kx and amd x2 cpu's?

pluto2 · Mar 23, 2006, 05:21 PM

Hi!

I've just built a new system based on amd's x2 cpu's (a 4200+ x2 processor) and while everything seems to work some nagging things has caught my attention which I however as of yet am unsure about whether it's kx that is the problem or not.

Once in a while when I do something in a program that's been idle for a while that causes a sound event (such as "file not saved, save before exit?") the dialog first gets drawn empty, a pause follows and then the sound event and the actual content of the dialog gets written to screen. It's not big deal but it sure looks annoying and shouldn't be the bahavior of a brand new system. Are there any others here that have any experience with kx drivers and dual-core cpu's, good or bad?

ps: I haven't gotten into any audio apps yet at all! just getting started installing everything!

Kristian

**dj_stick** · Mar 23, 2006, 10:12 PM

i'm running kX on a HT system (still appears as two seperate CPU's to windows) and i've never seen that problem

is it only in that program, or all of them? also check the task manager's Processes list while that happens to see what program has the most CPU usage

pluto2 · Mar 23, 2006, 10:21 PM

I've only seen the problem in one app this far, it's notepad

I've done some changes now to disabling some unneeded things and will see if that solves it. The reason that I blew this up was that the whole system just seemed slower after the kx driver got in place, of course that can have other causes. I'll see how this works out as more apps are installed on the system (LOTS OF LOTS OF WORK!). Any other users with experiences of multi core cpu's on kx drivers?

Max M. · Mar 23, 2006, 10:45 PM

>Any other users with experiences of multi core cpu's on kx drivers?

Well, as far as know recent kX versions are developed primary on SMP machine -
so...

pluto2 · Mar 24, 2006, 11:18 AM

I'm still having problems. More details:
The problem occurs when there are no sounds playing and I do something within a windows program that causes a sound event, for example "are you sure to quit without saving" dialogs that causes that beep sound. Anything like that. Whenever that occures everything is paused for perhaps half a second while the sound starts playing and then things continue as normal. If I already have a sound playing, for example an mp3, this problem doesn't occur, it's just from a silent state it happens.

Example event: open notepad, type a few words and click the x to close the app and there the problem is. I first get the sound, half a seconds delay, and then the dialog box appears in view.

Ideas anyone? Sure is annoying. Tried uninstalling the driver and went back to normal pc speaker beep for these events and that works smooth as expected.

Kristian

pluto2 · Mar 24, 2006, 11:45 AM

Ok now I'm really taking the physical shape of a question mark. Desperate to get it working I started changing around settings I honestly had little idea about what they do or won't do. First nothing changed at all, except for a nice feedback signal when I lowered a buffer size somewhere (OUCH!) but after some fiddling I realized this: In "setup buffers", the default setting is 8352 bytes, when I lower this to 4080 bytes BANG everything works 100% again, no slowdowns or dialogs that pause etc. Cans omeone explain to me what the hell I did and why it works?

Kristian

**dj_stick** · Mar 24, 2006, 01:17 PM

lowering the buffer size is reducing the actual latency of the card… the higher the buffer size, the more data is stored before it's played out the soundcard

have that too low and you'll get pops & clicks as the computer struggles to keep it full (the pops/clicks are the result of the buffer running out before the computer can re-fill it)

however in your case i'm not certain why the change is so dramatic…

pluto2 · Mar 24, 2006, 01:22 PM

Wasn't just me that was surprised about it then? No it's VERY dramatic to say the least, further more, if I lower the same value further, if so just one single step, I start getting those clicks, pops etc that you talked about and just ONE step higher than mine and I still have the same problem again. Can someone explain this? it's really weird! I'm running on a amd x2 dual core system, can the dual core have a finger in this? Curious why it has such an effect!

Kristian

**Eugene Gavrilov** · Mar 24, 2006, 09:05 PM

>> when I do something in a program that's been idle for a while that causes a sound
>> event

and

>> the default setting is 8352 bytes, when I lower this to 4080 bytes

I guess, these are the clues to the problem. 4080 bytes fit in 4096 page, while 8352 bytes require at least two CPU pages for storage. This might be related to the way Windows manages memory in your particular case. Although, kX always marks its memory as non-pageable (that is, it should never be swapped to your HDD), I'm unsure if recent kernel changes can cause the issue. So, if changing this parameter helps you, that's great

but I doubt the other users would benefit of it, that's why I'll keep 8352 as kX default. I run 2xXeon SMP machine with 1.5Gb of memory and have never faced such issue so far... although I don't use notepad!

(Please check if any value >=4096 causes the issue. If yes, then the problem is definitely related to page management...)

E.

Max M. · Mar 24, 2006, 09:19 PM

>although I don't use notepad!

you never enable "windows beeps" also! ;)

**dj_stick** · Mar 25, 2006, 02:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Max M.

>although I don't use notepad!

you never enable "windows beeps" also!

who would?

they're enough to send someone insane

and don't get me started about the MSN ones

pluto2 · Mar 25, 2006, 09:40 AM

ha ha - hey! once upon a time we were thrilled about the noices that internal speaker could do

Anyway...
In deed, any value above 4096 causes this issue so there you have it, perhaps that's something you should add to the code or at least tip about in the manual or similar, now you know about it anyway and can guide other users that have the problem. Thanks for the explanation, I appreciate to know the why's behind things

Kristian

pluto2 · Mar 25, 2006, 09:42 AM

and oh btw, the issue was not releated to notepad at all, see earlier posts, it's related to triggering a windows soundevent when no other soudns are currently playing, if something plays already the issue wasn't there.

Russ · Mar 25, 2006, 12:05 PM

BTW: Another thing that can cause similair behavoir, is if you have have your computer set to power down the hard drive after a certain amount of time of inactivity. It can cause the whole system to pause while waiting for the hard disk to spin back up (it is sort of obvious if your drive is loud enough to hear, but otherwise you might not know what is causing it). Additionally, I found that the hard drive powers down when you would never expect it to (i.e. you are actively doing stuff on the computer (even playing a game/movie/music, etc), but for one reason or another, the hard drive was inactive and powers down). For this reason, I usually disable that option in the BIOS, as well as in Windows. I only mention it, because you said that it happens when a program has been idle for a while. In any case, it is probably not related, but it cannot hurt to check it out.

pluto2 · Mar 27, 2006, 03:29 PM

-- More problems --

After using these new 4.25ms buffer settings for along time with no trouble what so ever I ran into some problems after all. Playing certain mpg files causes the sound to be full of clicks, sound like an old movie machine or something. Setting the buffer to normal values fixes this so it is my buffer settings that are causing this. How could I fix this? other then simply change the buffer size when I need to play movies like these

A fix all over to why I need to lower the buffer would be better all together if at all possible.

Kristian

Jst · Mar 28, 2006, 12:09 AM

[Sorry for my english; I'm from Slovenia - EU]

I'm a programmer and I believe I can give you some info.

When Hyperthreading and dual core cpus came I found some interesting things about Windows Scheduler. (Not Scheduled Tasks but thread/process scheduler) It just isn't designed very well. In some scenarios it cannot rationaly allocate all avalible resources. I believe I know what happens in your case (but I am not sure if I can explain in a way to you to understand, but I'll try). Triggering that sound scheduler must allocate 2 pages. But only one CPU can do this task. But since you have 2 cpus it happens next:

1. Scheduler allocate 2 pages.
2. First CPU handles the job (other one is idle).
3. Kernel's Task Scheduler suppose it can be arranged across two CPUs.
4. But CPU one has already done this.
5. So it is in deadly loop no sooner that next control of resources come.
6. And then it can be read and processed.

Maybe I'm little wrong here but I believe you can now imagine the problem.

pluto2 · Mar 28, 2006, 09:41 AM

I understand, at least partially, what you mean. The interesting thing here is that the problem ONLY occurs when there isn't any sound playing. If I already have for example winamp playing, no delay problems occurs, it's only when INITIATING sound when no other sound are playing. Perhaps it still fits your explanation of things. If it does it sure sound plain BAD, it even sounds like this problem should exist on virtually all soundcards if the manufactor haven't thought about this in their drivers. I can't use kx drivers under these circumstances so if I can't work this out somehow I'm gonna have to look for another soundcard which I'm not thrilled in doing, I love the kx project, any sound card driver is laugh compared to it, but what can one do... Perhaps the software world wasn't quite ready for multicores. On the other hand, the author of the kx driver codes this beauty on a dual processor machine although not multi CORE, shouldn't he be experiencing the same thing then?

Kristian

John Lodge · Mar 28, 2006, 04:53 PM

Jst, a more usual name for this is dispatcher rather than scheduler as I recall, and as you rightly point out dispatching in a multiprocessor multitasking operating environment can be interesting, including whether tasks once dispatched are pre-emptable or not.

pluto2 · Mar 28, 2006, 04:55 PM

still doesn't help me though - any ideas, even wild, on what to do? if I don't resolve this I'm just gonna have to open my wallet and go uptown buying me a studiocard I probably won't like at least driver wise :P

Jst · Mar 28, 2006, 09:54 PM

pluto2:

You are running XP Pro If I recall correctly. Apply SP2 and all updates from WU and then install chipset driver. This is very importly that you install chipset driver after SP2. Try to load BIOS defaults, it might help you.

pluto2 · Mar 29, 2006, 09:34 AM

jst:
My windows xp PRo install cd had sp2 pre-applied, so therefore I installed the chipset drivers AFTER sp2, and they were of the latest version. Bios defaults... I started out with bios defaults, the only things that I've changed is some default overclocking features that I don't want aswell as disabling some perpherials I don't want or need, that's it, I haven't changed any "advanced" settings at all running defaults everywhere. I'm completelly out of clues here.

Kristian

Jst · Mar 29, 2006, 01:16 PM

Control Panel: Sonds and Audio Devices: Advances Audio Properties

Does changing "Hardware Acceleration" and "Sample Rate Conversion Quality" brings any difference?

Run dxdiag. Does all Sound test run properly?

pluto2 · Mar 29, 2006, 02:13 PM

Hardware acceleration or sample rate conversion quality - changed both to lowest possible one at a time with no changes with normal buffer size.
dxdiag - all sound tests run correctly.

more ideas? just shot anything at me, I'm desperate

I've looked into other cards but there are absolutely no solution out there that is as perfect for me as kx drivers on an audigy2.

pluto2 · Mar 29, 2006, 02:26 PM

NEW INFORMATION - VERY WEIRD!!!
I sat down and investigated this thoroughly now, seting the buffer to the default 8352 bytes. The problem is NOT directly related to anything playing a sound. Playing a sound in for example media player classic or even sndrec32.exe does NOT cause this problem. the problem is ONLY caused when the sound occurs due to a windows SOUND EVENT. For example: the sound that occurs when you close notepad and it asks if you want to save the unsaved document, things like that, it's only the SOUNDEVENTS that causes problems, what the heck is all that about, and why on earth is the triggering of windows sound events related to my playback buffer size as it seems that the actual playback of sounds isn't the issue, just when they get played due to a sound event trigger. weird weird weird... ideas?? Don't tell me to disable sound events, I find them useful

Kristian

Jst · Mar 29, 2006, 03:25 PM

Do you have more sound cards in your computer? (maybe motherboard's integrated)
Do you have any IRQ Conflicts in your computer?
Did you try to put your Audigy in different PCI slot?

pluto2 · Mar 29, 2006, 04:59 PM

1) Integrated yes, but has always been disabled, no devices what so ever from it in windows.
2) No conflicts at all, only 2 uninstalled devices that I don't really need to install
3) I was afraid you were gonna suggest that... I haven't, and I'd most definitely prefer NOT to due to the fact that it would mean hours of work. I only have 2 pci cards in my computer but the rest of the slots are filled with plates for usb, gameports and god knows what, just moving one card will take a LONG time though I'm aware of that it MIGHT fix something.
I've stayed away from it though because of the fact that the card seems to sit most optimal where it is, it's nor sharing irq with anything else which it would if I moved it, do you still think it would be a useful thing to try? Isn't it weird btw that it's only the sound events that are affected and nothing else, and that it responds to chantges in buffer size, beats the hell out of me.

Kristian

Jst · Mar 30, 2006, 10:13 PM

Hm, I think there is some strange communication in relation: XP - sound driver - chipset. Maybe is has something to do with latencies - ... I once had similar problem with sound (Winamp playing was full of clicks) and I had to disable something like "Unused PCI Clocks" in BIOS but you said you tried BIOS defaults.

pluto2 · Mar 30, 2006, 10:19 PM

I'm running pretty much on defaults, just disabled a few things I don't need and so on... I might add ot that though that "defaults" on newer asus boards are more like "optimized" or "turbo", I disabled no less than 2 overclocking options that was "default", I don't want overclocking as default, and I'm puzzled how they can put those settings as "default". So anyway... I might have "optimized" settings here and there even though I have "defaults". I don't have a setting called unused pci clocks, I only have a few settings regarding pci things, such as "latency timer" which is set to 64 as default I believe. If you are interested or just really friendly, this is a link to the manual which lists all bios entries:

http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...32-SLI_Dlx.pdf

;O) *smiles and looks generally thankful*

Kristian

Alazir · Mar 31, 2006, 08:10 AM

AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+ / 2GB / Asus a8v deluxe / AGP GeForce 5600 FX / Audigy-2 + Live 5.1 (connected through SPDIF) - no problem appears: neither with windows sound, nor with direct-x, nor with ASIO.
Changing AC-97 (on-board) status to "enabled" also doesn't cause problem

pluto2 · Mar 31, 2006, 09:04 AM

alzir: have you read my problems - that the problem is specific to windows sound events, and not general audio playback? It was nice to know that you got it working though so that it isn't some dual core general issue of some kind, I'll continue the struggle I love kx and it's worth the sweat!
Do you have cool & quiet enabled? any other specific details? any changes to the bios etc?

Mar 23, 2006, 05:21 PM	#1
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	kx and amd x2 cpu's? Hi! I've just built a new system based on amd's x2 cpu's (a 4200+ x2 processor) and while everything seems to work some nagging things has caught my attention which I however as of yet am unsure about whether it's kx that is the problem or not. Once in a while when I do something in a program that's been idle for a while that causes a sound event (such as "file not saved, save before exit?") the dialog first gets drawn empty, a pause follows and then the sound event and the actual content of the dialog gets written to screen. It's not big deal but it sure looks annoying and shouldn't be the bahavior of a brand new system. Are there any others here that have any experience with kx drivers and dual-core cpu's, good or bad? ps: I haven't gotten into any audio apps yet at all! just getting started installing everything! Kristian __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 23, 2006, 10:21 PM	Thread Starter #3
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	I've only seen the problem in one app this far, it's notepad I've done some changes now to disabling some unneeded things and will see if that solves it. The reason that I blew this up was that the whole system just seemed slower after the kx driver got in place, of course that can have other causes. I'll see how this works out as more apps are installed on the system (LOTS OF LOTS OF WORK!). Any other users with experiences of multi core cpu's on kx drivers? __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 24, 2006, 11:18 AM	Thread Starter #5
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	I'm still having problems. More details: The problem occurs when there are no sounds playing and I do something within a windows program that causes a sound event, for example "are you sure to quit without saving" dialogs that causes that beep sound. Anything like that. Whenever that occures everything is paused for perhaps half a second while the sound starts playing and then things continue as normal. If I already have a sound playing, for example an mp3, this problem doesn't occur, it's just from a silent state it happens. Example event: open notepad, type a few words and click the x to close the app and there the problem is. I first get the sound, half a seconds delay, and then the dialog box appears in view. Ideas anyone? Sure is annoying. Tried uninstalling the driver and went back to normal pc speaker beep for these events and that works smooth as expected. Kristian __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 24, 2006, 11:45 AM	Thread Starter #6
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	Ok now I'm really taking the physical shape of a question mark. Desperate to get it working I started changing around settings I honestly had little idea about what they do or won't do. First nothing changed at all, except for a nice feedback signal when I lowered a buffer size somewhere (OUCH!) but after some fiddling I realized this: In "setup buffers", the default setting is 8352 bytes, when I lower this to 4080 bytes BANG everything works 100% again, no slowdowns or dialogs that pause etc. Cans omeone explain to me what the hell I did and why it works? Kristian __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 24, 2006, 01:22 PM	Thread Starter #8
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	Wasn't just me that was surprised about it then? No it's VERY dramatic to say the least, further more, if I lower the same value further, if so just one single step, I start getting those clicks, pops etc that you talked about and just ONE step higher than mine and I still have the same problem again. Can someone explain this? it's really weird! I'm running on a amd x2 dual core system, can the dual core have a finger in this? Curious why it has such an effect! Kristian __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 23, 2006, 10:45 PM	#4
Max M. h/h member-shmember Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Evil Empire Posts: 2,639 Rep Power: 69	>Any other users with experiences of multi core cpu's on kx drivers? Well, as far as know recent kX versions are developed primary on SMP machine - so...

Mar 24, 2006, 09:05 PM	#9
Eugene Gavrilov kX Project Lead Programmer and Coordinator Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 3,119 Rep Power: 75	>> when I do something in a program that's been idle for a while that causes a sound >> event and >> the default setting is 8352 bytes, when I lower this to 4080 bytes I guess, these are the clues to the problem. 4080 bytes fit in 4096 page, while 8352 bytes require at least two CPU pages for storage. This might be related to the way Windows manages memory in your particular case. Although, kX always marks its memory as non-pageable (that is, it should never be swapped to your HDD), I'm unsure if recent kernel changes can cause the issue. So, if changing this parameter helps you, that's great but I doubt the other users would benefit of it, that's why I'll keep 8352 as kX default. I run 2xXeon SMP machine with 1.5Gb of memory and have never faced such issue so far... although I don't use notepad! (Please check if any value >=4096 causes the issue. If yes, then the problem is definitely related to page management...) E.

Mar 24, 2006, 09:19 PM	#10
Max M. h/h member-shmember Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Evil Empire Posts: 2,639 Rep Power: 69	>although I don't use notepad! you never enable "windows beeps" also! ;)

Mar 25, 2006, 09:40 AM	Thread Starter #12
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	ha ha - hey! once upon a time we were thrilled about the noices that internal speaker could do Anyway... In deed, any value above 4096 causes this issue so there you have it, perhaps that's something you should add to the code or at least tip about in the manual or similar, now you know about it anyway and can guide other users that have the problem. Thanks for the explanation, I appreciate to know the why's behind things Kristian __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 25, 2006, 09:42 AM	Thread Starter #13
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	and oh btw, the issue was not releated to notepad at all, see earlier posts, it's related to triggering a windows soundevent when no other soudns are currently playing, if something plays already the issue wasn't there. __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 25, 2006, 12:05 PM	#14
Russ HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 5,563 Rep Power: 62	BTW: Another thing that can cause similair behavoir, is if you have have your computer set to power down the hard drive after a certain amount of time of inactivity. It can cause the whole system to pause while waiting for the hard disk to spin back up (it is sort of obvious if your drive is loud enough to hear, but otherwise you might not know what is causing it). Additionally, I found that the hard drive powers down when you would never expect it to (i.e. you are actively doing stuff on the computer (even playing a game/movie/music, etc), but for one reason or another, the hard drive was inactive and powers down). For this reason, I usually disable that option in the BIOS, as well as in Windows. I only mention it, because you said that it happens when a program has been idle for a while. In any case, it is probably not related, but it cannot hurt to check it out.

Mar 27, 2006, 03:29 PM	Thread Starter #15
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	-- More problems -- After using these new 4.25ms buffer settings for along time with no trouble what so ever I ran into some problems after all. Playing certain mpg files causes the sound to be full of clicks, sound like an old movie machine or something. Setting the buffer to normal values fixes this so it is my buffer settings that are causing this. How could I fix this? other then simply change the buffer size when I need to play movies like these A fix all over to why I need to lower the buffer would be better all together if at all possible. Kristian __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 28, 2006, 12:09 AM	#16
Jst DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	[Sorry for my english; I'm from Slovenia - EU] I'm a programmer and I believe I can give you some info. When Hyperthreading and dual core cpus came I found some interesting things about Windows Scheduler. (Not Scheduled Tasks but thread/process scheduler) It just isn't designed very well. In some scenarios it cannot rationaly allocate all avalible resources. I believe I know what happens in your case (but I am not sure if I can explain in a way to you to understand, but I'll try). Triggering that sound scheduler must allocate 2 pages. But only one CPU can do this task. But since you have 2 cpus it happens next: 1. Scheduler allocate 2 pages. 2. First CPU handles the job (other one is idle). 3. Kernel's Task Scheduler suppose it can be arranged across two CPUs. 4. But CPU one has already done this. 5. So it is in deadly loop no sooner that next control of resources come. 6. And then it can be read and processed. Maybe I'm little wrong here but I believe you can now imagine the problem.

Mar 28, 2006, 09:41 AM	Thread Starter #17
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	I understand, at least partially, what you mean. The interesting thing here is that the problem ONLY occurs when there isn't any sound playing. If I already have for example winamp playing, no delay problems occurs, it's only when INITIATING sound when no other sound are playing. Perhaps it still fits your explanation of things. If it does it sure sound plain BAD, it even sounds like this problem should exist on virtually all soundcards if the manufactor haven't thought about this in their drivers. I can't use kx drivers under these circumstances so if I can't work this out somehow I'm gonna have to look for another soundcard which I'm not thrilled in doing, I love the kx project, any sound card driver is laugh compared to it, but what can one do... Perhaps the software world wasn't quite ready for multicores. On the other hand, the author of the kx driver codes this beauty on a dual processor machine although not multi CORE, shouldn't he be experiencing the same thing then? Kristian __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 28, 2006, 04:53 PM	#18
John Lodge DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 71 Rep Power: 0	Jst, a more usual name for this is dispatcher rather than scheduler as I recall, and as you rightly point out dispatching in a multiprocessor multitasking operating environment can be interesting, including whether tasks once dispatched are pre-emptable or not.

Mar 28, 2006, 04:55 PM	Thread Starter #19
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	still doesn't help me though - any ideas, even wild, on what to do? if I don't resolve this I'm just gonna have to open my wallet and go uptown buying me a studiocard I probably won't like at least driver wise :P __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 28, 2006, 09:54 PM	#20
Jst DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	pluto2: You are running XP Pro If I recall correctly. Apply SP2 and all updates from WU and then install chipset driver. This is very importly that you install chipset driver after SP2. Try to load BIOS defaults, it might help you.

Mar 29, 2006, 09:34 AM	Thread Starter #21
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	jst: My windows xp PRo install cd had sp2 pre-applied, so therefore I installed the chipset drivers AFTER sp2, and they were of the latest version. Bios defaults... I started out with bios defaults, the only things that I've changed is some default overclocking features that I don't want aswell as disabling some perpherials I don't want or need, that's it, I haven't changed any "advanced" settings at all running defaults everywhere. I'm completelly out of clues here. Kristian __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 29, 2006, 01:16 PM	#22
Jst DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	Control Panel: Sonds and Audio Devices: Advances Audio Properties Does changing "Hardware Acceleration" and "Sample Rate Conversion Quality" brings any difference? Run dxdiag. Does all Sound test run properly?

Mar 29, 2006, 02:13 PM	Thread Starter #23
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	Hardware acceleration or sample rate conversion quality - changed both to lowest possible one at a time with no changes with normal buffer size. dxdiag - all sound tests run correctly. more ideas? just shot anything at me, I'm desperate I've looked into other cards but there are absolutely no solution out there that is as perfect for me as kx drivers on an audigy2. __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 29, 2006, 02:26 PM	Thread Starter #24
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	NEW INFORMATION - VERY WEIRD!!! I sat down and investigated this thoroughly now, seting the buffer to the default 8352 bytes. The problem is NOT directly related to anything playing a sound. Playing a sound in for example media player classic or even sndrec32.exe does NOT cause this problem. the problem is ONLY caused when the sound occurs due to a windows SOUND EVENT. For example: the sound that occurs when you close notepad and it asks if you want to save the unsaved document, things like that, it's only the SOUNDEVENTS that causes problems, what the heck is all that about, and why on earth is the triggering of windows sound events related to my playback buffer size as it seems that the actual playback of sounds isn't the issue, just when they get played due to a sound event trigger. weird weird weird... ideas?? Don't tell me to disable sound events, I find them useful Kristian __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 29, 2006, 03:25 PM	#25
Jst DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	Do you have more sound cards in your computer? (maybe motherboard's integrated) Do you have any IRQ Conflicts in your computer? Did you try to put your Audigy in different PCI slot?

Mar 29, 2006, 04:59 PM	Thread Starter #26
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	1) Integrated yes, but has always been disabled, no devices what so ever from it in windows. 2) No conflicts at all, only 2 uninstalled devices that I don't really need to install 3) I was afraid you were gonna suggest that... I haven't, and I'd most definitely prefer NOT to due to the fact that it would mean hours of work. I only have 2 pci cards in my computer but the rest of the slots are filled with plates for usb, gameports and god knows what, just moving one card will take a LONG time though I'm aware of that it MIGHT fix something. I've stayed away from it though because of the fact that the card seems to sit most optimal where it is, it's nor sharing irq with anything else which it would if I moved it, do you still think it would be a useful thing to try? Isn't it weird btw that it's only the sound events that are affected and nothing else, and that it responds to chantges in buffer size, beats the hell out of me. Kristian __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 30, 2006, 10:13 PM	#27
Jst DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	Hm, I think there is some strange communication in relation: XP - sound driver - chipset. Maybe is has something to do with latencies - ... I once had similar problem with sound (Winamp playing was full of clicks) and I had to disable something like "Unused PCI Clocks" in BIOS but you said you tried BIOS defaults.

Mar 30, 2006, 10:19 PM	Thread Starter #28
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	I'm running pretty much on defaults, just disabled a few things I don't need and so on... I might add ot that though that "defaults" on newer asus boards are more like "optimized" or "turbo", I disabled no less than 2 overclocking options that was "default", I don't want overclocking as default, and I'm puzzled how they can put those settings as "default". So anyway... I might have "optimized" settings here and there even though I have "defaults". I don't have a setting called unused pci clocks, I only have a few settings regarding pci things, such as "latency timer" which is set to 64 as default I believe. If you are interested or just really friendly, this is a link to the manual which lists all bios entries: http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...32-SLI_Dlx.pdf ;O) smiles and looks generally thankful Kristian __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul

Mar 31, 2006, 08:10 AM	#29
Alazir DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 7 Rep Power: 0	AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+ / 2GB / Asus a8v deluxe / AGP GeForce 5600 FX / Audigy-2 + Live 5.1 (connected through SPDIF) - no problem appears: neither with windows sound, nor with direct-x, nor with ASIO. Changing AC-97 (on-board) status to "enabled" also doesn't cause problem

Mar 31, 2006, 09:04 AM	Thread Starter #30
pluto2 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	alzir: have you read my problems - that the problem is specific to windows sound events, and not general audio playback? It was nice to know that you got it working though so that it isn't some dual core general issue of some kind, I'll continue the struggle I love kx and it's worth the sweat! Do you have cool & quiet enabled? any other specific details? any changes to the bios etc? __________________ Kristian Erik Tigersoul