Can a sound card make your PC lock up?

[EvilPeppard]

Has anyone had computer lockups related to a sound card? Or just mainly video cards? I'm trying to isolate my problem. Thanks.

 

[boeingfixer]

Evil, Yes I have had a Sound Blaster lock up my system. I was trying to play UT and the game would never get past loading. UT's tech support suggested it was sound and after trying everything else and still being in doubt I changed my card and everything worked fine.

It would also help out greatly if you posted your problem so if any of us have had it we can help out even further.

Thanks and enjoy your stay here !!

 

[EvilPeppard]

Thanks. My problem is I have a PC that locks up randomly...whether it be during game play or just browsing. I have changed the video card, but it seemed this started when I went from a PCI card to an AGP card. The only other thing that I haven't tried it the sound card. I have a SB Live X-Gamer and I traded it out for just a standard SB-Live. I also just ordered a new PCI video card. I'll let you know the results once I narrow the problem. Thanks again.:grinthumb

 

[boeingfixer]

Evil, I have the same board, I have really loved it . I am currently running raid on it with twin IBM's. I have the Game Thea. XP sound card and an ATI Radeon. Currently with an AMD 1900+. I have had no lock-up's what-so-ever on this board related to hardware. I have never liked a board like this one. i would try taking out the sound card, uninstalling all the drivers and seeing if it locks up with no sound.

Also do a search in the forums or at AMD.com. There was a new driver release for the AMD chipset about a week or two ago and posted both in forums, and on 3DS and AMD.com.

Let me know if you need any more help. I have been running this board for about 9 months now.

 

[EvilPeppard]

Thanks. I should have been more clear. This is not happening on my GigaByte board that I have noted in my Signature. It is happening on my other gaming computer:

ASUS P3B-F, P3-850
1 GIG PC-100 RAM
Windows 2000

 

[uncleel]

IRQs problems with sound cards (SB Live, Aureal cards)
Windows has to reconfigure the IRQs when new componets are added (IE: NIC cards)
IRQs gets reassigned & the sound card ends up sharing IRQs with other devices.
Erratic sound card detection and also instability is the result.
These problems I usually fixed by manually reserving IRQ5 for the sound card.

Locks up in 3D applications
It’s possible that you have a hardware conflict with another device that Windows is not detecting.
IE: a card on IRQ 11 should not share with other devices except “IRQ holder for PCI steering”
This is a common problem when ACPI is enabled. ACPI loves to assign a lot of devices on IRQ 9 and/or 11, which is very problematic with your configuration.

Manually assigning the IRQs may be possible in the "PnP/PCI configuration" BIOS submenu.
PIRQ_0 is for AGP and PCI-1
PIRQ_1 is for PCI-2 and PCI-3
PIRQ_2 is for PCI-5
PIRQ_3 is for PCI-4, PCI-6 and USB controllers.

The AGP slot and PCI-1 share an IRQ
PCI-2 and PCI-3 share an IRQ
PCI-4, PCI-6, and USB controllers share an IRQ
PCI-5 has its own IRQ

 

[EvilPeppard]

I'll look at the BIOS settings as well. Thanks all.

 

[boeingfixer]

Originally posted by EvilPeppard
Thanks. I should have been more clear. This is not happening on my GigaByte board that I have noted in my Signature. It is happening on my other gaming computer:

ASUS P3B-F, P3-850
1 GIG PC-100 RAM
Windows 2000

Ahh now that changes things now doesn't it ?

I would first try it without a sound card and see if you can isolate it. If you don't have anything critical mabee a reformat is in order, there may be alot of junk on there.

PS. are you sitting right in front of your box ? You are answering as fast as I do ? have a great day

 

[EvilPeppard]

Originally posted by boeingfixer


Ahh now that changes things now doesn't it ?

I would first try it without a sound card and see if you can isolate it. If you don't have anything critical mabee a reformat is in order, there may be alot of junk on there.

PS. are you sitting right in front of your box ? You are answering as fast as I do ? have a great day

This is a fresh build....believe me, I have been fighting the problem ever since I switched to an APG style card.

I am currently playing Arcanum (have the day off), but I have email notification on so I can here when people reply.

 

[LNCPapa]

My SBLive would lock up my machine whenever I let Windows Update install drivers for it. I would have to remove the device and reboot - upon reboot I wouldn't let the drivers finish installing, but would run the SBLive drivers from Creative's site instead. That has worked for me everytime.

LNCPapa

 

[young&wild]

Sometimes, I get lock-ups from my creative soundcard when attempting to connect to the internet while listening to my mp3s.

 

[SuperCheetah]

The Audigy series is notorious for causing random lockups and sound crackling. Fortunately my system doesn't do this. I have an Abit KG7-RAID with a VIA chipset which is supposedly the most notorious in combination with the soundcard. I see you have an Intel chipset, so I suggest upgrading to the latest chipset drivers, upgrading the sound card drivers, and trying different graphics card drivers. If all this fails try, as boeing suggested, taking out the sound card and seeing if the system runs stable then.

The newer Creative drivers are supposed to correct some of the problems with the cards, but many users still have problems. Hope this helps!!!

 

[EvilPeppard]

Thanks again for all the replies.

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Originally quoted by uncleel
It’s possible that you have a hardware conflict with another device that Windows is not detecting.
IE: a card on IRQ 11 should not share with other devices except “IRQ holder for PCI steering”
This is a common problem when ACPI is enabled. ACPI loves to assign a lot of devices on IRQ 9 and/or 11, which is very problematic with your configuration.

I wonder where this IRQ 11 thing originates from..

From ACPI Specification 2.0a:
ACPI is used only to enumerate and configure motherboard devices that do not have other hardware standards for enumeration and configuration. For example, PCI devices on the motherboard must not be enumerated by ACPI; therefore Plug and Play information for these devices is not included in the Differentiated Description Table.

From PCI Specification 2.1:
All PCI device drivers must be able to share an interrupt (chaining) with any other logical device, including devices in the same multi-function package.

 

[running]

Can a soundcard...? You Betcha! I had the bright idea of upgrading my SB 16 PCI to an SB Live! Platinum 5.1, and my 3 music programs (recording audio/MIDI, effects, music notation) would make my system crash every time. One of the programs has a section called Sb Live! where they explain that this card is responsible for a whole range of problems. Now I got around them, but the thought of returning to the simple life of the 16 PCI crossed my mind.

 

[bkkkk]

how do you reserve an irq for your card i did assigned an irq 5 to the card but it didnt work

 

[Tarkus]

Besides uninstalling the soundcard and drivers to see if the problem goes away there are at least four things you can try ..

swap slots; some things don't play well with others. Some PCI slots share hardware with onboard components.

Get the latest Intel drivers for your chipset, Creative drivers and videocard drivers.

Get SP3 for win2k. (slipstream them together for a single disk install in the future :grinthumb )

Check your AGP settings. Aperature size can cause problems. Try AGP1x. Don't use sideband or fast writes.

 

[JAV]

ACPI & IRQ issues w/w2k & XP: http://www.tweakersasylum.com/tapages.php?filnavn=Guides/ACPI/ACPIRedux/00000001.htm

It is a known problem & is usually associated w/a SB card sharing the IRQ w/a vid card.

HTH,