Strange SB Audigy 2 ZS Sound Issues

[ZeFyre]

Greetings!

Some of you who have been roaming these forums for a while will remember my past posts about my system that was continuously having split-second video freezes while playing various games.

Now, my brand-spanking-new SB Audigy 2 ZS Platinum card is giving me trouble, and, I was wondering if any of you had any advice as to what I could try to get things up and running normally again.

For advanced reference, here is my hardware:

- Athlon XP 2400 @ 2.0GHz

- Asus A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard

- 512MB Kingston PC2700 RAM

- 40GB Maxtor 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive

- Verbatim DVD+RW

- Artec CD-RW

- MSI nVidia GeForce FX 5200 128MB Personal Cinema GPU

- Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS Platinum with Audigy Drive / Joystick Bracked installed

The exact problem is that, out of nowhere, sound is messed up in several apps, for instance:

- In Doom III, sound will work fine for about the first 5 minutes of play, but, then it will start to flange and make "static noise," and after a few more seconds, the sound will completely stop. I have tried running "s_restart" from the D3 console, and this cycle will just start all over again.

- In several other games, a loud "squeak" or "pop" will be emitted every 45 seconds or so. This is most noticeable in Quake II.

- Most non-game applications, including things like Windows Media Player and WinDVR work perfectly, without any problems.

I have tried the following to fix the problem, to no avail:

- Reinstall the OS and upgrade the SB Audigy 2 ZS software to the latest versions available

- Re-seat the SB card, and check the connections to the Joystick bracket and Audigy Drive.

I should also note that this card worked without a problem for the first 1+1/2 months that I had it.

Any ideas or suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated. Also, if any of you would be interested in buying my "problem child" as a fixer-upper for a reasonable price, please PM or e-mail me and make an offer.

Thanks much!

--Quinn

[briankallen3]

hey bud,

I just saw your post had no replies, and niether does mine, so I'm going to give you my best advice. I'm assuming everything went peachy on the install of the card, and you aren't having any troubles with the sound quality outside of your gaming apps. And since the card worked great for the first 1.5 months or so, it "sounds" like you have a problem with either your speakers or there is an audio issue with mainly your gaming apps that use some specific type of software to "improve" the quality of the game. Does your card have pre-setting for specific games? And are you turning up the volume up your speakers really load when you play? Also, it could be the wiring in your speakers can't handle the power output coming from the soundcard when you're gaming and over the time that everything worked fine, the wires were breaking down. I'd lean more on the speaker issue than a software issue unless you have your system hooked up to some nice speakers made for surround, not those crappy desktop speakers or pretend 5.1 speaker systems for computer that are really crap. I bought one before and I hated it. Other than the speaker, I'd have to say it's an issue with the programs you're running and not the actual soundcard. Try updating the games with the lastest patches and surf the game sites to lok for Sound issues anyone else had. Hope that helps.

Brian

[ZeFyre]

Brian,

Thanks for your reply.

The speakers I have are Creative [Labs] Inspire! 5300 5.1 speakers, so, by no means are they "cheap" or "pretend." Then again, I've had them for 2-3 years, so that may have some bearing.

Still, I strongly doubt that it has anything to do with my speakers.

I am also going to try and replace the card that's in there with the card that I had as a part of a SB Audigy 2 ZS GAMER Edition package, as they are both, simply put, just the same SB Audigy 2 ZS card, only with different accessories and software.

Finally, I also have an Audigy NX (the USB-based Audigy,) and I'll hook my speakers up to that, and see what happens.

Since I just got back from a weekend camping trip, I have some stuff to do, but, I'm going to try these tonight, and let you know what happens, and maybe we can figure something out from there.

Thanks again!

--Quinn

[SiMoNsAyS]

Re-seat the SB card, and check the connections to the Joystick bracket and Audigy Drive

Re-seat means change the card to another PCI slot? if not, try it, also try the card on another system (or with another OS) will be helpful.

[ZeFyre]

SS,

Thanks for your suggestions!

I have run some further tests, and their results point to the fact that it's probably either a configuration or software (driver) issue, in that order of possibility.

I am feeling kind of crappy today, so I'm going to "call in sick" (BTW, I work for myself,) and spend some time working on fixing this.

I'll post back sometime this evening, and let you all know what I've found...

Thanks again!

--Quinn