onboard sounds terrible

[HarrySpider]

Hello. I've recently bought a second hand motherboard. The Jetway 694AS
http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/product/socket370/694as/694as.htm

It seems to work okay but the sound provided by an onboard sound chip is
really terrible. I've used a number of computers that have relied on
motherboard sound before and they've all been fine. I could listen to music
cd's and mp3s to a hi-fi standard. But here the sound is distorted and
tinny. It does sound as if something is wrong.
I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience of this motherboard and could
they tell me whether this is normal (I doubt it is) or whether there is
something I can try to improve things.
Thanks.

 

[kony]

Hello. I've recently bought a second hand motherboard. The Jetway 694AS
http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/product/socket370/694as/694as.htm

It seems to work okay but the sound provided by an onboard sound chip is
really terrible. I've used a number of computers that have relied on
motherboard sound before and they've all been fine. I could listen to music
cd's and mp3s to a hi-fi standard. But here the sound is distorted and
tinny. It does sound as if something is wrong.
I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience of this motherboard and could
they tell me whether this is normal (I doubt it is) or whether there is
something I can try to improve things.
Thanks.

It's AC97 on Via 686 Southbridge. Yes, it is horrible compared
to most onboard sound, but still should be serviceable with
medium to lower quality computer speakers. I have a board here
with that sound (though not sure if analog codec chip is the same
or not), and it sounds like it has lower dynamic range and more
distortion but you have to listen pretty carefully, it's not so
bad as you describe.

The distorted and tinny sound might be due to mixer or audio
settings, reverb effects, etc. Try opening windows mixer and
seeking advanced audio control properties (that's not actually
what the windows/buttons are called, I foget their names).

You might also try a different driver and raising the PCI latency
in the bios, suggest trying latency value of 80 to 96. If you
have PCI cards installed you might try moving them to different
slots. I am assuming you have the Via 4in1 driver installed, if
not, install it. If it's an old version, try newer version.

Had sound previously worked or was bad from first moment you
heard it?
What operating system are you running? If WIndows, try this
driver: ( AC97 for VT82C686A/B )
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=328

 

[HarrySpider]

It's AC97 on Via 686 Southbridge. Yes, it is horrible compared
to most onboard sound, but still should be serviceable with
medium to lower quality computer speakers. I have a board here
with that sound (though not sure if analog codec chip is the same
or not), and it sounds like it has lower dynamic range and more
distortion but you have to listen pretty carefully, it's not so
bad as you describe.

The distorted and tinny sound might be due to mixer or audio
settings, reverb effects, etc. Try opening windows mixer and
seeking advanced audio control properties (that's not actually
what the windows/buttons are called, I foget their names).

You might also try a different driver and raising the PCI latency
in the bios, suggest trying latency value of 80 to 96. If you
have PCI cards installed you might try moving them to different
slots. I am assuming you have the Via 4in1 driver installed, if
not, install it. If it's an old version, try newer version.

Had sound previously worked or was bad from first moment you
heard it?
What operating system are you running? If WIndows, try this
driver: ( AC97 for VT82C686A/B )
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=328

I'll try the new driver. The board came with a CD-R with drivers and a
manual. There appear to be 2 sound drivers, the Via 4 in 1, and an older
version of the viarena driver in the link above.
There is an option in the bios to enable to enable soundblaster. Is that the
best thing to do?
Also where do I find the option in the bios to change pci latency?
Thanks.

 

[kony]

I'll try the new driver. The board came with a CD-R with drivers and a
manual. There appear to be 2 sound drivers, the Via 4 in 1, and an older
version of the viarena driver in the link above.
There is an option in the bios to enable to enable soundblaster. Is that the
best thing to do?

SB Emulation is irrelevant for Windows sound, is there for legacy
(DOS) emulation in (games, etc). You might as well disable that
in bios if it's not needed, as well as all other unused onboard
functions, perhaps modem features of chipset, one or both of the
serial ports, midi port, etc, etc, if unused.

Also where do I find the option in the bios to change pci latency?
Thanks.

It is a common setting but i can't be certain that it is in bios
of your particular board, nor where it is. Cycling though menus
in bios should find it, is almost certainly called a "latency"
setting, usually "PCI latency", would not be mistakable. If
nothing else you might try the Via latency patch (otherwise known
as an early RAID IDE patch),
http://download.viahardware.com/vlatency_v019.zip
but setting in bios or other suggested measures could be more
productive, the latency patch is more appropriate as a later
attempt (though it could also improve IDE performance as it was
intended to do, and for that reason, benefit, it might be a good
attempt).

 

[HarrySpider]

SB Emulation is irrelevant for Windows sound, is there for legacy
(DOS) emulation in (games, etc). You might as well disable that
in bios if it's not needed, as well as all other unused onboard
functions, perhaps modem features of chipset, one or both of the
serial ports, midi port, etc, etc, if unused.


It is a common setting but i can't be certain that it is in bios
of your particular board, nor where it is. Cycling though menus
in bios should find it, is almost certainly called a "latency"
setting, usually "PCI latency", would not be mistakable. If
nothing else you might try the Via latency patch (otherwise known
as an early RAID IDE patch),
http://download.viahardware.com/vlatency_v019.zip
but setting in bios or other suggested measures could be more
productive, the latency patch is more appropriate as a later
attempt (though it could also improve IDE performance as it was
intended to do, and for that reason, benefit, it might be a good
attempt).

I've had a look through the bios options and latancy isn't there.
The link for the latency patch is broken. I've had a look using google and
all I could find was a beta version which is meant to be unstable.
http://www.georgebreese.com/net/software/#PCI
I managed to find it here
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://download.viahardware.com/vlatency_v019.zip !
But I'm thinking of giving up and buying a cheap second hand pci sound card
and trying that.
Thanks