VOIP321 gurgles after new mobo, usb audio problem?

[Ollie2893]

Hi, I have a Philips VOIP321 Dualphone (Skype&PSTN) connected to one of my
USB2 ports. Everything worked just swell on my old HP dx5150(MSI mobo,
MS-7050), until I blew this up (don't ask). I have now replaced that mobo
with an ASUS board, A8N32-SLI Deluxe. The OS took this heart transplant
remarkably well, the VOIP321 unfortunately less so. The sound that I hear
gurgles and slurs. This is *not* a Skype issue since (i) my interlocutor can
hear me perfectly fine and (ii) it happens on practically every call while
sound problems were rare on the old mobo. I am running 32bit Win XP Pro SP3.
I am unclear on how the VOIP321 implements Skype but have the suspicion that
it leaves the sound processing to my computer. However, I do not believe that
the RealTec Audio driver of the new mobo is involved, but that it is rather
Microsoft's USB audio driver 5.1.2535.0 (dated 1 July 2001) that is doing the
work (the VOIP321 shows up as a USB audio device under Sound Devices in the
Device Manager). I had a look around Microsoft's KB and found a reference to
a problem with that driver (KB898108) and associated hotfix dated August
2007. When I tried to install this fix, I am told that my service pack post
dates it and that I therefore do not need it. I don't quite understand this
since my usb audio driver clearly pre-dates this fix. Could anyone advise on
how I might go about fixing my sound issue? To me it
sounds as though some buffer somewhere is overrun and the required
retransmissions slur the whole sound track until is all becomes rather
unintelligable.

Thank you.

 

[neil]

Hi,
I assume you carried out a repair install of XP and have installed all the
new motherboard drivers. Including the chipset drivers.
Neil

 

[Ollie2893]

Well, yes - though not via repair-install. I simply chucked in the driver CD
that came with the mobo. I think that XP handled it all rather graciously.
After a couple of "found new hardware..." balloons, it simply got on with it.
I was quite impressed (or perhaps rather relieved). I have had no incidents
with any other components since. Everything else seems just swell...

I did try to force a re-install of the USB audio driver but was told by the
update process that no more suitable driver could be found.

 

[neil]

Ah I see. Normally Windows will refuse to boot after changing the MB so you
need to carry out the repair install before you can use the MB CD.
So there are no yellow warning triangles in device manager. Does the sound
play correctly for anything else, like MP3 or playing a music CD.? (if so
I'd assume the sound drivers are ok)
Are there any USB drivers on the CD and is USB2 working. You should be able
to check by looking at device manager and seeing a "enhanced host
controller" device under Universal Serial Bus Controllers.
Neil

 

[Ollie2893]

Not sure where you're headed, mate. I can offer a Standard Enhanced PCI to
USB Host Controller (MS driver 5.1.2600.0) , as well as a Standard OpenHCD
USB Host Controller (MS driver 5.1.2600.5512). No triangles, no. USB seems
fine in general. And, yes, I have not detected any problems with the
on-board audio driver - radio streaming / WMP appears to play just fine. No,
I don't recall there being any USB drivers.

I had a support call with Philips. The dude says that they had endless
problems with their whole range of USB audio devices following the release of
XP SP3 and Vista.

He had just never heard of someone having problems after changing the mobo.
Surprise me... But I guess what he is really saying is that there are mobos
out there, like my old MSI, that were not affected by the release of SP3,
while there were others, like my ASUS, where it did trigger an adverse
reaction.

What he said was that they had counselled customers to roll back to SP2. I
am somewhat reluctant to do so. Reading on the old web, I think to
understand that all the USB audio is handled by a driver contained within
usbaudio.sys.

I dug out the old SP2 version of that file and was going to simply replace
the file in WINDOWS/system32/drivers but did not count on WFP. Any idea how
to trick the damned thing to simply let me try with the older version of the
audio driver?

 

[neil]

Hmm, not sure about the WFP. I was suggesting the other checks to be sure
there wasn't something more basic not working correctly after your MB
change.
Just read http://support.microsoft.com/kb/222193 so I don't know if
searching for instances of usbaudio.sys perhaps in safemode and replacing
them all. (I'd make a backup first) would do it.
I have heard of people losing their USB after SP3 but installing them again
brings them back. I never had that problem though.

Neil

 

[Ollie2893]

Nice KB article. Tells you exactly why you should anticipate trouble but
does not really say, how to avoid it :-( Must give Safe Mode a try one of
these days...

 

[neil]

I noticed it doesn't tell you how to get round the WFP, but then again they
probably don't want you to get round it. Anyway best of luck & I would give
safemode a go if I were you, just be sure not to overwrite the files before
making a copy.
Neil

 

[Ollie2893]

I managed to overwhelm WFP by replacing usbaudio.sys in 3 different locations
at once. Unfortunately, the SP2 driver does not fix the problem either. The
phone continues to slur...

 

[Ollie2893]

I managed to track down the problem to my change of h/w. After running
Driver Sweeper (to clear out all the ATI drivers associated with the old MSI
board) and deleting all the hidden references in Device Manager (that related
to the on-board h/w of the MSI board), the gurgling finally went away. I
would assume, therefore, that the old sound driver was interfering with the
new driver.