Loser Posted May 21, 2002 Share Posted May 21, 2002 Hi there, Just did some sniffing around on the board for the resolution to the problem I'm having, and I didn't find an answer, so forgive me if this is something common and easy to fix (I hope it is!). I'm running a P4 1.8 GHz with XP, a straight-up Geforce 3 and a Soundblaster Live! sound card. I'm experiencing a "hiccup" or stutter every five or six seconds in the game. It's most noticable, of course, while scrolling around the map or while watching the movie. It's not a deal-breaking glitch, but it's starting to get to me. When I turn off ambient sounds, the problem goes away. I'm running the "XP Update" drivers for the sound card, which seems to be the problem. Has anyone else experienced / resolved this issue? Thanks, -Loser 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted May 21, 2002 Share Posted May 21, 2002 There may be no real answer for your problem. SoundBlaster LIVE cards do not support Bus Mastering. This means that the sound card will interfere with every other PCI and AGP device when it is busy (or something to that effect). This problem seems to be aggravated by a number of chipsets, notably the faster VIA and Intel chipsets. Since Ambient sound keeps the audio card pretty busy with a continuous audio stream it is a good candidate for the 'hiccupping' that you're hearing. With XP's demand to use ACPI, which forces all PCI and AGP devices to use one IRQ, this situation probably get exacerbated even further. If the latest LIVE drivers, Intel chipset drivers & a motherboard BIOS update doesn't do anything for you (though there may be some CMOS/BIOS setup settings you could experiment with), then your best bet may be to turn off the Ambient sound if the hiccupping annoys you enough. Here's the text from the Via Arena site about the VIA chipsets and their problems with the SoundBlaster LIVE cards: Question: I am having trouble with a system using a VIA chipset including a 686b southbridge and a Creative Sound Blaster Live card. Answer: When the 686b southbridge was first released, motherboard manufacturers and VIA discovered a problem when trying to transfer files between the primary and the secondary IDE channels on motherboards using ultra-DMA, when a Sound Blaster Live was plugged in and drivers activated. This issue was caused because too much noise is transferred across the PCI bus by the Sound Blaster Live driver set. In an attempt to fix this issue, some motherboard manufacturers modified their BIOS. In some instances, these modifications to the BIOS caused a data corruption error even when not using a Sound Blaster Live. VIA released a patch which resolves this issue, which is incoroporated in the 4in1 drivers from the 4.31 version onwards. Motherboard manufacturers were advised to change the modifications made to thier BIOS to elimate the data corruption issue. If you are experiencing data corruption or lock up when transferring files between two IDE drives: 1) Make sure you have the latest BIOS from your motherboard manufacturer. 2) Make sure you have the latest 4in1 drivers 3) Make sure when you set up your system that you install the 4in1 drivers both before and after you install the SBL to make sure that the drivers see your SBL and install the correct patch. The patch will only install if the SBL is installed. Though this answer isn't specific to your problem, I'd guess that it may be similar since I've heard of others having problems with SB Lives and all sorts of motherboards. Here's a Creative SB Live FAQ (though it may not really give you a whole lot of info about your problem). I don't konw if the XP Driver install attempts to put in the SB Live SB 16 Emulation or not (usually a file in the autoexec.bat) if it does, then I would recommend disabling that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loser Posted May 22, 2002 Author Share Posted May 22, 2002 Hey, great post -- thanks for all the valuable info. I do have one question, though -- would getting one of the Audigy cards solve the problem -- i.e. do the new cards better support bus mastering? -Loser 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted May 22, 2002 Share Posted May 22, 2002 Unfortunately the Audigy cards have similar problems to the Live's (lack of bus mastering). Both cards are nice and very popular, but they have some irritating problems (which you've run into), but not everyone experiences them. If you're looking for a new sound card I'd suggest a Voyetra Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. It's a high quality audio card (easily comparable to the Audigy), but it shouldn't have the problems that the Creative's do. You may want to check with your system or motherboard manufacturer and see if they have any info about the SB Live/Audigy sound cards and their products. They may have some info and/or work-arounds. [ May 21, 2002, 09:31 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Compassion Posted May 22, 2002 Share Posted May 22, 2002 Originally posted by Loser: I'm running the "XP Update" drivers for the sound card, which seems to be the problem. Have you tried the curretn XP drivers available from Creative? THose are more current, but not certified... I've been running them since their release and ahve had no problems with sound. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loser Posted May 23, 2002 Author Share Posted May 23, 2002 Compassion, did you get those drivers from Creative? I only see Revision 1 dated 11/29/2001 on the website, and that's what I'm running. Guess what, though? Running CMBO under W2K emulation in XP solves the problem. Yahoo! -Loser 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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