pc sound jittery

[rikit]

hi ,I notice when I play a cd in my computer that it sound kinda of jittery at times. I have a creative sound blaster pci 128 card version is 5.12.1.2061 of 10-9-2001. I am using xp pro. I have a plextor dvd burner. Where do I start in troubleshooting my problem? I never noticed this before and it has been like this for about a couple of months that I have noticed. I am just now having time to actually troubleshoot it.

[dwill123]

Where do I start in troubleshooting my problem?

Start with the Sound Blaster. IMO every sound card Creative makes is a POS. Anything that has ever gone wrong with any of my former PCs has been caused by those POS SB cards. That said you may need a driver update. Just make sure you back everything up first. Good luck.

[rikit]

I think I figured it out. My computer was rebuilt not to long ago, case and some hardware. I didn't hook up the entire computer myself. When plugging in the sound card apparently it wasn't plugged in correctly or at least the sound card didn't like where it was plugged into. It is pretty late and I didn't get a chance to crank it up yet, neighbors sleeping. It sounded ok with the sound turned down low. I will crank it tommorow and give it a real blast. After switching the connector it took my pc awhile to figure out what was going on, but it came through. Thanks, just in case I replace my sound card sometime what do you suggest for a replacement?

[Skith]

From what I have heard, SB cards (at least the newer models) are more geared towards gaming, and not all that suited to audio playback (CDs). Creative's drivers also leave a lot to be desired.

Maudio supposedly produces some good sound cards, I can't give you specific models though. It really depends on your needs, audio enthusiasts and non-hard core gamers (people who don't want/need those fancy in game 3D sound effects) will stay away from the soundblaster cards.

[dwill123]

I'm in love with my Terratec Aureon 7.1 Universe. Unfortunately Terratec products are not widely available in the U.S. as they once use to be. Still IMO well worth the hunt.

[ofbarea]

With creative cards this is kind of a problem.

But actually after some tweaking it could be workaround. I still use an original sound blaster Live! 1 card in my system and it is very stable.

In general these are the things to check:

1. Disable internal motherboard sound card
2. PCI latency in BIOS set to 32.
3. Disable PCI Delay Transaction.

Also try the card in different slots. I have noticed that creaive cards behave differently depending on the slot installed. For me, it has worked fine in the second PCI slot from the AGP card. In general look for a slot that does not share resources with another one.

Take a look at this web page for more details: http://mark-knutson.com/t3/