Hi. Been reading around and baking cookies.

So, the new A7NX8 non deluxe on board Realtek sound chip and Nvidia controller have big problems. Occasional crackles and pops in media player, win amp, if the system is otherwise busy and constant rhythmic bursts of white noise in a game like Heros of Might and Magic 4, even when all other applications are turned off. Freelancer and Gothic 2 had crackles but otherwise ran ok.

I have downloaded Realtek's ALC650 chip driver, but am a little nervous about writing over ASUS main driver package.

I've been to ASUS and to Nvidia, they both link to a Nforce2 ver 2.41 (win98SE) driver update. I get 'file not found' or 'page not found'. Looked for other links, same thing.

Checked my browser id, cookies, turned off my firewall. No help. So does anybody know if Nvidia changed its mind? Or am I missing something about procedure?

Try nVPlanet (http://www.nvplanet.com/index.php). I ran into the same problems trying to download VIA drivers from the official site and some of their mirror hosts required registration and one even said I should turn off my router's firewall. Right. Anyway, nVPlanet had what I needed, and the download worked. It looks like they have the nVidia driver you want.

Yes, Reid, this is exactly my problem. I went to the link you gave, clicked on the 2.41 link and I get

The page cannot be found The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please try the following: If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly. Open the download.nvidia.com home page, and then look for links to the information you want. Click the Back button to try another link. HTTP 404 - File not found Internet Information Services Technical Information (for support personnel) More information: Microsoft Support

I check the address. I've been to nvidia.com. I've tried mirror links.

Everywhere I go, it is the same. I tried the detonator link, just to see if somehow it is my inability to download in general, but I could download that. Not that I need it.

What is driving me nuts, is that they claim the 2.41 update fixes EAX sound problems. And maybe other ones, too.

Another reason I haven't tried the Realtek chip update is that they point out on the Realtek site most sound problems are the controller, not the chip.

Sorry about that. It seems nVPlanet actually has the VIA file, but the nVidia link goes to an nVidia site.

After some searching, this site's 2.41 link works: http://www.driverheaven.net/downloads/index3.htm

Thank you, Reid. I, too had found this source. When I try to download from it, it runs at say 286 bytes a second, and my opera transfer page tells me it will take around 3 days to download it. So this is not an option either. And seems very odd. Most downloads of 11 MB I can do in 30 minutes to an hour.

In the meantime, I have tried:

Installing the Realtek ALC650 drivers - the crackling goes away, sound quality seems worse, and oddly, I lose surround sound. In the control panel I suddenly get the ability to test all 4 or 5 speakers, but only the front two work. (Yes, I have also set the windows control panel to surround).

So, I deinstalled that and installed my Soundblaster Live 1024 voices card from my other system. Here, surround sound works with no crackling, but gee what a waste. Right? Not to mention I would have to buy a sound card. Also, again, the sound quality seems worse.

Finally, I took out the sound card. The Nforce2 drivers started working as soon as I turned the onboard sound on in bios. Just on a lark, I reinstalled the ASUS Nforce2 ver.16 drivers off the cd anyway. Now the crackling is gone. I still get some distortion during Heros, but no crackles.

Now, I run 3 primary partitions on this machine, with 3 win98SE's, to keep my son, my daughter and myself from interfering with each other's registries. This crackling appeared on all three, and was curable on all three by reinstalling the Asus drivers. The only things I installed on all three were win98SE, Opera, and the Direct X9.0a update. My suspicion of the moment is that the DX update interfered with something. So anybody reading this because of their own A7N8X sound problems, try reinstalling the ASUS package.

And dear moderators, out of curiosity, should this have been in periphery because it is sound? Onboard chips are a gray zone, huh?

Ok, this is a bit more enlightening, for me anyway. Several things here.

First of all, is it at all possible to DL the drivers from another PC with a CD-RW drive? Maybe ask a neighbor or whatever to help and put it on a CD-RW disk? That might solve the DL, but I think perhaps Opera has a few problems with whatever type of digital signature NVidia put on the download. I don't know, this one's a mystery.

Anyway, there have been reported problems from M$ regarding issues with certain multimedia functions under DX 9. It doesn't help that both the Asus A7N8X and the NForce2 chipset it uses have gone through several revisions since their releases.

To get you off to a good start, M$ recommends reinstalling any games that have problems crop up after DX 9 is installed. I say this is a good start because the sound drivers and speaker problems are still up for grabs in terms of this fix. But try this first anyway, it comes direct from the DirectX maker. ;)

I have the 98SE Nvidia 2.41 drivers. Total size is a bit over 11mb. If you want, email me with your address. I will burn the drivers to a CD and mail it to you. :)

BigBlue66 - thank you very much for your offer! You are generous and kind. I live in Germany and wonder if the postage from Wisconsin wouldn't be ridiculous. My son has a friend with DSL, so now that you guys mention it, I could ask him to ask the friend to download and burn to a CD. Nonetheless, your offer is very friendly, and appreciated. If we lived on the same side of the globe, (or I were more desperate) I'd take you up on it. Thanks!

In my own defense, I was under the impression that NVidia's server was not delivering for some reason (I tried two computers, and two browsers; opera and IE 5) which made me curious. But today, I tried again, and this time it works from the official link. My connection is just not stable enough, though. I get pitched out before it's a quarter done.

You are the owner of an A7N8X Deluxe, if memory serves, and are having none of these sort of troubles? May I ask you why are you using the 2.41 drivers and not the ASUS 1.16? Have they solved something for you? How long have you had them (as in I thought they were very new, but maybe they are not)?

And do you happen to know how to tell which "PCB" version your mainboard has (in order to tell which Bios update would be suitable if one wanted)? I have looked and looked. SiSoft Sandra tells me I have Rev. 1.xx which is no help, since some of Asus's updates are for rev. 1.03 and .04 and thus I need to know more. I look on the board and all I see is a sticker on the bios chip saying 1.002. Too many zeros. Not to mention no Bios updates for a possible rev. 1.02. Scary. And geeeee. I never ever thought to ask my vendor just precisely which board revision he was selling me.

I'm guessing this PCB means "printed circuit board"? Why do they care about the board and not the bios chip? Or are they made specifically for one another other, so that one identifies the other?

Sapphaline. Hi! DX9. Yeah. The A7N8X comes with DX 8.1 on the CD. All hyper about my fancy graphic card, I got DX 9 plain as a download and found it didn't work with the ATI 9700 pro on 3DMark 2003 (the only way I would have known for years :) ) So I dug around and came up with DX 9.0a, installed it, and the 3DMark ran ok except for no 3d sound, but gee, it isn't the deluxe, now is it?. Only after that whole procedure did I install anything else. So any problem is not a "DX9.0a installed over game" problem. But maybe it is a DX9+ problem. All the reviews were so very happy about the A7N8X's stability, and nobody had a problem with the sound chip. Although on my trips through google into the world of forums, I see any number of other ordinary folk complaining about either clicks and crackles or wierd eax sounds in games.

So if I get very bored, I could reformat my C, reinstall Win98SE, and just install DX 8.1 and see if everything's hunky dory. Would be interesting. And a lesson in being greedy. And in believing theM($) when they tell you they've made progress.

There should be something in between the PCI slots that says "Rev 1.04" or whatever. I don't think many people would ask about the PCB revision, so don't be too hard on yourself. I haven't seen a mobo in a long time where that even mattered, or so many revisions were put out.

As for the crackling sounds, I get those problems with EAX on so many systems. Onboard sound of all types, Live 5.1, Audigy, etc. So I don't think it's your sound chip, probably either a DirectX problem or a game problem. Some of my games work really well with fancy sound effects, like Unreal II. Others, like the GTA series, force me to use 2D software sometimes! :eek: It really depends on how much effort was put into the sound support, since most people don't have EAX-enabled sound hardware.

Good grief. Now that you tell me where to look it is embarrasingly :o obvious. Nice white little sticker with Rev. 1.06 on it. But, all you mobo makers out there, why, oh why between the PCI slots,?

Thank you, Sapphaline !