I recently replaced a faulty motherboard. The replacement works fine,
except that I am having problems with the audio. The sound card
produces very
loud crackling/hissing when I use something with sound, with a hint of
the sound/music I should be hearing. However, when the computer is
busy (loading a program or playing a CPU/graphics intensive game), the
problem mostly goes away, then starts crackling again once the
computer is no longer busy. I have tried moving the sound card as far
away as possible from other cards and a few other tips provided by
Creative (http://dmzweb4.europe.creative.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=53,E=0000000000011691836,K=9788,Sxi=13,Kb=creative_cli_en,Case=obj(5265))

Relevant specs:
1.33Ghz Athlon on a Shuttle Spacewalker AK 32 motherboard (VIA KT266)
256MB PC133, WinXP Pro, 32MB Savage4 PCI 3D card
Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 PCI

I will tip an additional $10 if your answer fixes my problem.

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Request for Question Clarification by haversian-ga on 09 Dec 2002 23:04 PST

Soundblaster Live cards are known to be finicky, particularly with VIA
chipsets (though mine is working fine).  I am not sure about SB16s
though - they're pretty well-supported

Could you tell us:

What other cards do you have installed?
What PCI slots are they in?  The AGP slot (usually brown, above your
PCI slots) is on top and PCI slots are numbered starting at 0 below
the AGP.
What is your pci latency set to?  This is a value in your computer's
BIOS which regulates how long a single device can use the PCI bus
before others can butt in.
What BIOS revision do you have?
Were you having any problems with the old computer the souncard and
videocard came from?

That should get any Researcher interested in tackling your question
started on it.

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Clarification of Question by amitnaiz-ga on 09 Dec 2002 23:28 PST

I have a Creative Savage4 PCI card (couple years old), in PCI slot 0
(top).
USR 56k modem, PCI slot 1
Sound Blaster 16 PCI slot 4

I could not find a PCI latency setting in my BIOS-however there are
options called PCI1Master 0 WS Write (enable/disable) and PCI Delay
Transaction (enable/disable)-I've tried and these have no effect.
My BIOS version is AK32S20F. Shuttle's BIOS update site shows no files
available for the AK32 v2.1 board, so I assume I have the latest
update.
The onboard sound (HORRIBLE sound quality) is disabled and all related
items (gameport etc) disabled.

I didn't really have an old system... it was exactly the same setup; I
simply had to replace a bad motherboard. The sound worked great with
the old board (also a VIA chipset, but I don't remember which). I've
reinstalled 4-in-1 drivers etc.

An acceptable answer should have several options I can try; I promise
the tip if the answer helps me actually fix this.

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Request for Question Clarification by feilong-ga on 11 Dec 2002 01:57 PST

Did you check if the speaker jack connected to your sound card is just
loose? Regarding your RAM, you are using PC133 on a 266 mhz
motherboard. It might burn up sooner or later. It would be better if
you use a DDR type of memory.

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Request for Question Clarification by duncan2-ga on 11 Dec 2002 13:17 PST

Does the crackling noise get louder when the volume control on the
computer is raised?  Does it happen in both left and right channels?

As you mentioned, there doesn't appear to be a 'PCI Latency' option in
this BIOS.   The descriptions and explanations for the options you do
have are on pages 70 and 71 of the motherboard manual.  (Manual
available for download at shuttle support site
http://www.spacewalker.com/english/search_manual.asp )  My guess is
that the sound card isn't fully PCI 2.1 compatible and that PCI Delay
Transaction should be disabled.

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Clarification of Question by amitnaiz-ga on 12 Dec 2002 14:40 PST

Thanks for the suggestions, all, but nothing appears to help. The
noise... more than just a crackling, it often sounds kind of like
white noise from a TV... increases as I increase the volume (no sound
is produced when I am not playing audio from some application) and is
from both channels. Changing the PCI Delay Transaction setting doesn't
help.
BTW, this motherboard supports both PC133 and DDR ram (4slots, two for
each kind)... when using PC133, the RAM clock runs at 133 and the CPU
at 266. It's not a problem.

Have a look at
http://www.sudhian.com/faqs.cfm/fid/4/fcid/1.sud

The motherboard is not the same as yours, but the problem seems to be.

Quote from the page
<<
Check that you don't have the sound turned up to maximum in the
software mixer under Windows. This can occasionally cause distortion
of the sound. It's better to leave this at 75% or so and use the
volume control on your speakers.
The Soundblaster card is not good at sharing IRQs with other devices
and so freeing up additional IRQs by disabling one or more COM ports,
or the Highpoint controller (if not in use) can help.  This seems to
be particularly related to the Soundblaster sharing an IRQ with ACPI
and disabling ACPI can also resolve this problem.
Adding the following keys with Windows 2000 to the registry under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\BIOS then
crackling problems were resolved: PCIConcur = 1 (enabled), FastDRAM =
1 (enabled), AGPConcur = 1 (enabled) [if your video controller is AGP
based].  These settings speed up hardware specific operations by
allowing installed devices to use extra CPU cycles: PCI, AGP and/or
DRAM based I/O transfers from the motherboard interface/bus/bridge
(PCI, AGP, DRAM) to the CPU, and the other way around.
Disabling UDMA modes for disk drives in the BIOS solves stutters and
crackles, at the expense of reduced disk performance (20% or so
lower).  This is because bus mastering can prevent the sound card from
gaining access to the PCI bus.
Reducing the hardware acceleration setting for the graphics card in
Windows by one "notch" can resolve crackling problems (presumably by
reducing the traffic on the PCI bus). Disabling v-sync on your
graphics card may also help with crackling under 3D games.
>>


You can also try to change the bios settings for the motherboard.
Enable or disable the Memory Hole in the Advanced Chipset Features
page.

Did any of this solve the problem?

Thank you, but none of this helped. :-(  I tried all of it. The
bizarre part of my problem is that it goes away when the computer is
BUSY-graphics/CPU intensive. I can see how problems might arise when
the sound card can't access busy resources, but not the other way
around!

Hi There,

I had a similar card to yours. The card broke and I tossed it.

Anyway, although it doesn't sound like that this is the problem, check
the cables. Old cables cause tremendous amount of distortion. Your
problem could be a a cable that is not properly shielded from outside
distortions, hence, the different noise level, when the computer is
busy. Try to find some quality cables, such as Monster Cables (there
are other brands, that are very good as well). I replaced my old
cables with Monster Cables and the difference is noticable. In other
words, spending $20 on a good cable is worth it either way, in my
opinion.

Now before you go out and buy a new cable you should try this. Check
your mixer settings. For example, your microphone input might not be
muted. Go about this way: Mute everything! Turn your stereo on loud
but don't play anything. Listen to the noise level. You should hear
some noise, since you turned it really loud. This is the distortion
that your stereo creats. Unmute the master and one other channel, for
instance the "wav" channel. Again, listen to the noise level. Then
mute the channel you just unmuted. Do this with each channel and get
an idea how much noise each channel produces. The microphone channel
typically produces the most noise. Once you know, which channels
produce more noise and which do not produces "too much" noise, this
could shed some light on your noise problem. Unmute only channels that
you actually use. For most users that are the "wav," "CD," and "Midi."

Another test, you may want to do is connect somethins else to the same
input on the receiver (your stereo) you use for your computer. For
example, your CD player and see how that works.

If this doesn't solve your problem, you at least know for sure that it
is not your stereo causing the problem and narrowed it down.

Good luck!