Are you running any other programs in WinXP that might be stealing your CPU away from DOSBox? You might try closing every program that you don't need.

Also check your priority levels in dosbox.conf, your core (use dynamic), and monitor your processor usage closely when you experience audio problems.

Are the KX drivers better for you in DosBox? You said the buffer value wouldn't work for KX while it did for Creative drivers? Why not go back to Creative? (I probably already know the answer, just want to hear you say it.)

hunterZ:
yes i closed almost all programs using cpu power.

i doubt mirc is stealing so much cpu power that it disturbs dosbox sound buffers. maybe its agnitum outpost.. haven't tried it without it yet.

dosfreak:
well i can't remember if the sound buffer size of 1024 worked with the creative drivers, i think so, otherwise i would not have set it to 1024 😀 .. and well, as you guessed, i use the kx drivers because they far more better than the ones of creative. but the routing is abit weird, you need to get used to it. maybe if i find the right routing, a buffersize of 1024 would be possible again. you mentioned i should monitor my cpu. how? in what way should i check for it? .. i use dosbox in fullscreen mode :s
and what do you mean with checking the priority settings?
and i do use dynamic as core .. all other's didn't work well..

Believe me, mIRC is a CPU hog, especially if you're running any kind of scripts (such as fservs or bots). "agnitum outpost" is your firewall, I assume? It might hog the CPU if you have a lot of data flowing between your computer and the Internet.

You should open the Task Manager (ctrl+alt+del) and watch the CPU column of the Processes tab while DOSbox is running to see who is using the CPU. Of course, you'll have to run DOSBox in a window unless you have multiple monitors. The priority of processes (such as DOSBox) can be adjusted in the Task Manager as well. You're also supposed to be able to set it in dosbox.conf, but it doesn't seem to work in Windows.

Also, if you use mIRC (or IRC in general) you should be scanning your computer regularly for viruses (using Norton AntiVirus, McAfee, or whatever) and spyware/adware/malware (Spybot Search & Destroy, Lavasoft Ad-Aware and/or whatever). It's very easy to get viruses and other nasty stuff via mIRC, without having any idea that it's happened.

Also, I'm a big fan of the kX drivers. I'm going to miss them when I switch from an Audigy 2 to an nForce2 in a week or so (but hopefully not enough to give Creative more money for another of their cards to use with kX).

mIRC, in my experience, is quite demanding depending on the script you run and the traffic (and number of channels of course)

I didn't notice any crackles with sound blaster emulation. However, that one is too slow for average FT2 song playing at 44kHz stereo.

good option is to ose emulated GUS, this way emulation is done natively (emulation of hardware mixing) and performance is much better. However, this can cause crackling.

I noticed that they appear when using 16-bit samples (pitch dependant), while 8-bit don't cause any corruption. Probably a bug in GUS emulation.

I've been plaaing with renoise lately. Very similar to FT2, but much more powerful tool.

<offtopic rant>
HunterZ what is this trash that you're often getting viruses through mIRC without knowing about it? There are currently no known unpatched vulnerabilities for mIRC. By default, mIRC blocks all incoming file transmission requests, which is remarkably safe behaviour. It's just as easy (probably easier due to the high numbers of viruses floating around on Gnutella/FastTrack) to get a virus through a peer-to-peer filesharing program as it is through an IRC client. I say "IRC Client" generically because mIRC is no more or less safe than any other client -- which is to say, no IRC client has an inherent risk of unrequested virus infection (you would have to manually accept and run a virus-infected file in order to be infected). Similarly, the only programs that you really need to concern yourself with in terms of spyware/adware are filesharing programs and Internet Explorer.

I don't know where your brain is sometimes.
</offtopic rant>

(As an aside, this post is largely fuelled by my disgust toward the rampant fearmongering of antivirus companies, Symantec and McAfee specifically.)

Yeah, you might have set mIRC to accept *all* incoming DCC sends, which can let a lot of nasty stuff in. What sort of viruses are you getting exactly?

oneirotekt: I'm not getting any virii at all (nor malware of any kind). I haven't used mIRC for a couple years actually. I remember about a year ago that my brother was using mIRC to talk to his Counter-Strike clan buddies and had contracted a couple of mIRC trojans. I think he may have got some version that was part of an fserve package or something, and it was probably misconfigured in the DCC department.

I've also seen malicious, encoded code that infected people will spread around unknowingly that tricks people into clicking on it. Usually it causes mIRC to invisibly download and execute a trojan that itself is an IRC client that then continues to spread itself it the manner described. The only user interaction required is pasting in that one line of code that looks like meaningless garbage.

Snover: I don't read anything released by antivirus companies 😜 Also, the wonder of scripts (in anything, including IRC clients and web browsers) is that you only have to run the script (often simply by clicking a link somewhere or copying and pasting an encoded command), and it'll happily automate the process of installing whatever nasty stuff the creator wants you to be infected with.

But, as I said, I no longer use mIRC. I don't download executables/binaries from any filesharing networks (and if I were desperate enough to, I'd thoroughly scan them before running).

Snover: And as for Internet Explorer, you'll be happy to know that you're the one responsible for my metamorphosis into somewhat of a Mozilla/Firefox evangelist. I've talked several people (friends and family) into using it in instead of IE, mostly for security and anti-popup features.

Now, if you [gentlemen?] are satisfied, perhaps we can get back on topic...

Srecko wrote:

I noticed that crackles appear when using 16-bit samples (pitch dependant), while 8-bit don't cause any corruption. Probably a bug in GUS emulation.

I have decided to continue this GUS problem here:
GUS 16-bit DMA

HunterZ:you convinced me.So,please,what is that mIRC and,more important,what must I do/not do to not use it.
Forgive me,but I am not doing any search because I know nothing of computers and fear do some nasty mistake.
My thanks in advance.
Best regards,

fed1943: mIRC (http://www.mirc.com/) is an Internet chat program for talking on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) networks - they're kind of like instant messengers, except for letting lots of people talk to each other at once. You'd know if you were using it. Also, if you're interested in trying it, I'm sure that the latest official version available from the offical web site is configured to be relatively safe (especially if you have a firewall and/or regularly scan your system for viruses and/or spyware).

The reason I don't use it isn't because I'm afraid of getting nasty stuff on my system, but rather because I'm in a phase of not wanting to waste what little free time I have these days chatting with people I don't know, especially when there's always a couple of annoying and frustrating and immature people hanging out whereever I go.

HunterZ,thanks for your quick answer and help.
Best regards,