Bum Card or Bum Installer?

744 Views 7 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Bluemonster71, May 18, 2006

shoreguy

Discussion Starter · Feb 18, 2006

Quick Rundown:

Computer build experience: 25 years

Brand New (Built 2/10/2006):

MOBO: Asus A8N-E
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 x2 4800+
Memory: Corsair Twinx3200CL2 (XMS3202v2.2) 2-3-3-
6 2.75v
HSF: Zalman CNPS9500
GPU: BFG GEFORCE FX7800GT OC 256MB PCI-E
BFGR78256GTOC
HDD: MAXTOR 250GB 6V250F0 SATA300 7200RPM 16MB
(Bare drive)
PSU: ENERMAX EG495AX-VE SFMA NOISETAKER AX ATX
12V VERSION 2.0 485W
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional X64
CASE: Lian Li PC-60 PLUS
DVD: Pioneer DVR-610
Sound: Creative X-Fi FPS Fatal1ty SB0460
(Heatsink on card, so I assume its the
newer revision of the board)

DRIVERS/PATCHES

MOBO: Award Bios v1010 (Flashed from 1008 OEM)
CPU: AMD Athlon? 64 X2 Dual Core Processor
Driver for
Windows XP x64 Edition and Windows
Server 2003 x64 Editions
Version (exe) 1.2.2.1
GPU: ForceWare Release 80
Version: 81.98 Release Date: February 7,
2006
Chipset: nForce4 AMD Edition - Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition
Version: 6.69 Release Date: November 2,
2005
OS: Windows Update - Everything the Auto-
Update detected, .Net 2.0 , and HD Patch.

SB X-Fi: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series
Driver 2.07.0004
and have tried SBXF_PCDRV_LB_2_09_0000

Without going into gory detail, I spent over 70hrs troubleshooting, as well as going back and forth with emails to/from Creative. I could not get the X-Fi to work correctly, and am currently using an Audigy 2:

DXDiag (32-bit mode): would start a very high -db static at the first set of 'music' tests, and got worse in every other test.

DXDiag (64-bit mode): no problems, as it doesn't have the 'music' tab.
CD / HDD music playback: sounded fine
DVD playback - Sounded fine throughout BlackHawk Down

Battlefield 2: Static and crashing....with intermittant music / sound

Far Cry 32 and 64: Eiter wouldn't start, static and crashing from the start, or just constant static and sound distortion (modem-like sound bits).

Everquest 2: Static and crashing to desktop.

Again, with 25yrs experience, comptia A++ trainer cert., blah blah blah, I'm not joking when I said I tried about everything.

I've tried every combination of hardware/software settings for IRQ, blah blah, and am certain I had an unshared IRQ at at least 3 attempts. I tried the ram settings at 2-3-3-6 2.75v, 2.5-3-3-6 2.75v and 3-3-3-8 auto V, just to eliminate that potential.

I just want to know if anyone else out there has a very similar setup, with same or different results. I'd like to hold it as a bad card, and try again, but I'm still fuming over doing the same 280000 steps Creative kept sending me as troubleshooting tips

Thanks in advance

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cyrixMII300

· #2 · Feb 18, 2006

well mate. first off welcome aboard. and enjoy the ride.

as for your system, i am seriously thinking that the card could be faulty or that there is an electrical leakage inside ur system since u say you have already tried alternative drivers. my proposal would be to plug it in to another system and try again if u have the same problem i dont need to tell whats wrong. but if not then probably its either electricity leakage or driver problem. to eliminate the possibility of electrical leakage u can use a small ammeter or voltmeter to check the value on ur casing. if it fluctuates then u have some leakage which needs to be sorted out. otherwise again u know better.

btw, u worked with the commodores i guess? sweet, really sweet.

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shoreguy

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 18, 2006

Thanks for the welcome!
No, I didn't oscope it for power, I should have, but I didn't suspect anything of the sort after reviewing the everest and sandra results. I did put it onto a test bed with known good intel 3.2 socket 478 winxp32pro sp2 and different psu, worked fine. I'll scope the power on the system with the audigy 2 card in it, but I'm not betting money on a leak...I've been testing and stressing the system, and it's been extremely stable thus far.

Yep, the C64 was a definite jump from my then-current TRS-80 with cassette drive

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cyrixMII300

· #4 · Feb 18, 2006

ok....check it out and let us know the results.

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shoreguy

Discussion Starter · #5 · Feb 19, 2006

6 hours in loop, alternating between 3D Mark '06 and Sandra burn in.

+12V
12.096 low
12.224 high

+5V
5.08 low
5.134 high

3.3V
3.264 low
3.312 High

The waves were all tight, with no spikes beyond the high/low ever. Unfortunately, having returned the card, I can't run the scope on the pci slots to see if it was drawing / spiking the rails.
Thanks! Luckily, I returned the card on Friday. I may try another one...I just may wait, sticking with the sb audigy 2 and medusa 5.1's.../sigh.

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cyrixMII300

· #6 · Feb 19, 2006

ok. those figures seem to be pretty much in range. but maybe you should try it with the new card. too bad you returned the card otherwise we could have fiddled with it a bit more.

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SpookedJunglist

· #7 · Feb 19, 2006

The above leads me to believe that it was the card, or rare chance that it has to do with drivers. Lets hope that the next one works out fine. Never heard of sound cards being power hogs

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Bluemonster71

· #8 · May 18, 2006

If this is in reguards to the "static" issue of the xfi cards,join the rest of at least thousands of people with causes that are different and hard to fix if at all.
I get wicked bad static in BF2 to the point wher it BSODs on me. My remedy is to disable the card in the device manager then restart let eveything else load the reenable the card. I dont have the issue with music like others just games.
I just wonder if there is a way to arrange startup of devices so everything can load prio to the Fatal1ty card. That way I wouldn't have to restart everytime I wanted to play bf2.

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