Computer help w/sound card

[Richard]

Situation:

Gave a freely acquired Dell Dimension 133 pc to Mom /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Added old hard drive in as slave, installed NEWLY purchased soundcard and reformatted EVERYTHING and did a fresh WIN 98 SE installation, using the sound cards CD for drivers (for soundcard).

Upshot.. when doing much of anything that gives her sound, the sound coming from the speakers (non powered), sounds like an old "45" record full of scratches. Every now and then the sound will "stutter" as though caught in some loop. (recall the sound of "Max Headroom"??... very similar)

She took pc to Comp USA, they reformatted entire disk again, reinstalled everything and sent her on her way as "fixed". /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Her pc still sounds like an old Victrola record player with scratchy sound and stutters. (She just drove it from Atlanta to Knoxville for me to tinker on for couple days so "we" (hehehe) only have couple days to make me look like a hero to her.. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Any thoughts as to what might be making this sound all scratchy?

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Thanks,
Richard (who will be SURE to share all the credit when fixed with all of you /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif )

 

[RonL]

Richard

Is the line from the sound card to the unpowered speakers connected to " line out "? You need powered speakers if it is a line out feed. If the sound card does not have amplification non powered speakers may not work. Try connecting a pair of powered speakers and see if this works.

RonL

 

[Richard]

Thanks Ron, but the speakers are connected to the correct jack. She "gets" sound, and at times, the sound works absolutely fine... then all sudden, just stutters or (in her favorite game "Collapse", it sounds like a VERY dirty record all scratchy.

I'm sure it's in the right jack, and to reiterate, clean install of windows (twice, Comp USA did it too), and clean install of her brand new (bought COMP USA) sound card.

I'm getting ready to install yet another game to see how the sound is there. I HOPED she just had a corrupt file in her (downloaded) game, but she said it did this before she bought this sound card. (this was why she bought it, so THAT consistent theme, suggest to me, it's not the soundcard)

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Steven]

Did you try plugging speakers into cd-rom drive head phone jack and play a music cd this does not need the sound card. the sound card may be fine and the speakers are shot. see if they sound scratchy this way if they do the speakers could be your problem.

 

[shado]

Details, details, not paying enough attention to details. What KIND of sound card is it? What is a Dell Dimension 133? Pentium I, Pentium II, Pentium??? Memory capacity? Are all the interupts properly assigned? When attempting to upgrade an older system, some things aren't just as 'plug & play' friendly as one might expect.
J.W.

 

[Richard]

Details, details, not paying enough attention to details. What KIND of sound card is it? What is a Dell Dimension 133? Pentium I, Pentium II, Pentium??? Memory capacity? Are all the interupts properly assigned? When attempting to upgrade an older system, some things aren't just as 'plug & play' friendly as one might expect.

Dell Pentium 133 (probably a Pentium '1') /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
32 megs Ram
Sound card, Soundblaster 16, PCI model SB4740
2.? Gig hard drive for C
850 mb hard drive for D
BOTH hard drives recently formated (twice), no other installatins on here now but games and McCafee Virus Prot.

I installed a couple OLD games (Doom, Myst) and speakers worked absolutely fine. SOMETIMES during "Collapse" they also work fine. It's an intermittent problem.

My first guess is maybe corrupt download file (collapse is downloaded and not played via CD), so I'm going to REdownload it and see if that helps.

If anyone recalls "Max Headroom" and his unique way of speaking when he got caught in that loop and 'stuttered', that's exactly what this does "every now and then".

Again, sadly, these issues are not blanket problems, but the more interesting kind like the noise one's tractor makes out in the field but NEVER with the technician around. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[rlw]

I'd say the soundcard is fine and your PC is under powered. Many games require much more horsepower than 133Mhz and 32 Meg RAM. 32 Meg is the bare minimum for windows. Check the minimum requirements specified on the game boxes. Also bump up the RAM to at least 128 meg. I've seen this phenomena before. Without enough RAM, your PC has to disk-cache to make up for the lack of RAM; and therefore slows down the PC. Your PC can't get the data to the sound card fast enough, so it stutters.

 

[Richard]

I think you hit it.

Last night I was tinkering and opened up her "task manager" and closed down several applications that were running, yet not started by us. She noticed an improvement in her games. ALSO, this Dell system only allows MAX of 64K by design /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif. I wrote down the applications that were running and tonight am going to see if I can find what started them and delete them.

I'm about ready to just go out and buy her a new PC, though with some other things going on now, "Mr. Budget" says that would not be wise of me... but heck... it's MOM. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[rlw]

If the PC isn't on the internet, shut off McAffee or at least "tune" it's auto checking down. Anti-Virus software can bring a PC to its knees if it's checking everything.

 

[Richard]

The game has changed /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Got her an early Mothers Day present, so she now has a brand spanking new PC, while I have an old origional P-133 slug.. lol.

Anyway, I showed her an old game I had (Myst) to see if she might like it, she's "intrigued".

Upon installation of it (It's for Win 95, new machine is XP home edition) the program seemed to "install" correctly, however, when actually starting it up, it ran "upside down".

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I could'nt help but to laugh and sigh at same time.

I went into "compability" and clicked onto "Win 95" and that did not seem to help.

Any thoughts/ideas on how to turn the game "right side up" other than her standing on her head? /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> Any thoughts/ideas on how to turn the game "right side up" other than her standing on her head?</font>
Um, er, what about spending $20 - $40 and buying an up to date copy of Myst here /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[frank_f15]

i got some programs that ran faily well on my old machine (win 95) now i got me a brand new custom built puter running win xp and those programs don't run worth a damm. buy a new computer, then u buy everthing new, printer scanner, software. the american way! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[sendero]

I'm pretty sure he 'hit it' /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

The problem is that the sound card uses a lot of computing power. Even though it uses a fast data transfer method (DMA) the CPU has to keep up or you will get those breaks and stutters.

Adding some RAM might very will fix this. Windows 98 takes up almost 32 meg with no applications running. When you are low on RAM, the computer has to use the hard drive as RAM (simplification but essentially true) and that is very slow.

You should be able to add a 64 meg stick (for 96 meg) for very little money. Just be sure you get the right kind/style of memory. I'll bet it will make a big difference.