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#1
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soundblaster skipping question
hello, i just purchased a $20 soundblaster PCI card and when i play
mp3s, wmas, or online music, i get an unpredictable skipping. it seems to happen every couple minutes, but is inconsistant. there are no other pci cards on this machine. its a 1.8 p4 w/ 512 ram running xp sp2. does anyone have any suggestions? thanks in advance for any help with this matter aaron; |
#2
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"Aaron Collins" wrote in message
om... hello, i just purchased a $20 soundblaster PCI card and when i play mp3s, wmas, or online music, i get an unpredictable skipping. it seems to happen every couple minutes, but is inconsistant. there are no other pci cards on this machine. its a 1.8 p4 w/ 512 ram running xp sp2. does anyone have any suggestions? Does it coincide with disk access? Is you hard drive light blinking when it happens? |
#3
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"Aaron Collins" wrote in message
om... hello, i just purchased a $20 soundblaster PCI card and when i play mp3s, wmas, or online music, i get an unpredictable skipping. it seems to happen every couple minutes, but is inconsistant. there are no other pci cards on this machine. its a 1.8 p4 w/ 512 ram running xp sp2. does anyone have any suggestions? Does it coincide with disk access? Is you hard drive light blinking when it happens? |
#4
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"Aaron Collins" wrote in message
om hello, i just purchased a $20 soundblaster PCI card Specifically which one? and when i play mp3s, wmas, or online music, i get an unpredictable skipping. it seems to happen every couple minutes, but is inconsistant. there are no other pci cards on this machine. its a 1.8 p4 w/ 512 ram running xp sp2. does anyone have any suggestions? Clean up any possible spyware, viruses, and/or file-sharing programs. |
#5
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"Aaron Collins" wrote in message
om hello, i just purchased a $20 soundblaster PCI card Specifically which one? and when i play mp3s, wmas, or online music, i get an unpredictable skipping. it seems to happen every couple minutes, but is inconsistant. there are no other pci cards on this machine. its a 1.8 p4 w/ 512 ram running xp sp2. does anyone have any suggestions? Clean up any possible spyware, viruses, and/or file-sharing programs. |
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#11
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On 27 Nov 2004 22:11:15 -0800, Aaron Collins wrote:
Thank you everyone for your replies. I looked on my card and the model # is CT4750. I've narrowed down the skipping to network activity. if i close my browser and email, the problem goes away. would it help to buy a better quality card? i've never had this problem running cheap sb cards on slower machines, so i didn't think it would be the card, but i don't know. the nic card is the only other pci card on my machine, maybe that has something to do with it. any help is greatly appreciated. Could be related to an IRQ clash. From the alt.music.home-studio FAQ: http://www.unmusic.co.uk/amh-s-faq.html In short, it might be worth trying the SB in another slot. "2.4 Q - What is IRQ sharing, how can it be avoided and is it a problem? A - PC compatibles running Windows can have this problem. Each PCI expansion slot is assigned an IRQ number. System resources such as IDE channels, AGP graphics, USB and Firewire also have an IRQ number. When two system resources are assigned to the same IRQ, problems can occur. Typical symptoms of an IRQ clash can include stuttering, popping sound or system slowdown/crashes during audio playback/record. Here is an edited version of a post that I made to alt.steinberg.cubase on the subject of troubleshooting IRQ conflicts: "Bottom line - IRQ sharing is supposed to be problem free on modern systems but I've had bad luck when attempting it and I've heard lots of reports of other people having problems with it. On mother board implementations that I have encountered each of the PCI slots is hardwired to an IRQ. Unfortunately, each of the those IRQs is usually hardwired to a system resource too. So, it would seem that your PCI slot 1 is hardwired to IRQ 11 and that the AGP slot is also hardwired to IRQ 11. Moving the card into another slot should overcome this conflict. However, bare in mind that each of the other slots probably shares an IRQ with a system resource as well. For example, slot 2 might be on the same IRQ as USB, which could cause more problems if you want to use USB and the audio card at the same time. There is often a page in the BIOS that tells you which slot is hardwired to which IRQ. However, this won't help you resolve conflicts because when you change the IRQ assigned to a slot, the system resource that it shares with will also change (on every board I've ever used, at least). So, a bit of experimentation is probably required. You could try going into the BIOS setup and making a note of which slot is linked to which IRQ. On most systems, there is screen that pops up after the POST memory test has completed and just before the operating system starts to boot. This screen often gives a list of IRQ assignments. I consider this list to be definitive and the information in Windows' Device Manager to be less reliable/accurate. This screen can go by too quickly so you could put a blank floppy disk into the drive (which should produce an error) to keep that screen up. [Update - I just discovered a neat little trick: pressing the 'Break/Pause' key causes this screen to stay up. I had to press space to get the machine to continue booting.] " So in short, technically, it may be possible to run more than one resource on the IRQ but in practice, it often causes problems and is probably best avoided. It is good practice to make sure that no two resources which will be used during audio/midi recording occupy the same IRQ. " -- ***My real address is m/ike at u/nmusic d/ot co dot u/k (removing /s) np: http://www.unmusic.co.uk http://www.unmusic.co.uk/amh-s-faq.html - alt.music.home-studio FAQ http://www.unmusic.co.uk/wrap.php?file=vhs.html - vhs purchase log. |
#12
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killermike wrote in message .. .
On 27 Nov 2004 22:11:15 -0800, Aaron Collins wrote: Thank you everyone for your replies. I looked on my card and the model # is CT4750. I've narrowed down the skipping to network activity. if i close my browser and email, the problem goes away. would it help to buy a better quality card? i've never had this problem running cheap sb cards on slower machines, so i didn't think it would be the card, but i don't know. the nic card is the only other pci card on my machine, maybe that has something to do with it. any help is greatly appreciated. Could be related to an IRQ clash. From the alt.music.home-studio FAQ: http://www.unmusic.co.uk/amh-s-faq.html In short, it might be worth trying the SB in another slot. thanks for the suggestion. unfortunately, i tried this and its still skipping. and it has nothing to do with my network card. it skips when the only app open is winamp/win media/musicmath. so i'm not sure if i have to buy a new a card or what. it really sounds like more of an issue with my mb/bus. i wonder if it matters that i used to have onboard audio, but had to disable it and buy a cheap sb card due to the fact that my onboard audio record input never worked. i went into the bios and disabled onboard audio, and other than the occasional annoying skip every 4 min or so, the pci sb card works great. i sure wish i could figure this out. aaron; |
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