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otwist26
05-05-2003, 03:42 PM
Hello all.

I appear to have a serious audio problem related to using a combination of WindowsXP Pro and the rather popular motherboard ASUS A7N8X.

I am reposting here an edited version of my previous posts, representing the sum of my efforts thus far. I'm doing this both in the hope that someone might still be able to help me with the problem and as a warning to anyone considering using the A7N8X with WindowsXP Pro. I hope this is acceptable on the forum.

____________________________________

My system is:
MB - ASUS A7N8X
CPU - AMD AthlonXP 2400+
Vid Card - GeForce4 64MB AGP
512MB DDR PC2100 RAM


The problem:
Sound always skips/stutters/stumbles in every song played at 4-5 seconds into the track. After that, the tempo of the track is wrong (a bit too slow or too fast), sound quality is slightly muffled, and there are occaisionaly other skips at random intervals.

This occurs:
-With both MP3 and WAV files.
-With every media player I've tried (WinAmp, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, QuickTime, etc.)
-Only on WindowsXP Pro (on WindowsME the audio playback is as smooth as can be!)
-With both onboard audio and my PCI sound card.

I have tried:
-practically everything!
-3 different hard drives
-other memory sticks
-2 different video cards
-Many different sound card driver versions, both manufacturer and reference.
-A half-dozen different video card drivers, both manufacturer and reference, including of course the latest from nVidia(detonator series).
-3 different NForce motherboard driver versions, both manufacturer and reference.
-3 differnt CD-ROMS
-2 power supplies
-I've removed all hardware in my system but mainboard, memory, cpu, vid card, and hdd. I've disabled all extra hardware on the motherboard (LAN, USB, etc) (except for audio when trying onboard audio).
-I've re-installed WinXP Pro at least 10 times.
-WinXP SP1a
-DirectX 9.0
-I've tweaked every sound, driver, DirectX and DirectSound setting I can find.
-I've disabled EVERY system service in WinXP (except RPC, plug-and-play, and Windows Audio, which are necessary).



What a saga. My friends I can only conclude that the problem is with WindowsXP sound processing and the motherboard (or NForce motherboard drivers).

A few questions:
-Anyone want to buy an ASUS A7N8X???
-Anyone using the same Motherboard/WinXP Pro combo, with or without experiencing this problem?
-What else could it be???

Any other thoughts greatly appreciated.

john5211
05-05-2003, 04:49 PM
Hi there,

Sorry to hear things aren't going so well ... I don't really have any suggestions, but I thought I would let you know that I'm running a similar setup without any sound problems:

My system specs are:

MB - ASUS A7N8X (Deluxe)
CPU - AMD AthlonXP 2400+
Vid Card - GeForce2 Pro 64MB AGP
512MB DDR PC2100 RAM

And my OS is WindowsXP (sp1) ... for the APU and Audio Codecs, I am using driver version 5.10.2918.0 from nvidia, dated 2/2/2003, and the latest detonator drivers for my video card.

I'm a little curious ... do you have the deluxe version of the MB (i.e. with serial ata, two lans, etc)?

Sorry I haven't been much help,

John

Whyzman
05-09-2003, 12:55 AM
Strange that things are not a problem with Me...

Have you taken a look at the ASUS Forum?

Have you seen this?

http://www.asus.com/support/faq/qanda.aspx?KB_ID=83947&SLanguage=en-us

Any chance that you are upgrading from Me rather than a clean XP install?

You might want to check to see if DMA is enabled...

In Windows XP, click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Double-click System, click the Hardware tab, and then click Device Manager.
Double-click to expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers folder, double-click Primary IDE Channel, and then click the Advanced Settings tab.
In the Transfer Mode box, click PIO only, and then click OK.
Double-click Primary IDE Channel, and then click the Advanced Settings tab.
In the Transfer Mode box, click DMA if available, and then click OK.
Restart the computer.

otwist26
07-23-2003, 07:55 AM
Well, maybe more of an "alternative" than a "solution".

I think the problem may be with the on-board IDE controller. I tried using a Promise Ultra100TX2 PCI IDE controller card, and my problem went away!!!

This only worked if I disabled the on-board controller, however. :(
Never could find a driver for the on-board controller that worked.

In any event, I can now use my A7N8X system with audio.

Many thanks to all who posted their input!