Sound issues

[Guest]

You'll never get this one. The sounds on XP work ok sometimes. Other times
e.g. on startup, shutdown or when I get a pop up message, all I get is a
distorted crackle instead of the usual sounds.

 

[Malke]

You'll never get this one. The sounds on XP work ok sometimes. Other
times e.g. on startup, shutdown or when I get a pop up message, all I
get is a distorted crackle instead of the usual sounds.

Well, since you have provided no information about your computer or
whether this ever worked, it is quite possible that no one will "get
this one".

The First Question Of Troubleshooting: what changed between the time
things worked and the time they didn't?

Random failures are most often connected with hardware. Here are a few
general things to try. As with all troubleshooting, make only one
change at a time and test after each change. You must be methodical.

A. Update your audio card drivers. Never get drivers from Windows
Update. Get them from:

1. The device mftr.'s website; OR
2. The motherboard mftr.'s website if hardware is onboard; OR
3. The OEM's website for your specific machine if you have an OEM
computer (HP, Dell, Sony, etc.).

Read the installation instructions on the website where you get the
drivers.

To find out what hardware is in your computer:

1. Read any documentation you got when you bought the computer.
2. If the computer is OEM, go to the OEM's website for your specific
model machine and look at the specs (you'll be there to get the drivers
anyway)
3. Download, install and run a free system inventory program like Belarc
Advisor. The older Aida32 is good for this, too.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor
http://www.aumha.org/free.htm - Aida32 (hosted on Jim Eshelman's site)

B. If updating the drivers doesn't work and the sound is from a PCI
card, shut down/unplug the computer and put the sound card in a
different PCI slot.

C. If the sound is onboard, disable it in the BIOS and try a PCI sound
card.

D. If the sound is not onboard, uninstall the sound card and swap it out
for a known-working one.

E. If none of the above works, do clean-boot troubleshooting to see if
any running programs are interfering with the sound.

If you want more focused help, please see this link for what details you
need to include in your next post:

http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

Malke

 

[Plato]

You'll never get this one. The sounds on XP work ok sometimes. Other times
e.g. on startup, shutdown or when I get a pop up message, all I get is a
distorted crackle instead of the usual sounds.

Same thing happens with another pair of speakers?

 

[Rock]

You'll never get this one. The sounds on XP work ok sometimes. Other times
e.g. on startup, shutdown or when I get a pop up message, all I get is a
distorted crackle instead of the usual sounds.

Ok, what if we do? Uninstall/reinstall with the latest sound drivers, or
the speakers / connections are bad.

 

[Guest]

The prize is the satisfaction of knowing that you've assisted someone who
knows very little about computers. I'll give your suggestions a try. Thanks.
For Malke, my computer is a kind of grey colour with buttons on. Is that
enough information?!

 

[Malke]

The prize is the satisfaction of knowing that you've assisted someone
who knows very little about computers. I'll give your suggestions a
try. Thanks. For Malke, my computer is a kind of grey colour with
buttons on. Is that enough information?!

Most amusing. I hope you get your problem solved.

Malke

 

[Guest]

Tried speakers, no success. Tried driver update, no success. Wondering if
sound card is the problem but all the diagnostics say it is ok.
My daughter is giving me grief because she can't listen to itunes and all
her msn alert sounds are just static. Did delete some unused programs last
week and wondering if something associated may be causing issues.

 

[Rock]

Tried speakers, no success. Tried driver update, no success. Wondering if
sound card is the problem but all the diagnostics say it is ok.
My daughter is giving me grief because she can't listen to itunes and all
her msn alert sounds are just static. Did delete some unused programs last
week and wondering if something associated may be causing issues.

You could try a different model sound card that uses different drivers but
then the current card may still be good, and the new one may not help. I
had a problem once with sound in one system some time ago where it died, and
no amount of tinkering would get it going. Ended up having to do a clean
install and then all worked ok. Never figured out what wrecked it in the
first place. What happened though was the driver got messed up but
uninstalling / reinstalling the drivers didn't fix it. The clean install
did.

I am experiencing that same issue in Beta testing Vista with Creative labs
Beta drivers. Once they go south you can't get them to reinstall.

Good luck, and I guess I'm out of luck with getting the satisfaction -)

 

[R. McCarty]

If your sound card is a PCI based and not embedded on the motherboard
you may want to move it from it's current slot assignment to either Slot #2
or #5. On most MBs, only two of the PCI Slots have independent IRQ
mapping. ( Not directly shared ).Creative Labs cards sometimes will become
"Phantom" entries in the Sound Devices category. Requires some setup of
a System Environment variable and toggling a view option in Device Mgr
so you can see if that is what your card has done. I used to use Audigy NX
and it had a bad habit of re-detecting itself on some boots. Occassionally,
I would find 2-5 instances of it in Device Manager. CL makes good cards,
but their drivers/support software is poor. (They always seem off on the
next iteration card and never really update older model software or if they
do it's likely ONE update per calendar year)

 

[Rock]

Tried speakers, no success. Tried driver update, no success. Wondering if
sound card is the problem but all the diagnostics say it is ok.
My daughter is giving me grief because she can't listen to itunes and all
her msn alert sounds are just static. Did delete some unused programs last
week and wondering if something associated may be causing issues.

Another point, with kids and all the junk they have a tendency to put on
their system, you might want to think about a drive imaging program to image
the system when it's running well. Then it can be restored if something
messes it up.

 

[Guest]

I will try to follow your suggestions and let you know what happens. In the
mean time you will have to make like Mick Jagger. (Geddit?)

 

[Guest]

I think you win the prize. I got my driver cd from Creative today and
reinstalled.
So far so good.
Still don't know the original reason. Could be that I uninstalled something
that had sound card properties attached or installing the new itunes caused
the problem.

 

[Rock]

I think you win the prize. I got my driver cd from Creative today and
reinstalled.
So far so good.
Still don't know the original reason. Could be that I uninstalled
something
that had sound card properties attached or installing the new itunes
caused
the problem.

<snip>

Cool. Glad it's sorted out for you and thanks for posting back.