Crash on Exiting Games! Audio Problems

[Jumpin Jack Flash]

Hello All, PLease Help Me!
First of im not exactly HAL9000 so please forgive me if the problems ive posted up are down to me not having the power turned on or something simple.:)

Ive just recently bought a Custom Built PC from a Local store. The Rig is running great....however, im experiencing a few Audio Problems and a weird Crash whenever i exit a Game!:mad:

The Main Problem is this :- Whenever i load up a game, e.g. Oblivion, Rome -Total War, Hitman Blood Money, Vampire Bloodlines etc....everything runs fine, the graphics are crisp and fast.....however when i try to exit the game, i will click Exit/quit and my screen will FREEZE completely when trying to get back to windows! No mouse or keyboard control,Ctrl-Alt-Del, nothing at all! The most annoying part about this is it actually doesnt happen ALL the time, at the moment its around 95% of the time! When i try to quit a Game, my screen will freeze completely and ill be forced to restart the PC.:mad:

Second Problem :- This one will probably be a little more simple as ive heard of people experiencing the same Audio problems on the motherboard i have (ASUS M2N32 SLI DELUXE), apparently something to do with the SoundMAX on board audio. The problem is general audio issues, not really the greatest sound at times and it really struggles when running Games software. Is this just a case of breaking out the wallet and getting a half decent sound card with EAX technology? If this is the case is their a quick fix till i can get the card, e.g. change any audio options etc?:mad:

My specs Are :-
Motherboard-----M2N32 SLI DELUXE
Processor----------AMD Athlon64 X2 4600+
Memory------------2GB DDR2 RAM
Graphics-----------NVIDIA 7900GTX 512MB graphics card
OS------------------Windows XP Pro
Monitor-----------19" Viewsonic TFT

if you can help ill name my firstborn after you, thanks in advance :)

[pam123]

Well, the cure for on board audio problems is a sound card and it's possilbe both your problems could be related but lets be systematic about this.
So first, are there any updates for your motherboard (chipset) drivers?
Is there a bios update ( don't flash anything just check for an update for your problem)?
Did you check the AMD forum : http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showforum=7

[Jumpin Jack Flash]

Hello Pam, thanks for the reply, your a fast one arent ya :)

Ok ive been onto several forums to see if anyone else is encountering the same problem, it appears that a few people are experiencing the same audio problems ive mentioned with the Soundmax onboard audio. Most answers seem to point to getting a decent soundcard with EAX!

However i still cant seem to figure out why its freezing whenever i try to exit a game. It only appears to be game software, as ive tested running loads of word, excel documents, Nero etc then shutting them down quickly to see if the same problem occurs. It only happens with games.

Ive had a peak at the driver versions on my dxdiag, then checked them against ASUS.com to see if theres updates to fix the problem. My SoundMAX audio drivers are up to date.
However i cant tell whether or not my BIOS drivers are up to date, in my dxdiag it says my BIOS is "Phoenix-AwardBIOS v6.00PG" and on ASUS.com the latest is "M2N32-SLI Deluxe BIOS 0603". To be totally honest with you i dont know from this if my BIOS is needing updated or not (ill admit it, im pretty noob):eek:

[pam123]

BIOS updates fix specific problems, you don't use them otherwise .
All you want to do is read up on what the update fixes, if it's not your problem then forget it.
Have you checked Event Viewer?
Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Event Viewer it may give you a lead.

[Jumpin Jack Flash]

ok ive been searching Asus and other downloads sites for any BIOS updates that apply to the problem im having, but i cant seem to find any that mentions an update of any kind, nevermind the issues im having.:confused:
So far been on http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

But i cant find any description on the BIOS updates or if i need them.

Should be getting a soundcard ordered soon, hopefully fix the audio issues ive been having. (btw if u can recommend any to me that would be great, got around 100quid to throw at it)

But with the "screen freezing when exiting a game" problem im still pretty lost, cant seem to find anyone having this problem anywhere:confused:

Had a look at the event viewer, the application tab had a few "application errors" and "application hang", if these shed any light on things i can include them in a post, however tbh i dont really know what most of them mean:eek: ....

ERROR ---"The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source ( ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: 7."

ERROR---APPLICATION HANG---"Hanging application IEXPLORE.EXE, version 6.0.2900.2180, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000."

ERROR---APPLICATION ERROR---"Faulting application bittorrent.exe, version 0.0.0.0, faulting module wxmsw26uh_vc.dll, version 2.6.3.2, fault address 0x001966c3."

these are a couple of the errors in event viewer, dont really know what they mean or if theyre relevant, sorry:p

[pam123]

Okay, let the bios thing alone for now, your board is recent enough that there may not be any updates out as yet.
If your computer froze when you quit a game at 9:00pm that's the time you want to look for in Event Viewer.
If there's an error at that time then that's what you need to post here.
Dual cores are great when you can run bittorrent and a game at the same time but if the bittorrent error/IE error and the freeze when you quit the game all occur at the same time you're having traffic problems.

[Jumpin Jack Flash]

ok did a little test, latest freeze was at 2:48, however when i checked in the Event Viewer there is no errors shown anywhere near that time. As usual had to reset to get any control back, so maybe thats why it doesnt show anything in event viewer?:confused:

[glc]

The AM2 platform is being very fussy about ram - is your ram on the Asus QVL for that motherboard? Do you have a quality power supply?

[Jumpin Jack Flash]

Funny you should mention RAM glc, because the first set of RAM i had installed into the motherboard didnt work well with it, OCZ dual channel 2GB RAM! So i this is actually the second set of memory ive had to put in it!

I had this all done by the store who built it however and they kept it in for a few days to make sure the RAM tested ok with as it seemed the motherboard was being fussy with it! But this RAM appears to be ok! Unfortunately i dont know the make of the RAM they put in to replace the OCZ stuff, either that or ive never heard of it. It says on the stick its made by VDATA Memory Expert, and its DDR2 667, 2 x 1GB sticks.

The power supply is an Enermax Liberty 500W (model ELT500AWT).

However, A weird and downright puzziling thing just happened , i was having a rousing game of Oblivion, tried to exit the game, waited for the obligatory screen freeze, reached for the reset button......and to my utter astonishment, it pulled through!!:D
So i started frantically searching around to see if i had done anything different, why had it NOT frozen up this time?:confused: ....and i noticed i didnt have Azureus or any BitTorrent programs running in the background! ive now tested it 5 times Exiting WITHOUT Azureus and 5 times exiting WITH Azureus in the background!.....It exits a game without any problems WITHOUT azureus or any BitTorrent running in the background......and freezes when i exit a game WITH azureus or any BitTorrent running in the background!

Now have i just unwittingly stumbled onto a Clue as to why this is happenning?.....or is the "screen freezing when exiting a game" problem totally un-related to this?:confused:

[pam123]

from my post 6 :

Dual cores are great when you can run bittorrent and a game at the same time but if the bittorrent error/IE error and the freeze when you quit the game all occur at the same time you're having traffic problems.

[Jumpin Jack Flash]

just notced Pam123, oops:eek:

But is there a way i can stop this traffic problem then? or is it just a case of Dont run bit torrent or azureus etc when about to load up a Game or other big program?

because if this is the case then its kind of defeated the purpose of why i bought a DUAL CORE processor, so i could run 2 things at once and not be hindered:confused:

[pam123]

If you're willing to wait a few days I may be able to find what you need.
I remember an article that covered adjusting what happened with dual cores but I'm not sure where right this minute

[Jumpin Jack Flash]

ah thank you very much pam123, yeah that'd be great! Even if you cant find the time or its too much trouble just point me in the right direction and hopefully ill get a solution. Thanks very much tho ure a real help:D

[Kareeser]

If it helps, some of the newer games are taking advantage of both cores of the CPU to further boost processing speed.

P.S. Listening to Jumpin' Jack Flash as I type this...

[pam123]

Okay two things.
First go here and download the cool&quiet drivers (32 bit one for Windows XP SP2 ) as well as the Optimizer : http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_13118,00.html
Second go to the game site and check for any patches for those games and dual core systems.

As far as I can tell, since everything's running and the games only crash when you exit, you're getting one of those "can't get it in synch" hand-off problems when you're running bittorrent.
Set restore points before each install and test the system to see how it reacts with each one.
If this doesn't work you can then go back to the restore point.

[Jumpin Jack Flash]

thanks very much pam123, great help from the lovely people on this forum. Ok about to download the Driver you mentioned, however i dont really know what or how to work a system restore point??:confused:

Again apologies if im askin askin noob questions but i really am a newbie to this sort of thing, trying my best to learn tho:)

I can see a "System Restore" tab in Control Panel>System.....but i have no idea how it works:eek:

btw ive just ordered a "Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic" sound card (retail 80pounds)to hopefully solve any sound issues......is this a half decent choice of card?

thanks to all for the replys so far, amazed at how eager to help the members of this forum are:D

[pam123]

Start>All Programs>Accessories>SystemTools>SystemRestore.
Click on Create a Restore point then put in the date and the time and name it as you wish.