Geminiwave

Okay so I got sick and tired of the crap that I was going through with my LIVE! card. one of my friends on this forum showed me how to get 5.1 surround sound on my nforce2 onboard audio(non-soundstorm). From what I've read, the onboard audio is as good or better than a LIVE card. Heres the problem though...I deleted the creative drivers and ran drivercleaner. Great.

Then I installed the correct drivers for the onboard audio. Unfortunatly it sounds muffled now. I'm not sure whats going on but the quality is very ...how do I put it...its like a Canned quality but muffled at the same time. Some games sound GREAT(like Halo and Call of Duty) but all of my other games sound TERRIBLE! My music sounds different but not displeasant.

anyone know whats going on? Did I screw up somehow?

__________________

Elrik

Perhaps you gave up a bit too soon. Is this onboard sound a Realtek ALC655 by any chance? If so, you'll find different opinions on which is better. Check this recent thread at Guru3D forums, for example:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?threadid=111409

I know you solved the "dropped fan" issue, so you were only having EAX issues with your SBLive! But you should seriously give it another try, especially because your card is 5.1 and not an older 4.1 version.

IMO, the best driver for SBLive! is NGO's release at http://www.newgenerationorder.org (check Files/Downloads). It's in English, it sounds great, and works with EAX4 games.

When installing NGO drivers, check "Uninstall" and "Overwrite/Delete" check boxes in the panel that pops up during installation to make sure you get rid of all the Creative's leftovers. Then install again and this time leave the check at "Install" but still check the "Overwrite Shared Creative Files" box.

When done, find a seperate install for "AudioHQ" application on your SBLive! CD but make sure you force it to install to "Program Files/Creative/SBLive/AudioHQ" folder. The default path is the same minus "SBLive" bit. Without it, the "Load AudioHQ at startup" option will not work (or at least with the SBLive's AudioHQ version).

Next, install Surround Mixer, also adding "SBLive" in its default path. Make sure you install Surround Mixer after AudioHQ, so it is nicely integrated into AudioHQ panel.

Works like a charm!

mkk

By far most on-board sound solutions are inferior in many ways to a SB-Live card. It's just that simple. Apart from the chip type used on a board there is also the factor of the quality of the actual analogue components used and the natural issue of shielding out noise signals from the multitude of other motherboard components.

Geminiwave

damn...man that sucks. oh well I guess I'll give it a try again.

seriously though I keep thinking it was an overheating issue with my soundcard...cause it would be fine at first...and then slowly get more and more distorted as I played games. Someone said to check the south bridge and I did and it scorched my finger. Now that the SBLIVE is gone, the southbridge is nice and cool.

no one has had a good explination for why that happened.

__________________

Geminiwave

Durrrr...

wow the old problem is back. I cant install Creative drivers. It says that I dont have a creative product. same reason why I couldnt use the Audigy2 drivers that would have REALLY kicked ass.

__________________

Elrik

Strange that your SouthBridge is getting so hot just because of SBLive! But you can try putting a small heatsink/fan on it...

As for drivers not installing, it happens when you used modded drivers of any kind for it. Are you trying to install official Creative drivers on it? Try the "Uninstall" feature with NGO drivers first, then "Install" feature, it should be able to recognize your card. If not, then as a last resort, a clean XP install, followed by NGO drivers should do the trick. I know it sucks to do a complete reinstall but sometimes it's a good thing.

Geminiwave

nah theres no room for a heatsink. I already tried and theres like MAYBE half an inch between it and the graphics card. its pretty grim.

Funny thing is that I think it only happens with this LIVE card. I had a friends Audigy2 to test out and it didnt seem to have that problem...then again i didnt play any game for 2 hours on it so I couldnt test whether it got all distorted after gameplay or not

__________________

Elrik

Are you overclocking your system? That could possibly be the reason... Perhaps SBLive! being more intensive than onboard audio, makes your South Bridge hotter as a result. Any way to lock your PCI bus speed at default settings with your motherboard?

Test that Audigy2 for extended period of time with hardcore gaming.

Geminiwave

I dont have the A2 anymore.

and I do overclock from time to time but that doesnt seem to make a difference.

__________________

Elrik

Then there's only one thing left to do... Go out, get drunk and dance! lol jk
Not sure what else to suggest. Do you have a good overall system cooling? Good uncluttered cable layout? Does your SBLive! share an IRQ with anything?

Geminiwave

nah it doesnt share any IRQs. My temps are freakin awesome. My cable layout....has something left to be desired...but its well away from the soundcard. The ratsnest is actually under the optical drives.

__________________

Elrik

I don't know what else to suggest then. But I've seen my share of really bizarre problems and solutions. There was a guy whose WindowsXP would never even install properly (gave error during install) until he changed his monitor, believe it or not. I think we'll just have to put it into the HEX-Files category.

I would try testing that SBLive in a friend's computer and see if it shows similar problems. Then you'll know for sure if it's your soundcard or something in the system.

Judas

actually it's been proven in the past that the creative cards were causing some weird PCI calls and requests.. what have you and would basically fully load out the pci bus.... getting the southbridge cooking steaks in no time flat...

Alot of people figured this .. in the past... and a few in the present now, that majority of the time it was VIA's fault and was causing the incapabilities..... However, using any other sound card would prove to fix the issues...

, if you southbridge is cooking, and your drivers are being recognized.... i think you might want to find a new home for that soundcard....

__________________

dj_stick

the old VIA chipsets would have a lot of trouble with CL cards
here is more info about it

__________________

Elrik

This guy said he's using nForce2-based board. Has the same problem ever been proven or reported with nForce2 boards or not?

Is poor guy out of luck even with a newer Audigy2 ZS? Perhaps he should consider something like Prodigy 7.1 instead, if the onboard sound is simply too awful in some games.

dj_stick

if he has the option to test an audigy 2 (Borrowing off someone) then give that a go first

__________________

Geminiwave

I'll see if I can get a hold of an A2 again. Otherwise I dunno.

when you say a new home for the LIVE card, do you mean new PCI slot or new residence. :'(

well the onboard audio isnt like...HORRIBLE. Its just that it sounded alot better on the LIVE card. If I had been using onboard from the beginning, it'd be fine and I wouldnt notice...buuuuuuuuuut since I was using the LIVE card from the start, its kinda sad.

__________________