New update: It seems crackling/noise can be heard again just depends on the game. Installed NFS HP 2 and it back with in game D3d-EAX on, when off sound is clear.

Try a variety of video driver versions or try switching GPU brands as a test. Video card drivers can have bus behavior that causes problems with PCI sound cards. To get the best 2D/3D performance they want as much bus time as they can get. It's definitely not a problem limited to Audigy.

swaaye wrote on 2024-09-26, 21:14:

Try a variety of video driver versions or try switching GPU brands as a test. Video card drivers can have bus behavior that causes problems with PCI sound cards. To get the best 2D/3D performance they want as much bus time as they can get. It's definitely not a problem limited to Audigy.

Since my GPU is AGP based, does it still affect PCI slot controlled by the south bridge? My driver version is 56.64. Should I try newer?

Old_mATX wrote on 2024-09-27, 17:11:

Since my GPU is AGP based, does it still affect PCI slot controlled by the south bridge? My driver version is 56.64. Should I try newer?

Yup the AGP latency timer can affect PCI. I'm surprised you'd have this problem with an Intel-based motherboard though. Something else that can affect this is ACPI, which doesn't work correctly with all motherboards on Win98. You could install Win98 in APM mode instead and see if that helps.

But really, I would try Windows 2000 SP4 or XP SP3 and see if you still have problems. Your hardware isn't really anything that benefits from Win9x. Audigy 2 drivers might work best there too.

If you want to try different video drivers, try newer and older. But I suspect it is one of the above issues that is causing the audio problems.

swaaye wrote on 2024-09-27, 17:35:

Yup the AGP latency timer can affect PCI. I'm surprised you'd have this problem with an Intel-based motherboard though. Some […]
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Old_mATX wrote on 2024-09-27, 17:11:

Since my GPU is AGP based, does it still affect PCI slot controlled by the south bridge? My driver version is 56.64. Should I try newer?

Yup the AGP latency timer can affect PCI. I'm surprised you'd have this problem with an Intel-based motherboard though. Something else that can affect this is ACPI, which doesn't work correctly with all motherboards on Win98. You could install Win98 in APM mode instead and see if that helps.

But really, I would try Windows 2000 SP4 or XP SP3 and see if you still have problems. Your hardware isn't really anything that benefits from Win9x. Audigy 2 drivers might work best there too.

If you want to try different video drivers, try newer and older. But I suspect it is one of the above issues that is causing the audio problems.

What about Windows ME? Can it have better support for it?

Old_mATX wrote on 2024-10-01, 22:25:

What about Windows ME? Can it have better support for it?

WinME does have a lot of improvements but it's hard to say if it might fix your problem. It is not comparable to Win2K.

If you want to try 98SE in APM mode, you reinstall with "setup /p i" in DOS. I think your CPU will run hotter at idle because the HLT command doesn't get issued with APM. You can use a program like Rain to get around this.

All right, thanks I will try few options later.