Windows XP Audio?

[wulf109]

Windows XP by default sends the audio from a CD being played over the PCI bus and not via the audio cable from the CD to the sound card. Is there anyway to stop this and force XP to send the audio over the audio cable and not use the bus?

[hellbringer]

remove the cord going to the pci bus?

[wulf109]

That's not even remotely funny.

[AlinaVastag84]

In your system description I saw you`re using Windows Millenium but for XP it might be the same think to do : you must get in the DEVICE MANAGER (there are more ways then one) and search for the CD-ROM DEVICE. Then double click on teh CD-ROM . Then you must check (or uncheck) the ENABLE DIGITAL AUDIO (it must be there somewhere). I allready have 6 versions of XP and I don`t know if all of them have this possibility. In the DEVICE MANAGER you can get from the CONTROL PANNEL / SYSTEM / HARDWARE (or something like it because now I`m at work and there are only WINDOWS 2000 here...).

[wulf109]

Unfortunately disableing digital audio doesn't turn off transfer of the audio thru the PCI bus. You can still hear the audio without the audio cable hooked-up. I'm experimenting with XP and so far my expierence has been very unpleasant. I find the audio over the bus to be distorted and loaded with clicks and other noise. Viruses within 30 minutes of going online,although SP2 seems to prevent that. Memory reqirements 2-4 times what 98/ME need for the same performance. XP does not seem like progress to me.

[shelbyGT]

any unprotected computer will have a virus if not protected while online, not just XP. And if you think memory is bad now, wait until Longhorn

[ozymango]

If you're just looking to listen to CD's through your system and want analog audio, depending on what inputs your soundcard has, you can plug the audio cable from the CD (internal) to the "aux" or "tuner" connector on your soundcard. I've got a couple of old Ensoniq soundcards that have multiple internal audio connectors, ymmv.

Then play the CD using whatever interface you prefer but set the volume settings to select the aux/tuner input. That should do ya.

But if you're getting noise and other audio crap in the digital signal, I suspect there may be something else going on with your system that may not be fixed with this method.

[smearbrick1]

I'd imagine the cracking and popping is probably your sound card and not the digital audio from the pci bus. I could see this happening if you had an ultra slow computer, but this is not the case. I used to have the issue when I used low end soundblaster type cards before I wised up and bought something decent. You may want to look into updating your sound card drivers or maybe even your sound card if you get desperate.

How does audio off the hard drive play (mp3 files, wma, etc...)? Do you notice any pops or clicks then? Either way, still sounds like an output issue to me.

One more thing... while there are some who may share your viewpoints on Windows XP, most do not. Sure we complain, we whine... but when it comes down to it, XP is a huge step forward from MS OS's like Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows 95. Out of the box, XP was a great OS. Sure, it has some default settings that may be a bit irritable, and is constantly under attack from viruses, trojans, and other exploits. Then again, with 98% of the market share as it relates to PC operating systems, any operating system (even MAC too) would be susceptible. This doesn't just apply to Windows XP either. Any OS in the Windows family is susceptible to these threats.... every computer needs viruscan and an adware scanner. Do yourself a favor, upgrade your OS from WinME/Win98 to something a bit more stable like Win2k (if you don't like XP so much). At least then you could enjoy the benefits of the NTFS file system.

[thefiddler]

yep, as people have said, if you're getting pops and clicks while playing digitally, its not because of the digital connection, nor is it XP's fault. Your machine (most likley Soundcard or CD ROM) needs some fixing such as driver updates or a replacement part.