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[lalittle]

I just upgraded from an Audigy to an Audigy 2 and I am suddenely getting a constant "click click click click" in the audio when playing CDs in MC.  I do NOT get these clicks when playing the same CD via Windows Media Player.  MP3s seem to play fine -- this is only a problem with CDs, and only with MC.  The clicks are very "ugly" -- they have the "character" of some sort of electronic interference, and they seem to slightly distort the audio behind them when the song is playing.  If this was interference, however, it wouldn't be limited to MC CD playback.

I followed the correct procedure when upgrading (uninstalling software, etc.) so I don't think it's an actual installation issue -- not to mention the fact that it is unique to MC.  The volume of the clicks is not effected by the "Wave" fader level even though this DOES drop the music volume.  In other words, by turning the Wave fader all the way down, I can't hear any music, but I can still hear the clicks.  The main volume fader DOES effect the volume of the clicks.

Thanks for any assistance with this.  I'm using Windows2000 with MC 299.

Larry

[LonWar]

hmmm that strange.

I have a Audigy 2 and I don't get any clicks.
Did you get all the latest drivers?

[jleerigby]

Disable all DSP options and clip protection to see if that makes a difference.

[lalittle]

I have the newest drivers.  I have all the DSP stuff disabled as well.  This definitely just started since upgrading to the Audigy 2.

I just noticed that the drive refuses to use DMA mode.  I checked the Device Manager and even though "use DMA if available" is checked, and even though the drive is detected as UDMA Mode 2 on bootup (I checked the boot screen) the drive is for some reason staying in PIO mode.  I believe this could explain the clicks, but I can't figure out WHY the mode is stuck in PIO.

I know for a fact that the Device Manager USED to say "DMA Mode" for this drive -- I just can't be sure when it stopped.  My best guess at this point is that the mode started being forced to PIO when I installed the Audigy 2, but since it I don't check this setting in the Device Manager on a regular basis, I can't say for sure when it happened.  All I can say for sure is that the drive used to say "DMA mode," and I didn't get these clicks before yesterday.

Thanks again for any help with this,

Larry

[SeanC]

See this thread for a potential solution.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=9616

[modelmaker]

I've had the same problem and mentioned it here about six months ago. I have an SB Extigy(USB). I talked to a lot of people about but never found a solution. Fortunately I don't play my CDs on the computer, I just rip them and play the resulting files without any problems. I only play my CDs in the car.

[JimH]

Try a search here on PIO.  It's hard to change but it can be done.

[jleerigby]

It could be a faulty drive.  First of all try uninstalling the drive through device manager - DVD/CD-Rom drives.  

Then re-boot and windows will redect the drive.  It will no doubt go back into DMA mode but the trick is getting it to stay there.  It will switch back to PIO after 6 read errors or timeouts.  If you are getting read errors or timeouts on the drive it will show in the system error log (I'm assuming you are running XP).  Check the system log via Start> Programs> Administrative Tools> Event Viewer.

If that doesn't work I'd recommend swapping the drive with a friend and let your friend try yours.  See what happens to each drive in each others machine.

Good luck.

[lalittle]

Thanks for the information on this issue.  I actually have been dealing with some cdrom and atapi error messages in the event log recently, so this sounds like a plausible explanation.  I've been under the impression that these were due to some CDs with bad blocks on them since I only get/got these errors with certain discs -- i.e. the timeouts occur due to long retries.  According to the information I've been reading, however, it would seem that once you get 6 errors, the drive will force PIO mode.

I'll look into this some more -- thanks again,

Larry

[Luigi1943]

I just noticed that the drive refuses to use DMA mode.  

I had the same problem when I installed a Live-player 5.1.
The solution is to 'Allow Lpt interrupt sharing' in the Control panel\System\Peripherals\Creative miscellaneous devices\Creative SB emulation\Settings.
It's worth trying it.
Let me know the result
Luigi

[lalittle]

The solution is to 'Allow Lpt interrupt sharing' in the Control panel\System\Peripherals\Creative miscellaneous devices\Creative SB emulation\Settings.

That path doesn't make sense on my system -- i.e. there is no "peripherals" tab or button in the "System" panel.  Are you sure that path is correct?  Were you using W2K?  Maybe this doesn't show up with the Audigy2.  I can remember seeing something about "SB Emulation" at some point in the past, but I'm not sure if it was in W2K or with an older Win98 system -- it may also have been back when I was using an SBLive.

I'll try and find this setting, but if you get any more information on it's location in W2K, please let me know.  I'll post back if I find it.

Thanks,

Larry

[jleerigby]

Check whether your soundcard is sharing an IRQ channel with something else (Device Manager> View> Resources By Connection> Interrupt Request).  Try uninstalling it, moving it to a different PCI slot and reinstalling it.

[lalittle]

I already made sure of that -- it's an unshared slot at the hardware level (although that really shouldn't matter these days with modern OS's and PCI specifications.)  That aside, if it was an IRQ issue, it should have showed up with the previous card (Audigy1) which was in the same slot.

I'm planning on trying a new CDRW drive tomorrow to see if that's the issue.  As I said, I have been seeing some atapi and cdrom errors in the event viewer lately, and W2K is now forcing the drive out of UDMA mode.

On that note, I was going to get a Plextor 52 32 52.  Is Plextor still the brand of choice these days, or are there better brands?  I'm not interested in speed, but rather in things like the ability to read semi-bad discs and general reliability/compatibility.

Thanks,

Larry

[Luigi1943]

Lalittle, my system is WinMe in Italian, so I don't know what the label is in your system. However the peripheral tab is the second one, under System... it could be Components management or something like that... I insist that you find the path, the chances that you can solve your problem are big
Good luck
Luigi

[lalittle]

Just to update everybody on this, I fixed the problem.  it apparently WAS the fact that the drive was forced down to PIO mode that was causing the problem.  I finally got the IDE channel to allow me to set it to DMA by deleting both the drive and the actual secondary IDE channel from the device manager (the system drive was on a different channel -- I'm not sure I would have tried this otherwise.)

This process apparently "resets" the channel, preventing Windows from "remembering" the errors and forcing PIO mode.  After the computer booted twice (it required two), the DMA setting finally "took" -- i.e. after switching the channel to "DMA if available" it now switched to UDMA mode on the next boot rather than simply staying in PIO mode.

I still have to deal with WHY the channel dropped down to PIO in the first place, as well as why I'm seeing errors in the log.  If it is a problem with the drive, Windows will simply drop the transfer rate again once the magic number of errors is reached.  I'm still planning on trying a new CDRW drive to see if this eliminates the error log messages.

Larry

[Luigi1943]

Larry, I'm glad that you have solved the problem. However I would be interested to know about the Sound Blaster emulation and LPT interrupt sharing... what I called 'Peripherals' is apparently 'Device manager'. Can you find that path in this way?
Thanks
Luigi

[lalittle]

Larry, I'm glad that you have solved the problem. However I would be interested to know about the Sound Blaster emulation and LPT interrupt sharing... what I called 'Peripherals' is apparently 'Device manager'. Can you find that path in this way?
Thanks
Luigi

I can find no references to either Creative miscellaneous devices or Creative SB emulation anywhere.  I've searched thoughout the Device Manager as well as anyplace there is a reference to the sound card, the printer, or interrupts in general.  I believe that "SB emulation" settings are either not included in the Win2K installation, or not included with the Audigy2 (as opposed to the SBLive) installation.

Thank you for the feedback at any rate,

Larry