Geforce 2 Mx 200 Causing Sound Problems

[sidjames]

Geforce 2 Mx 200 Causing Sound Problems - Help!!!!

im a desperate man- this one's been buggin me for weeks - built a new system recently - bought a geforce 2 mx 200 32mb agp card which seems ("graphically") to be fine - but im having a lot of trouble with sound.

Whenever im in full screen (winamp plugins, 3d games like The Sims etc) the sound is often (but not always, it depends what the display is doing) garbled

I've tried installing latest drivers, direct x 8.1 and new agp drivers for my motherboard and tweaking software and bios settings, - all to no evail, so im throwing it open to the experts - it may be that some bright spark can spot the problem from this but any advice anyone can offer or if you have a similar problem feel free to drop me a line cos its doing my head in.... !

SPECS
Chaintech SAGM2 (socket 7) mobo
AMD k6 500 CPU with 3d NOW!
64mb RAM
Win 98 (does the same with XP though)
Hercules Fortissimo II soundcard

cheers, sidjames
(bone_idle_bastard@hotmail.com)

 

[JAV]

Hi Sidjames,

Welcome aboard.

Are you overclocking the CPU? I used CPUCool on my CPU & if I go beyond 72mhz on the FSB (Front Side Bus) I have the same problem. Seems the PCI can only take 72mhz.

Have you tried turning the sound to mono & 11xxxmhz? I realize that will sacrifice sound 'depth', but you may have to do so to get adequate audio & video. I'll bet when the sound acts up the graphics 'stumble'?

HTH,

 

[sidjames]

you may well be on to something there - im dont think my cpu is overclocked - its a 500mhz chip running at 500mhz - but i think its probably clocked at 70mhz+ as its quite an old motherboard and it will go up to 100mhz clock speed.. to be honest im not sure.. i got the cpu and mobo together and it was pre-jumpered when i got it

so yes, no doubt our problems are pretty similar - although i have an agp geforce 2 mx not a pci one..

so would you say this is a mobo problem more than anything? - is changing the audio or video (or both!) or getting more ram likely to change anything... ? (im clutching at straws here arent i..?)

sid

 

[JAV]

Sidjames,

The problem is similar, but the components involved are different: I have a 500 Celeron that is locked by Intel. I don't think the K6 is locked. My board (Intel/Compaq) also doesn't have any way into Bios settings. It 'auto-jumps' from 66 to 100 to 133 depending on the CPU installed. The 500 Celery is a 66mhz so I had to use CPUCool to 'tweak' it up to 72. Now I'm @ ~548mhz. Since yours is running @ 500, I don't think your problem is the same, just the symptoms.

I'll be honest with you: 64mb isn't going to run Win XP & it is barely enough to run 98SE properly. Add in a K6 500 & a MX200 32 mb & ...

Suggestions: update your drivers, run dxdiag.exe thru 'start' > 'run' (type dxdiag.exe in the box & click), get *at least* 128mb more RAM (256 would be better) & start saving for a better CPU.

What does Hercules have for you? Anything? Drivers, patches, updates, advice?

HTH & stick around: maybe some others that have a 'cure',

 

[sidjames]

ive installed the latest hercules update (a whopping 17 meg) and another update from the hercules site which disables the optical in/out ports (which im not surrently using - it promises a slight performance increase)

i also visited Super, the manufacturers of my card and downloaded a new set of drivers and found to my horror that they were older than the set i got on cd with the card

i realise that for top notch 3d sound and vision im gonna (eventually) have to get a new mobo and cpu - its possible that the geforce is just a little too hot for it - but ill certainly try throw some more ram at the problem, by sheer coincidence my housemate has gone away for a week and left his room unlocked - so ill plunder his ram, ill try the dxdiag program and and get back to you with the results..