k and are using something like 3dsmax or another memory intensive program like you said any music playback will skip. Adding more Ram is probably the best way to go.
Coil
Like medhead said it could be corrupted RAM, but that does generally happen in 3D games like he said. It could be a problem with the Audigy card, (tbh the Live series has always seemed to be more stable) or it could be a problem with your processor maxing out. Although that wouldn't cause the rest of your problems...Could be that in tring to fix it you inadvertently messed something else up in there. Though the sound causing lockups does look like a soundcard fault. Check Creative's site to make sure tyou have the latest drivers and reinstall them just to be sure. Then run it through the DXdiag like was suggested. If that doesn't bring up anything it could also be a problem with the IRQ assignments. Win2k handles all of them its self so you can't mess it up. However it does a good job of that on it's own sometimes. (It assigned 9 things to IRQ for me once...aused no end of blue screens in MoH:AA).
Infomation about your Mobo could help. Try downloading Sandra <a href='http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html?dir=dload&location=sware_dl_x86&langx=en&a=' target='_blank'>here</a> and see if it gioves you anymore infomation on your hardware, also check where the IRQs are assigned to see if there are any conflicts.
Hopefully it should give some feedback.
When you say that 'After uninstalling the sound card's drivers and physically removing the card from the computer, the computer now *refuses to boot* if the sound card is connected to the motherboard. It runs fine if I don't attach the SC. ", do you mean that the PC itself will not POST (i.e. it will not get past the character-based hardware loading screens and never shows the windows 2000 loader screen)? Or do you mean that it gets into the Windows 2000 loader screen then hangs, freezes, crashes, something else?
If it's hanging at the POST screen, that does point us towards a BIOS config issue.
One other question - when you put the card back in, did it go in the same PCI slot on the motherboard, or into a different one? Could be as simple as an IRQ conflict.
One person brought up the idea of putting this SC in another friend's PC and seeing if the behavior is duplicated. This is a good idea if only to show that the card itself has no problems physically (it won't help you determine if the card hates your motherboard though).
Remind me to fire you later for upgrading instead of doing a clean install. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> I'm tracking this topic now, I'll reply as soon as you do.
Anyways: You do not mention what Mobo you are using. Because any flavour of Live/Audigy can have small to moderate problems with all things VIA (That is VIA KT133, 166, 266, 333). If you got a VIA, powered mobo that might be the reason. If not, disregard this <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
If you want to make sure your hardware is really removed from your pc, do a search on a file named *.inf in your \windows folder with the content "audigy". Remove those if they appear. That will at least make auto-detection of the hardware prompt for drivers.
Also make sure to "Show hidden devices" in your System properties and check out that all things not needed are removed (such as several instances of devices).
Eeek! Or you could just *move* them to a backup location. NO deleting INF files if you are not 100% sure what you are doing!
Danged Immac and his trusting nature... <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
1) text-based loading screens proceed no problem.
2) Windows 2000 loading screen appears, progress bar fills.
3) BLUE SCREEN. At tho top of the screen, this text appears:
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->*** STOP: 0x000000D1 (0xBFCA882D,0x000000002,0x00000000,0xBFCA882D)
DRIVER_IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
*** Address BFCA88D base at BFCa882D, DateStamp 00000000 - e10kx2k.sys
*** Address BFCA88D base at BFCa882D, DateStamp 00000000 - e10kx2k.sys
If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen,
restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed.
If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer
for any Windows 2000 updates you might need.
If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware
or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.
Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and
terminated. If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components,
restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options,
and then select Safe Mode.
Refer to your Getting Started manual for more information on
troubleshooting Stop errors.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
1) Booted in safe mode.
2) totally uninstalled soundcard (via Control Panel, Add/Remove Hardware)
3) moved soundcard to new PCI slot.
4) successfully booted computer.
I kind of having a feeling that reinstalling the card will return me to my freeze-on-winamp stage, but it's better than the Stop error.
The computer is a Dell Dimension 4100; I've been unable to determine the make/model of the motherboard. However, this mobo and soundcard have gotten along fine in the past. It's only since moving home that things went wrong.
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=33959&st=0' target='_blank'>Creative Sons OF *</a>
Its a problem with Audigy cards and win2k/xp creative hasnt officially aknowledged the problem however its IS a problem and it IS affecting many people. Its called the squeal of death
EDIT: ohh yes and your DELL has been singled out along with the 8100 as a system with the problem
The blue screen error text you had though looked identical to the problem I had when I installed Win2k. This was resolved by reassigning the IRQs, however Win2k has ACPI support installed and so that makes it impossible to manually set the IRQ. Although having the cards on the same irq shouldn't cause any problems, as they should be PCI 2.1 complient, Win2k often messes them up somehow.
There are ways to disable ACPI but I wouldn't like to say how because I can't remember and it could be more trouble than it's worth. However completely uninstalling and removing the card, then reinstalling it may force it to switch the IRQ and solve the problem, but it may not. Could be worth a try though.
Edit: for clarity.
It definitely sounds like an IRQ problem.
I had a lot of difficulties on my finite-monkey-built Athlon system when I first set it up - things would crash randomly in OpenGL but not Direct3D, overlay-using video playback would lock the machine up, along with various other problems. This was with Windows 98; it worked fine in Linux.
I eventually traced it down to being due to my WinTV television card sharing an IRQ with my Matrox G400 graphics card. It's something that's supposed to work, but in this case definitely didn't. The IRQs seemed to be pretty much set in stone, but I soon managed to give the WinTV card a different IRQ by simply placing it in another PCI slot.
This is of course assuming there's a PCI slot free; if not, shuffling cards around might help. Just make sure you've got all the drivers handy - with me, Windows 98 promptly forgot what all the hardware was, and I needed to reinstall them. Windows 2000 might be a bit more sensible in this regard, but it's best to be on the safe side... <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
And I've had a semi-burnout on a vid card... my old (OLD) Rage Fury MAXX. Though the OS said it was fine, attempting to play *anything* in an overlay (aka: any movies, streaming video, AVIs) would end up doublesizing them vertically, and only displaying the top half. ATI wanted me to send it in for service, but I just got a new vid card anyway... the Rage was aging, and the dual-chip SLI implementation was more a pain than overly useful.
New problem though.. there's a Mobility M4 in the laptop I was just given. So I get to try and re-remember how to deal with the Rage128 series. Fun fun.
Anyone know if the video on a Gateway Solo 9500 can be swapped out? Heck, I'd *pay* to get this thing kicked up to something decent, graphically. It can _almost_ run Maya for my schoolwork, but if you try to maximize any of the isometric (or perspective) windows, it crashes painfully. Though if you start it in single-window mode, it seems to perform quite happily until you pop it into four-window mode and try to bring it back. :b
Personally, I've been using a Hercules Game Theatre XP for the past two years. Bought it when it had just 5.1 support, but they've been good enough at upgrading the drivers that it now has 7.1 support. Still has a few problems, though. EAX in half-life echoes in wierd ways everywhere (in NS if I walk as a marine I'll think I've got one or more buddies following me, but I'll be alone). And being such an old card (and non-Creative) it doesn't have EAX advanced HD support.
Then there's this other 7.1 card I haven't seen in use, but the reviews for it haven't been too shabby. The following URL points to a review of it at TechSpot, but I'm sure you can search for others elsewhere. <a href='http://www.techspot.com/reviews/hardware/revolution71/index.shtml' target='_blank'>http://www.techspot.com/reviews/hardware/r...n71/index.shtml</a>
Update to the update:
1) card reinstalled.
2) squeal of death returns
3) computer reboots; primary monitor goes to black after "Win2k loading" graphic progress meter, while secondary monitor displays a lovely pink-ish stationary interference pattern.
4) Physically removed card. Computer boots fine.
5) Ain't putting that damn card back in my machine.
I think I'll get a Creative SB Live. They seem to be pretty solid. Frikkin hell.
edit: also try getting the latest BIOS update from DELL for your 4100 because they have aknowledged the squeal of death as a problem