Topic: Sound advice required

[Sandra]

Ok guys and gals (ok you too Clive   )
Howard has a problem ( we wont discuss that here though   )
Anyway his speakers crackle excessively distorting his sound on some types of sound files.Thinking it was his speakers he bought some new ones and its still the same.Tried the speakers in another PC and they are fine on the same sounds that are not on his PC.
Its a MSI 6191 board with onboard sound running windows 98SE.I disabled the onboard sound and installed a Creative Soundblaster 128 PCI card but it is still the same.
The windows start up sound is fine as are audio cds and mp3 cds.
The problem is with the sound on Incredimail notifiers ( not sure which format they are in),a screensaver he has on(again format unknown) and the sound in my sigs and other sigs I have added sound to.As far as I know Swish uses a special kind of mp3 format which isnt a true mp3 file (think its called a LAME on or something like that)
He has installed Swish which I would have thought would have added any missing codecs needed to correct the sound distorted in my sigs,but it hasnt made any difference.
Over to you for suggestions  

[Simon]

Well, this probably won't be much help, but I have noticed distortion in some of the IncrediMail sounds too.  I just avoid using those ones.  

[Sandra]

I may have misled you by the description Simon.when I said distortion its a bit like static interference on AM radio,a constant crackle at the same volume as the sound being generated  

[Adept]

If you've tried the usual like reinstalling the drivers, re-installing Incredimail etc., the only other things I can think of are:-

• interference from loose internal cabling
• an interrupt clash on the sound hardware
• something else

Sorry I can't think of anything else at the moment :-[

[Sandra]

I think I will go with the something else option Adept  
I could go with the others if it was across all sound formats,but as its only those 3 items that seem to cause the problem I am leaning to a codec but which one and as I installed the same sound card in his previous PC with the same drivers etc I would have thought that it had everything it needed  

[Adept]

What processor is in this PC Sandra? Maybe the codec needs more processor power Or perhaps it doesn't work with AMD processors

[Rodders]

its a bit like static interference on AM radio,a constant crackle at the same volume as the sound being generated  

It wouldn't actually be radio interference, would it, Sandra?  Maybe there's another bit of kit in there that's giving off interference.  What's near the sound module area of the board?  A fan, or something else that can be (temporarily) disconnected?  Just a thought.  

[Sandra]

Its an INTEL  900 slot 1 CPU in a MSI 6191 board Adept
I'm afraid I still cant describe the sound properly Rodders. I said interference to distinguish from merely a distortion as its more than distortion. Its more like the sound is breaking up I suppose a bit like a faulty microphone but very rapidly as there are no silences.
The main thing is its ok on most sound formats just does it on the 3 I mentioned earlier

[Adept]

According to MSI the 6191 is a AMD slot A board

The problem you are describing, still sounds a lot like an interrupt problem to me.

[Sandra]

Oops caught me on that one Adept  
I was getting mixed up with the other one I tried the speakers on at his house,youre right its a 900 AMD Athlon  :-[
I'll try and get over nearer to wekend and see if I can find anything out,thanks guys