Another Audigy 2 ZS crackling problem, not always there but relatively reproduceable.

CookieOfFortune

Here's my setup:

Audigy 2 ZS
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L P35+ICH9
Q6600
8800GT
Windows XP SP2
kX Project 3538

I've found running certain programs on one of the devices (kx Wave SB035010k2 0/1, 4/5, etc.) will "corrupt" that device. What I mean is that if the device did not produce crackling before, it will begin to produce crackling until I change the device I'm using (Under Volume Control -> Adjust Audio Properties -> Playback device), though sometimes only a reboot will help.

Winamp can play MP3s just fine without producing the crackling (I can set it to use the non-default device), unless I do something else on the same device.

Movies, Flash, some games always starts the crackling.

Also, if this helps, the crackling does show up under the peak meters under kX DSP, but not under RMAA and nothing I do seems to get them to go away. (Well, it is affected by filters, but I don't know a good filter for random popping).

My system is already under ACPI and I my motherboard does not have a way to change the PCI latency.

So I do believe this problem has a software origin (since I can filter it and all), just don't know enough about the system to figure it out. If someone can provide some insight, that'd be great, spent hours on this crap.

Russ

That could be tricky to diagnose, but to start with, I would try ruling out any DSP effects that you might have loaded (i.e. Reverb under some settings can add (seemingly random) popping like sound, etc).

Try a simple DSP config, without any effects (i.e. just FxBus and epilog) and see if the problem goes away.

CookieOfFortune

I've done a clean DSP setup already...

Russ

OK, so that probably rules out kX and any DSP settings as a cause.

I do not know, (again) diagnosing such problems can be tricky. Are you able to re-create the problem consistently? When the problem occurs, try to note what else the system is doing (what program is playing the audio (any audio related plugins the program is using), what other programs are running, what your CPU usage is, etc). Restart Windows using a selective startup (MSConfig) such that only things that are absolutely necessary (for testing) start with Windows, and see if the problem goes away. If it does, re-enable things one at a time and see if/when the problem comes back, etc.

Also, you might try plugging your computer into a different outlet (preferably on a different circuit) to try and rule out electrical interference, etc. (take notice of what is going on in your house when the problem starts (i.e. microwave, vacuum cleaner, etc running, fluorescent lights just turned on, etc).

CookieOfFortune

Yes, it I can get it to occur consistently by playing a movie or Youtube.

Does the kX DSP software emulate the effects or does it mess with a hardware DSP?

Also, is there a program available that can detect ALL processes that are producing sound on my computer?

Russ

You might trying updating or reinstalling whichever plugin is used to play the audio/movies (i.e. Flash). You might also try a different browser and see if it makes a difference. Also, as I stated before, I would check your CPU/Memory usage when the problem starts. It is not uncommon to get noise when CPU usage is high (i.e. studdering audio, or noise when moving the mouse (scrolling a web page or dragging a window, etc). Flash ads on webpages often give me problems on my old beast).

The effects in the kX DSP are hardware effects using the cards DSP.

I do not know of any such program...

killater

I had the same thing i.e. some crackling while listening to the music or playing games...
I've solved this problem by disconecting my video card's molex from all the hard drives(had 2 Hard drivess and GF6600 on one molex line), since then no problems noticeable

trex_daemon

I don't know if this helps, but if you have ffdshow installed, and you have selected dolby decoder from the audio inteface of ffdshow, it does produce cracking sound. The workaround for this is that you place a volume control (ffdshow option again) before dolby , and you reduce volume by about 7 db.