[PeaceOnEarth]

Hi, Im experiencing a major sound problem on my computer. And the biggest problem is that I have absolutely no idea of what's wrong.

Since a few weeks ago my sound has started disappearing at totally random occasions. Sometimes it disappears while Im playing games, cs for instance. Sometimes instead of disappearing, it just goes really weird kinda raspy or something, cant really describe it.

My computer tells me that all the hardware is running correctly but there is still no sound. I've also checked that no sound is muted etc. I suspect some kind of virus since the sound worked fine only a couple of weeks ago but my antivirus cant find anything.

I run a SB audigy Audio [4400] with all the latest drivers installed.
Im not really good at computers so I would really appreciate some help here.

I apologize if this is posted in the wrong forum, this site confuses me..

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A virus would not be near the top of my list. Sounds like the audio care is going out. How old is the card? Has it be been subjected to any outside abuse (lighting storm, dumped water on the case, ect)? What all is plugged into it? The soundblasters are great card but don’t last long if used improperly. What model is it (4400 is a system address, its somthing like sound blaster 16, 32, 5.1, audigy, audigy 2 ect)?


-Ryan

[ryanmills]

A virus would not be near the top of my list. Sounds like the audio care is going out. How old is the card? Has it be been subjected to any outside abuse (lighting storm, dumped water on the case, ect)? What all is plugged into it? The soundblasters are great card but don’t last long if used improperly. What model is it (4400 is a system address, its somthing like sound blaster 16, 32, 5.1, audigy, audigy 2 ect)?


-Ryan

[Hawker]

its a driver issue. have you gotten an error about the AC'97 drivers? i would reccomend uninstalling all of your audio drivers and downloading them again. i had the same problem, with a soundblaster live. try rolling back your drivers first, if you dont know how let me know.

[PeaceOnEarth]

Ryan: The card is less than a year and I can't recall it being subjected to any form of outside abuse. The model is Sound Blaster Audigy 2.

Hawker: I haven't gotten any errormessages at all. I can try to reinstall the drivers but I have no idea how to "roll them back?"

Another really weird thing happened yesterday. I was running a music program and suddenly the sound stopped. I checked my player settings and found out that the output device I was running was the primary sound driver, I changed into the SB Audigy Audio and suddenly my sound was back. It only lasted for a couple of minutes though, the sound soon went away again. I switched back to the primary and the sound came back but disappeared after ten minutes or so. I switched back and forth and the sound came but soon went again.

Does this give you any clues?

[ryanmills]

Does this give you any clues?

That something is wrong


Did you install the full suite of SB blaster drivers? If you only installed the system drivers and you did NOT update them try installing the full suite. Sound blaster has its own control system. Could force it to set the right audio device again.




If not and you know what your doing. Go into your system->devices->hardware mangers->under sound, video controllers find "Creative SB Audigy 2 (WDM)" delete and reboot. Either of thous might fix the issue of it changing.


Keep in mind to me it sounds like the card is blown. But maybe someone else has an idea though.




-Ryan

Edited by ryanmills, 21 June 2005 - 11:30 AM.

[audioboy]

Hawker: I haven't gotten any errormessages at all. I can try to reinstall the drivers but I have no idea how to "roll them back?"

Another really weird thing happened yesterday. I was running a music program and suddenly the sound stopped. I checked my player settings and found out that the output device I was running was the primary sound driver, I changed into the SB Audigy Audio and suddenly my sound was back. It only lasted for a couple of minutes though, the sound soon went away again. I switched back to the primary and the sound came back but disappeared after ten minutes or so. I switched back and forth and the sound came but soon went again.

Does this give you any clues?

yes it does!
Im assuming you looked in sound and audio devices, and the output was selected to something besides you audigy card was selected. is this correct?
fix #1- go there again, select the audigy for playback/record, then tick the box at the bottom that says use only preferred devices. this should lock it onto using that card.

it sounds like things are switching to the integrated sound card (common on motherboards these days). that is to say, intergrated sound is common, the switching not so much...

so, fix #2- go into you BIOS and disable the onboard audio, this will prevent it from even being loaded or activated. it will prevent the switching issue, and give a tiny little increase in performance, as none of your system resources will be devoted to the onboard sound.

questions, or if I got something wrong in my assessment, etc please post back. if it works, please post that too!

[PeaceOnEarth]

Ok I think I've sorted the problem out for now. There was apparently some kind of problem with the latest driver I installed, so I simply restored the default drivers and everything has been running just fine since then

Thx for all the help I got.

[scrushmaster]

Still disable the onboard sound it can give you some increased performance. Just press delete on bootup and find the part that will say something like onboard sound --- Enabled, then just disable it and save and exit.