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Hello everyone. This is probably old news. But then, so is my computer... relatively speaking.

Anyhow, as inferred by the subject of this post, I've been having chronic problems with computer lockups and looped sound when playing games (FPS's especially). I've just kinda put up with it over the years since I bought my PC, but lately the frequency of it all has gotten intolerable. Maybe the rise in frequency is due to the games that I've started playing (Jedi Academy and AVP2 mostly) but I wouldn't know for sure.

I've searched mountains of forums and knowledge bases alike for a solution and have attempted every one that I felt was relevant. But none seem to have worked except to give me a false sense of security for a time until *tschxzzzz* *BEEEEEEEEeeeeee....* and I find myself pulling out wads of hair in a fit of delusional rage. I need help before my family decides to have me committed. :eek:


From DXDIAG, here are my system specs:
**************************************************
------------------
System Information
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Operating System: Windows XP Professional
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
BIOS: Award Medallion BIOS v6.0
Processor: AMD Athlon(TM) XP1700+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.5GHz
Memory: 768MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)
---------------
Display Devices
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Card name: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce2 MX/MX 400
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0110&SUBSYS_88261462&REV_B2
Display Memory: 64.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.5216 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 10/6/2003 14:16:00, 4246528 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: nv4_mini.sys
Mini VDD Date: 10/6/2003 14:16:00, 1550043 bytes
-------------
Sound Devices
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Description: SB Live! Wave Device
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0002&SUBSYS_80641102&REV_07
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: emu10k1m.sys
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.3300 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 6/12/2002 09:46:06, 284288 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Creative
HW Accel Level: Full
Cap Flags: 0xF5F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 5000, 100000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 64, 62
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 64, 62
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: Yes
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: Yes, Yes
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No
Registry: OK
**************************************************

I hope that's enough information... By corollary, I hope that's not too much

Thanks for your time!

if anything is lacking there i would say its the video card. may want to upgrade to a newer card, say a geforce 4 ti 4200 or a an ati 9500 or 9600 pro. you can find them for about $130 or close to that. www.newegg.com

If you can temporarily replace your SB Live sound with another, I'd take a close look at that. It's been known to have issues with some chipsets. What motherboard are you running on that system?

Sorry. I forgot to mention that one. Its an ASUS A7A266.

do you get these lockups and screeching beep in music applications such as winamp? try to raise you pci latency to 32 or 64 in the bios. an audigy in my other computer had that problem with my crummy old dell.

also try to see if you still crash with you soundcard disabled.

OK here's what I've done so far. I've uninstalled and reinstalled my drivers with the most recent updates. I've updated my BIOS, and changed the pci latency to 64 from 32. I haven't as yet disabled the sound card outright although I have tried disabling some of its advanced features (EAX and etc). All to no avail so far.

As an aside, in the recent past, this has been only a minor problem. It would happen once a month, maybe here and there. Hence, I thought it was something that I could live with. Lately however, since I bought and have been playing SW Jedi Academy online, I find that I have to reset my computer up to a dozen times per day! On my ADSL connection, is it possible that my NIC is the suspect device? But then I can play other games like AvP2 with relative impunity...

EDIT: I disabled my sound card to no effect. The system still halts(presumabley, the sound would have looped also had the sound board been enabled).

Well if these things happen with Jedi Academy, how about searching for patches for the game?

It's not always hardware's fault

Actually, playing online reuires the latest updates for the game. In any case, SW JA is not the only game to display these symptoms... It just happens to be the game that I've been playing the most lately... Nevertheless, it does manifest these symtoms at a higher frequency than the other games I've played in the past.

I thought that I had the problem licked last night when, after clean sweeping my audio drivers and tweaking the EAX setting son my SB Live!, things seemed to run alot smoother and I was able to play JA to my heart's content with no interuptions. It was my brother while he was playing AvP2 that the problem raised its ugly head again... ARGH!

What's your CPU temperature at when the system's freezing? I've been having the same problem on a similar system, and I think I've got it pretty much licked. Your CPU might be getting too hot. I got some thermal paste for my CPU and the temp dropped by 10 C. Check out my thread in the Cooling and Modding section.

Sound Looping is often the Sound Card or the drivers. Might try to download new drivers.

SoundBlaster Live! has some serious issues. I would recomend trashing the card and buying a replacement. I had issues with that card within XP, random volume lowering, and other assorted annoying crap. Trash the card, and buy a new one.

Do any errors show up in the Event Viewer?

I have the same problem i have tried just about everything: power shortage, temperatures, spyware/virus', background applications, drivers, cleaning dust, changing RAM, changing the PCI slot of sound card (ive heard the higher it is the more the SBLive likes it). The event viewer shows nothing.

thing is after i do something it sometimes seems to sort itself out for a while and i can play happily. then up to a month later the problem returns to haunt me.

my specs:
AMD Barton 2800
512mb DDR 333mhz
Radeon 9800 Pro, on Omega drivers
SBLive! 5.1 sound card

this big eye oppener is the SBLive which you also seem to have so it looks like as some ppl have mentioned before that it need changing.
i havnt had chance to test this as i havnt been able to get me hands on another sound card for long enough to ensure the problem has gone as it has a tendancy to return when i think everything sorted.

thing is there are no problems whatsoever whilst still in windows with winamp or whatever just when i run games.

let me know of any developments

I've been getting the same problem and I have no idea what's going on.. I've tried all thermal and driver comments suggested here... i even hired a technician to come and see if anything was wrng with the system.. he couldn't find anything... HELP

thanks

I've ran soundblaster for years on different systems with no problems. I even recycled it to a newer computer that had onboard sound because I have digital speakers. I still don't have any problems.

Strangly enough I have been having the same sort of problem with Guild Wars and I have a Soundblaster Live as well...long beeping sound and everything locks up...It also happened once while streaming video...

nothing in event viewer...

I solved my Guild Wars sound problems by moving the "Sound Quality" slider to minimum in options and disabling "3D Audio Hardware".

I solved my problem!!!!
I did it by installing a vcool pci fan below my video card....worked like a charm!

I'm getting this problem too - its definetly the graphics card - temp skyrockets when I use graphical apps also resulting in jam and sound loop.

My card is a 7800GT however so sending it back as faulty.

This ties in with matts problem so anyone else suffering should run a game windowed and keep a graphics card temp monitor up - will let you know if this is the problem.