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[OM] Re: [OT] PC / Soundcard Issues

Subject: [OM] Re: [OT] PC / Soundcard Issues
From: Manuel Viet <oly@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 18:07:31 +0200
Le lundi 12 Septembre 2005 17:24, Jon Mitchell a écrit :
> Read somewhere that the older Soundblaster Live cards like a specific
> IRQ, not the one that Windoze XP decides to give it.  Seems it likes 5,
> but XP has given it 19 !  Tried to force it in BIOS, but when windoze
> loads up it puts it back to IRQ19.  Can't seem to disable the
> "automatic" settings in Device Mangler - the box is greyed out.  This is
> the last thing that I haven't successfully tried to see if it will solve
> it.

Unless someone knows better, I see no way to force a specific IRQ in XP, 
because XP doesn't use IRQs anymore in the 1st place ; new computers finally 
gave up the legacy of the original PC-AT, now they use an I/O Apic to deal 
with IRQs instead of the good ol' cascading controllers we've all learned to 
love the hard way.

Funnily enough, I recently tried to put back on tracks a computer stucked at 
boot time ; to no avail. I then decided to give linux knoppix a try, and it 
ran perfectly, inducing me to believe falsely that the computer was OK. In 
fact, after I gave up and sent the computer to HP, they told me that the Apic 
I/O was dead, and that XP absolutely relied on it while linux can still use 
the old IRQs scheme, therefore hidding the failure to me... The bright side 
of the story being that I managed to backup the disk with linux, as it came 
back "factory blanked".

> So, anyone got any ideas how to force XP to give me a specific IRQ for
> my Soundcard ?  Or any other thoughts on what else could be causing the
> problems ?  For info, it isn't an issue of incompatability with XP as it
> worked with XP on my old machine just fine.

I don't think that's your problem, because you wouldn't hear anything if the 
IRQ was wrong. I suspect you have a high level of electronic noise inside the 
box, perhaps affecting the microphone cable. But with those new beasties, you 
never know. For those applications where quality is a must, there's no hope 
outside the realm of *expensive* *branded* computers. My 1996 DEC-alpha 
records crystal-clear sounds... My home-brewed, cheap PC makes circles around 
it in speed, but can't even playback a DVD without cracking or whistling.

-- 
Manuel Viet

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