Real doozie of a WinXP Home sound issue

[gkar]

OK guys. If you can sort this out I will say loud and clear to all this is the mother of all forums ;)

This is the history of what occurred and my attempts at resolution.

Some two weeks ago I was playing Codemasters V8 Supercars game and suddenly the sound started coughing like a car engine running on two cylinders, then it died. Upon reboot the startup sound began then followed by a static-type clicking. After a short time it stopped. Intermittently, the clicking returns for about 4-7 clicks separated by about 1 second.
No sounds can be played through any program eg. Zoomplayer, Winamp, Control Panel sounds, music CD etc.

I reinstalled a ghost drive image expecting it to be some conflict: not successful. I have since tried the following; not in order:

-inserted soundcard into various PCI slots
-reinstalled soundcard drivers
-updated drivers; both sound & video. Problem slightly better until:
-total reinstallation Of OS, then no sound at all with updated drivers
-replacement of soundcard under warranty
-complete reconstruction of primary drive and its attendant logic drives; 4 in total: then reinstall of drive images and transference of some files across from 2nd HDD
-removal of other PCI cards
-Creative knowledgebase article ID 6728 recommendations
-removed all peripherals
-updated mobo BIOS
-removed last RAM purchased to stop dual channel functioning

I then tried installing Win98SE on my secondary drive's first partition, with primary drive disconnected, and it worked perfectly.
Reconnected primary drive and another reinstall of WinXP Home and C: was still recognised as above. WinXP's drive was J: !!

c: =2nd HDD 1st partition
d: =1st HDD 2nd partition
e: =1st HDD 3rd partition
f: =1st HDD 4th partition
g: =2nd HDD 2nd partition
h: =DVD writer
i: =DVD rom
j: =WinXP (should be C:)
Then tried reformatting 1st HDD 1st partition to run Win98SE and It worked with sound and drives in correct order. I am now running this OS until I can rectify the issue.

PC Hardware:

Creative Audigy 2 -not platinum version
Soltek SL-75FRN2-L
AMD XP2200+ with Thermaltake Fan -not O/C
2x256mb PQI DDR2700 RAM running dual channel
80GB Western Digital HDD
40GB Maxtor HDD
Gigabyte GV-R9000 Pro Video Card
Hyena LC-A350ATX Power Supply
Liteon LDW-411S DVD Writer
Asus E616 DVD Rom
Cambridge Four Point Surround speakers
Winfast TV 2000XP Deluxe Tuner card -not reinstalled after removal of PCI cards


Any and all thoughts, ideas or crazed delusions appeciated. Thanks in Advance.

[morriswindgate]

Look on the Soltek website for a BIOS update and newer sound drivers. The NForce Chipset motherboards were known to have some on-board sound problems that were corrected by this.

[gkar]

Morriswindgate,

Thanks for the reply.
I am not using the onboard sound which is disabled in CMOS.
Have thried using the nForce drivers v3.13 which are the latest I assume as they were the ones prompted for download.
Also, as stated in the original thread I have installed the latest mobo BIOS -D1.7L

[morriswindgate]

You did not list a soundcard, which one are you using?

[gkar]

Sorry, Duh!!!

It must have theen the only thing I missed. Couldn't see the forest for the trees ;)

Creative Audigy 2

Will edit it in now. Thanks.

[morriswindgate]

Uninstall the Sound card and all of the creative junk add on programs. Shutdown the computer and then remove the sound card. Restart and shutdown again. Replace the card in a different PCI slot and restart the computer. Only install the Soundcard drivers and none of the other garbage.
Creative cards can be problems and for years they have included software that automatically installs when you do the express setup, that conflicts with other programs.

[gkar]

Thanks Morris,

I will try these suggestions in the order you recommend.

I have tried this but not to your specific list. If I am to reinstall WinXP Home which I will be doing, and installing only the drivers, how would this differ from doing it your way?

I ask this as a software ignorant as I am not in the IT industry and everything I have learned has been the hard way.

Also, one other item I tried. After reinstallation failed I thought it probably a hardware issue so the service agent replaced the card under warranty. I will edit it in to the original post.

[gkar]

Morriswindgate,

I tried your method of reinserting into new PCI slots. It was worth a try but to no avail.

Does anyone else have any ideas??

I have had to remove the Audigy card and install the Realtek ac97 audio drivers though it is not acceptable in the long term as I require S/PDIF for DVD playback.

Could the motherboard be in a any way responsible for this issue?