Sound Card Probs.

[3rdID]

So we wait more than a month(Iraq) for a sound card to play newer games. We put our money together and bought a Sound Blaster audigy 2 value. We have been experiencing some problems with it in regards to it freezing the computer. The computer will simply emit a high pitched tone that continues and the computer freezes. Updating the drivers doesn't help.

It happens with some games, not all, and with the introduction program it comes with. That program takes you through different tweaks and when it gets to the part where it plays an audio sample it freezes. It used to play audio files in winamp etc., however today it froze while doing that.

Its a dell from around 2001, could it be the PCI slot? I know it says it needs PCI 2.1, would this computer have a 2.1 PCI slot?

Also I was told by someone here it could be the power supply which is only 250 watts. It seems logical since it does start to play games/audio files and movies at first then freezes. Although we are only running a radeon 9550 256mb agp vid card.

Again, today I was watching a video on WMP 10 and it was fine. I went to listen to an audio file and it froze 20-30 secs into play.

Im lost. Creative is no help whatsoever, I cant understand what the tech people for Dell are saying(India), I dont know where to turn.

Being that Im at the gates of hell, I dont think geek squad will venture out here.

Any advice you can give would be great. thanks.

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DELL
System Manufacturer Dell Computer Corporation
System Model Dimension 8200
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 1 Stepping 2 GenuineIntel ~1894 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Dell Computer Corporation A03, 12/7/2001
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 221.86 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 1.22 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
250/w power supply

note:all drivers up to date, has same problem with drivers that are on install disks.

 

[Crysalis]

doesn't sound like a problem with the sound card. The sound card should be more than enough to play those files. It's not like a video card that it can only handle a certain amount of processing. From the looks of your system specs, it seems you should be running fine.

How much memory is in use when the computer is idle? Check this by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL and then goto the performance tab. At the bottom right it will say total memory and available memory. What does the available number say?

Do a virus and spyware scan. Use MS Anti-Spyware for the spyware scan. Works wonders.

 

[3rdID]

this was under physical memory. vv

Total: 523276

Avail: 248000

there was also kernal mem.

 

[Crysalis]

Thats plenty of RAM. There is something bogging down your system. It shouldn't be the sound card. Have you updated Direct X? Also, run dxdiag and run all the tests.

Spyware and virus scans too!

 

[3rdID]

Well I have finally found the problem.

There is a patch for my bios(A03) that has to do with audigy soundcards. Its a write to floppy and boot program. However after trying to patch it my computer is now missing a windows .32 file and the computer goes into the safe mode/last good config. menu on startup. I have tried to choose safe mode or last good config and it just restarts.

Bloody hell.

Oh well, Ill be home in a little less than a month so I guess I will penny pinch and spring for a new machine. Ill get this one fixed and give it to someone I dislike. =)

thanks much for your help Crysalis.