Sound Quality Problems

Asok

Ever since i built my new pc i get very distorted sound when playing video and its generally brutal when i try to watch a dvd, it seems fine when i play an mp3.at first i thought it was a problem with the onboard sound on the asus A7S333 but i`ve since added a creative sound card to the pc and i still have the same problem i`ve disabled the drivers for the onboard sound and that hasnt helped tbh i`m lost so any ideas folks?

STaN

try other speakers!

Asok

i`ve tried multiple speakers,headphones,monkey navigated jet cars hurtling across the alkali flats...... you get the picture

Inspector Gadget

...have you considered the possibility that your DVD-ROM drive is running in PIO (Programmed I/O) rather than a DMA (Direct Memory Access) mode? If so, it's using the CPU to orchestrate all data transfers off the disk, with the result that between that and the MPEG-2 decoding going on for the video, and the MPEG-1 Layer 2 decoding going on for the audio, that the computer's hitting 100% CPU utilisation and that the sound card drivers aren't getting a chance to process everything. Can you check what your CPU utilisation is like while playing DVDs?

Gadget

Asok

i`ll check that with task manager when i get home it would make sense as i`m not too sure if i enabled dma however its not just off dvds that the problem exists i`m half temted to just reformat it and install everything fresh and see if that helps

Asok

i checked the cpu usage when a dvd is being played and it is indeed using 100% of the cpu power can anyone tell me how i can enable dma on my dvd drive in windows 2k i`ve looked around and cant find the option in device manager like there was in 98.Still though there is still a problem when i`m watching a divx or any other vidoe file.

leeroybrown

Go to the Device Manager in 2k.

You'll find an "IDE Controllers" Section.

Open the section and Right-Click on the Controllers. The DMA options should be on the second (If my memory serves me correctly) tab of the Dialog.

If it says PIO only, Then select DMA from the list.

A reboot is required.

Asok

i tried that and for some odd reason it wont go to dma mode i`ll try switching some stuff around as the drive used to read at much higher speeds suggesting it can support dma anyways i`ll keep ye posted

leeroybrown

Strange.

You sure it supports DMA?

If you're having trouble with media on your hard-drive too then it might be another issue.

Asok

yeah even if it didnt i still used to get a much better read speed out of it personally i blame ronan and his overuse of it a gl nasty bastid,think i`ll just bring the lot home and rebuild the lot over x mas

The_Bullman

hehe, its fun to blame ronan. poor man

Ronan|Raven

Slanderous remarks indeed.

Inspector Gadget

...but have you any idea whether anything else is sharing the channel with the DVD-ROM drive? I've seen it happen (in my own PC, amongst others) where one (usually older) device stops the channel from going into a UDMA mode entirely! Try to rearrange your IDE chain to put the DVD-ROM drive on it's own (say, as the secondary master) and try it again.

Gadget

Asok

yeah there is a fairly knackered 4x cdrw drive i`ll try sticking them on different channels and get back to ye