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  • #2101592

    What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

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    by p.davis ·

    I just upgraded to a new mobo and CPU. After installing sound card, everything works fine for about the first hour or two that the computer is on, then the sound becomes weird – like when speaker is bad. All was fine in old system. If the speakers are bad, shouldn’t they be bad all the time? Is there some simple way to find out what’s going on? The problem occurs under both Windows 98 and Windows 2000.

    Here are some specs:

    SounderBlaster PCI 128
    Boston Acoustics speakers with sub-wooferABIT KT7E
    950Mhz Duron
    256MB RAM

    Yes, I have the latest sound drivers.

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    • #3635268

      What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      by csmith ·

      In reply to What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      You are correct. Speakers do not go bad, and then be OK the next day. When they go bad, they are permanently gone.
      It sounds like simple overheating.
      The most common cause of this is mounting the sound card next to the video card.
      Result: Not enough airflow for two high heat producing cards, and thus degraded performance, when they overheat.
      If you must put the Sound Card near the Video Card, leave a free slot between them, and leave the Blank Slot Cover off, to allow extra airflow.
      Regards, Chris

    • #3635175

      What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      by p.davis ·

      In reply to What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      I already had left an empty slot between the sound card and video card, and the blank slot cover off. Maybe the cards need to be even farther apart?

    • #3635155

      What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      by gorez ·

      In reply to What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      Hello,

      Good speakers and woofer.
      It seems that speakers are OK, because problem occur after first 1 or 2 hours(speakers usually either works or not).
      So I think sound card is sinning or less it is mobo issue. But nevertheless, try to plug
      your sound card in to another PC and check the sound output there(also you can check your speakers on friends PC too).
      And if the sound card causing the problem contact local repair office to fix it or change it if you have the warranty for it.

      Good luck in troubleshooting,

      Vlad

    • #3635011

      What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      by p.davis ·

      In reply to What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      Also forgot to mention before that rebooting always temporarily resolves the problem.

    • #3635895

      What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      by mcarrara ·

      In reply to What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      Rebooting solves the problem? For how long? If it is another two hours it might not be overheating. If all you do when you reboot is wait a few seconds and restart, you have not disipated much heat. Actually because the fan is off you are building heat up inside the case. Can you borrow an other sound card and give that a try?

    • #3635828

      What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      by p.davis ·

      In reply to What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      I do not wait when rebooting. After rebooting, the problem stays gone for about 2-3 hours. I will try to borrow a sound card.

    • #3635824

      What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      by csmith ·

      In reply to What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      On the card separation:
      One empty slot, and the extra airflow from the slot cover off will usually do it.
      We used to be able to quickly check for overheating, by spraying the components with FREON, when the problem occurred.
      This literally froze the board, and the symtoms would vanish instantly, when the problem was overheating.
      This was before the harmful effects of FREON on the Ozone layer were known.
      (I am obviously a gray beard, from the above comment.)
      The question already asked about how long the problem disappears after reboot is important.
      If it is a short time, then the next troubleshooting step is to take the cover off and run the system with an ordinary household fan blowing air onto the sound card/videocard/motherboard.If the problem does go away it is overheating.
      If it doesn’t, it is time to look for a charge buildup, caused by a bad ground.
      This problem usually occurs in the “front end” of the sound card, not in the Power Amplifier. (Final Amplifier Stage of the sound card.
      This means check the input connections comming from the CD-ROM, MIC, etc. , and put the gain of all unused inputs to zero, to troubleshoot.
      Regards, Chris

      • #3618586

        What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

        by p.davis ·

        In reply to What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

        If you will explain what you mean by “put the gain of all unused inputs to zero” then I will try it and accept your answer if it solves the problem. I have increased the points for the question hoping you will explain this.
        Thank you.

    • #3635770

      What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      by richard_barsby ·

      In reply to What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      Hi have you tried the latest drivers I had a similar problem with a PCI 128 which was cured this way.

      Rich

    • #3635745

      What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      by p.davis ·

      In reply to What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      Point value changed by question poster.

    • #3633568

      What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      by netuser ·

      In reply to What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      Try replace the sound card cable or the speaker cable.

    • #3618588

      What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      by b_brianh ·

      In reply to What’s wrong- sound card or speakers or?

      The Via chipset has some latency issues. I have seen this directly affect the onboard usb and add in audio cards. SB Live! cards in particular seem to aggravate the problem. The only solution that work for my KT7-RAID and sound blaster was a via latency fix. There are the usual disclaimers with its use. I can email you a copy if you like.

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