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SB16 CT2940 PnP Sever audio distortion with 16bit audio

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First post, by Abobie

Posted on 
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Rank Newbie
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Newbie

Hello,
iv been having some issues with the audio play back on my SB card. In some games there is an audible crackling/popping sound that usly comes out of the right channel ( it some times effects both channels but for the most part its on right). However this doesn't seem to effect 8 bit sound or MIDI, it seems that only 16 bit sound is effected by this phenomenon.

Iv tryed several things to resolve the problem. Messing with bios settings did nothing, along with replaceing the power supply and messing with mixer settings. Different drivers seemed to take no effect either. I even replaced the card with a another sb16 ct2940, no dice.

Im starting to think that its the mother board that's at fault, iv heard some rumblings about VIA chipsets producing garbage in their sound output but im not 100% sure if this is the case here or not. ( i hope it isn't at least).

Reply 1 of 1, by Jo22

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Rank l33t++
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l33t++

Hello and welcome,
I'm not sure, but maybe it's related to 16-Bit DMA. Several things could be the cause then.
If you're running DOS, boot without EMM386, QEMM or UMBPCI and run those games once more.
If the issue still persists try a diagnostics program, like CheckIt v3, Navratil NSSI or DIAG V4.61 and test the DMA controllers and the soundcard.

But don't worry, I don't think your soundcard is broken.
Maybe your board/card is using two 8Bit transfers instead of one 16Bit transfer, has NMI issues or it's a BIOS bug.
So it's probably a small compatibility issue, which can be fixed somehow.

But if you worry about your psu to be broken, better check it.
There are several psu testers available. Some ISA/PCI POST cards can also display voltages (+12v,-12v,+5v,+3,3v; some lack -5v).

Mine looks similar like this:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/PCI-PC-Diagnos … 2601854740.html

The link is just an example to give you an idea how it looks like.

I really wish I could help you more, but I'm no Sound Blaster expert.
At least not for the later PnP stuff. I've been using the older 1xxx models or cards like the PAS for some time.
But soundcards are often discussed here at vogons, so maybe the others have a good idea.
To help they will probably need more details about your rig (mainboard model, OS, drivers, config.sys/autoexec.bat and so on).

I wish you lots of luck. 😀

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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