might be worth posting some pics of the card.
check for loose pins?

What motherboard and chipset dose your system have?
Some motherboards and chipsets are known to have trouble with PCI sound cards. Dropouts and crackling audio were common problems with these motherboards.

Do you have a different motherboard / system you could test it with?

If you can test it with another system, that could narrow down the issue to whether it's a system specific issue.

akimmet wrote on 2024-09-10, 02:35:

What motherboard and chipset dose your system have?
Some motherboards and chipsets are known to have trouble with PCI sound cards. Dropouts and crackling audio were common problems with these motherboards.

Yes, forgot to mention my mobo: ASRock P4I65G, chipset (nb): Intel 865G , sb: Intel ICH5.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-09-10, 02:36:

Do you have a different motherboard / system you could test it with?

If you can test it with another system, that could narrow down the issue to whether it's a system specific issue.

Only modern system with Windows 11, doubt this will work under it.

Pickle wrote on 2024-09-10, 02:00:

might be worth posting some pics of the card.
check for loose pins?

Yes, I will post later.

Interesting update I have. I've installed Q2 and enabled its music via the patch and ogg files. So, after more than 1 hour play, no crackling sounds!

I assume it's a driver issue rather than hardware.

Can anyone suggest correct way of installing Audigy 2 drivers? Does it follow after the chipset and then GPU, or chipset, GPU, sound card?

And lastly, what about Phil's lab drivers for 9x? It seems to be newer than from CD image from Vogons? Is it worth to update to 4.12.16.2100?
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/sound-blaster-audigy.html

I use this cd image for mine on win98: https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fil … 510&menustate=0
chipset usually first, i dont think it will matter if video or audio comes next.
was the crackle there at the start and then it went away over time? if you never used this card before maybe the caps are reforming.

I bought it used, so not sure if was stashed previously, but it looked very clean.
The crackling started in games only, after playing for more than 30 minutes only go away after reboot.
I used same link to install, I've installed all programs from this CD as well. I switched to VXD version after setup.

Its manual says that we need to install driver prior to plugging the card to PCI! Curious if this is the way for Win 98?

My plan is to reinstall Windows 98 over the weekend and preform specific drivers setup.

Old_mATX wrote on 2024-09-12, 20:51:

Its manual says that we need to install driver prior to plugging the card to PCI! Curious if this is the way for Win 98?

i think this is mainly to get the driver to install from the first windows detection, its not going to hurt to do it that way, but i think the driver update path would work too if the device is first showing up as unknown

Yes it works under Win-10 and Win-11 but some functions will not work like EAX.
You have to use the Audigy RX driver for Win-10 you can download from creative website.
It sound okay.

But if you Really want Great sound get the Creative GC7 Dac.
This thing sounds Amazing.
Works with PC and Mac. Plug and Play. drivers install automatically.

Wow….This thing will take your Computer Audio to Another Level.
I have both installed on same computer running Win-10 and Win-11 dual boot.
The GC7 Dac sounds so much better.
I don’t even listen to the Audigy 2zs anymore.

Old_mATX wrote on 2024-09-12, 18:40:

Can anyone suggest correct way of installing Audigy 2 drivers? Does it follow after the chipset and then GPU, or chipset, GPU, sound card?

I typically install sound card drivers last. I'll usually install GPU first just to get the proper screen resolution going, followed by chipset drivers, DirectX, then sound card.

For Win-10 or Win-11 Download the Audigy RX driver from Creative website.
Extract the package file using Win-rar
Open the folder labeled “Win-10 driver” and install the driver.

You hear cracking and popping sound because you have the Wrong driver installed.
Quick uninstall that driver and software before you damage your speakers and sound card.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2024-09-13, 03:31:

For Win-10 or Win-11 Download the Audigy RX driver from Creative website. Extract the package file using Win-rar Open the folder […]
Show full quote

For Win-10 or Win-11 Download the Audigy RX driver from Creative website.
Extract the package file using Win-rar
Open the folder labeled “Win-10 driver” and install the driver.

You hear cracking and popping sound because you have the Wrong driver installed.
Quick uninstall that driver and software before you damage your speakers and sound card.

Ok, but what's correct driver then? Where to obtain it? To my surprise, crackling disappeared for the last few days but Creative setup left my system unstable, I have more freezes than ever, hence I will rebuild it.

What operating system are you running ?

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2024-09-14, 02:43:

What operating system are you running ?

Windows 98 SE.

This CD should work for win98se
Download and extract iso using Win-Rar program
Burn ISO to CD-R disk

Or you can copy extracted ISO image to USB thumb drive

Driver link:
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … 510&menustate=0

It's very strange, but crackling noise completely gone by itself in all games. I didn't do anything dramatic. I will rebuild the OS with specific drivers only to bring stability back. I have on-board audio parts still in. My auto-run function is popping with some errors after Creative setup.

I just reinstalled an OS and only installed known good drivers as well as followed SB Au. 2 ZS guide found on this forum, so far system seems rock solid! I have to put few more games I had issues with thought.