I'd start by testing it in different PCI slots. Sound cards sharing resources with stuff like ATA controllers and video cards will cause audio artifacts.

But I just wouldn't trust in Aureal cards for EAX. I prefer earlier drivers, ver 2041.

Just try 2041. 2048 are rather buggy.

firage wrote:

I'd start by testing it in different PCI slots. Sound cards sharing resources with stuff like ATA controllers and video cards will cause audio artifacts.

But I just wouldn't trust in Aureal cards for EAX. I prefer earlier drivers, ver 2041.

I have checked it - the card has an unique IRQ

F2bnp wrote:

Just try 2041. 2048 are rather buggy.

Retested with 2041 - the crackling is still there.

In my experience, if the crackling continues despite changing cards, then it is likely a driver or resource conflict. It doesn't have to be the driver for your soundcard--it could be the driver for something as simple as your mouse.

I also had a SbLive! card have crackling audio when the main DSP chip got hot, but that doesn't sound like your problem.

Just a shot in the dark, but VIA chipset... I stick with Intel on faster Windows 98 machines. Not want you want to hear, but this has always given me great Vortex 2 sound.

Are you using the optical output or analog output? I had crackling with the optical output with A3d enabled, which was not present in the analog output.

philscomputerlab wrote:

Just a shot in the dark, but VIA chipset... I stick with Intel on faster Windows 98 machines. Not want you want to hear, but this has always given me great Vortex 2 sound.

Phil makes a good point. You could try George Breese's PCI Latency patch for VIA chipsets. It was recently added to vogonsdrivers.

I've heard crackling with most PCI sound cards including Aureal's. The VIA latency patch might reduce it.

Another thing you can do is try reducing PCI latency of the AGP card. AGP cards tend to want to maximize their bus time and this can affect the sound card. PCI Latency Tool can tweak this within Windows, for example. There is a version at the end of this thread that supposedly works in 9x.

If AGP fast writes are enabled, try turning that off in the BIOS as well.

philscomputerlab wrote:

Just a shot in the dark, but VIA chipset... I stick with Intel on faster Windows 98 machines. Not want you want to hear, but this has always given me great Vortex 2 sound.

I will try the cards again with a 440BX system when I find more time.

boxpressed wrote:

philscomputerlab wrote:

Just a shot in the dark, but VIA chipset... I stick with Intel on faster Windows 98 machines. Not want you want to hear, but this has always given me great Vortex 2 sound.

Phil makes a good point. You could try George Breese's PCI Latency patch for VIA chipsets. It was recently added to vogonsdrivers.

I gave it a try, but it didn't help.

swaaye wrote:

I've heard crackling with most PCI sound cards including Aureal's. The VIA latency patch might reduce it.

Another thing you can do is try reducing PCI latency of the AGP card. AGP cards tend to want to maximize their bus time and this can affect the sound card. PCI Latency Tool can tweak this within Windows, for example. There is a version at the end of this thread that supposedly works in 9x.

If AGP fast writes are enabled, try turning that off in the BIOS as well.

The AGP fast writes were already disabled.

I also gave the PCI Latency Tool a try, but I wasn't able to change the latency (selected line on the screenshot - this is the one you have meant?).

The crackling occurs when the cards 16k buffers miss a sample period, the card isn't keeping its DMA channels filled it seems. What you can try is to set the resources manually in the device manager to another DMA channel. Changing the card to another PCI slot can sometimes alleviate this issue when the chipset only supported bus mastering on the primary PCI slot.
But the issue at the end of the day is bad resource management in the driver and the a3dapi.dll (when playing A3D enabled games)

Hmm I wonder if this was proven true: Via PCI bug

Maf wrote:

I also gave the PCI Latency Tool a try, but I wasn't able to change the latency (selected line on the screenshot - this is the o […]
Show full quote

I also gave the PCI Latency Tool a try, but I wasn't able to change the latency (selected line on the screenshot - this is the one you have meant?).

As I recall it should show the video card in the listing. Maybe the older versions (like 2.3) work differently...

Check the VIA section from here for a potential solution:

http://release.radeon.ru/2048.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20041017135923/ht … ides/vortex.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20030404154747/ht … ortexfix01.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20030814034646/ht … lp/th-v2a80.htm
Don't know if these could help

Maf wrote:

philscomputerlab wrote:

Just a shot in the dark, but VIA chipset... I stick with Intel on faster Windows 98 machines. Not want you want to hear, but this has always given me great Vortex 2 sound.

I will try the cards again with a 440BX system when I find more time.

Well, I tested it today in a 440BX system and the cracking sound / static noises are still there.
Setup: asus p2b-f, win98se, dx 7.0a, intel chipset drivers, 2041 audio driver

Fuck yeah...

You've tried multiple cards that exhibit the same issues...
You've tried multiple system setups and have the same issues...

You shouldn't hear any static on these soundcards, so are we sure it isn't a cable->speaker issue?
Another thought is some older PCI/AGP video card drivers would hog the PCI bus and cause issues, but driver updates should have solved this issue.

ZanQuance wrote:

You shouldn't hear any static on these soundcards, so are we sure it isn't a cable->speaker issue?

Nice try 😉 I have tried it with several speakers / headphones and the issue is present across all of them.
I think I'll have to make a recording of this noise so that you can hear it yourself.

While I was typing out a reply it logged me out and I lost it 🙁

Since the 3 cards are unlikely to all be faulty with the same symptoms look for the common element in all the tests, CDROM/HDD/Software ect... If it's clicks then it's a software issue hogging the PCI bus, if it's static then make sure all unused inputs are muted and the jacks are clean ect...

Man, that's just bizarre... 😢

Just a thought... what about power? Could it be dirty power going into the PC? Try plugging it in to a different outlet on the other side of the house, or using a quality surge protector. You just want to make sure your running on clean electricity with no outside interference.

I've learned over the years that with computers, it could be damn near anything 😀