Help with Soundblaster Live! 24 bit

MayorMayor
edited June 2005 in Hardware
i purchased a Soundblaster Live! 24 bit soundcard and new Labtec speakers about a month ago. 2 weeks after installing the soundcard it started to notice popping and clicking. i figured it was just the speakers. but a day ago i lost sound completley in my right speaker for no apparent reason. now whenever i play a new song on Winamp, i lost sound completly for everything in the right speaker. this is really pissing me off and would like help and quick as possible. thanks.

Comments

  • sfleurietsfleuriet Texas New
    edited June 2005
    check the connections. bad connections, bad wires, or plugs being half plugged in could all contribute to the popping noise.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2005
    What MB do you have? Some of the older boards with a VIA chipset didn't get along too well with the SBLive series. You still ought to get both channels, though.
  • FlintstoneFlintstone SE Florida
    edited June 2005
    And while you're checking the cables, check and make sure the card is fully seated in the PCI slot on the motherboard. If it wasn't fully seated, vibration from fans and other things like moving the case could have worked it out of the slot.


    Flint
  • MayorMayor
    edited June 2005
    holy crap guys, guess what. i was looking at my equalizer on Winamp and i noticed that the balance was all the way to the left!!! hahaha. so i centered it and it works fine. still can't figure out that popping though.

    oh, and is the volume control on Winamp supposed to control the wave volume for the whole computer?
  • sfleurietsfleuriet Texas New
    edited June 2005
    yeah it might
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2005
    As for the popping sounds, what MB do you have?
  • MayorMayor
    edited June 2005
    Intel D865PERL

    my brother originally had this board and when he used onboard sound he got pops and clicks so he bought a Creative card. i was getting the same thing with the onboard so i bought the SB Live. but i still get the pops and clicks.....
  • sfleurietsfleuriet Texas New
    edited June 2005
    thats weird- im sure someone else will have an explanation for it. did u update all the drivers?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2005
    A lot of people had problems with the SBLive cards and VIA chipsets. It's odd to have that problem with an Intel-based board.

    What OS are you using? If it's WinXP you will likely see lots of stuff sharing the same IRQ. If you can force a PCI slot onto a free IRQ you might try the card there. For that matter, it would be worth a shot to try the card in a different slot anyway.

    I'd also do what Pilotwings119 said and make sure you have the latest drivers, both for the MB and the SBLive card.

    Do you have another set of speakers you could try? If it's doing it with both the SB card and the onboard sound you might check that. Also, make sure your speaker wires aren't right next to a noise-producing source, like a fan or power supply. You might want to jiggle them around and see if it makes a difference.
  • MayorMayor
    edited June 2005
    i check in the card was in the pci slot, it seems to be secure. the wires don't seem to be close to anything that would cause them to make noise. and where would i go out getting new drivers for my mobo?
  • sfleurietsfleuriet Texas New
    edited June 2005
    try one of these

    http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=949

    http://www.techspot.com/drivers/index/file/information/4342
  • MayorMayor
    edited June 2005
    i have updated drivers and everthing. i also went into the case and secured it better. i also tried moving it to another PCI slot, but the computer couldn't detect it. i really think its the speakers because some albums click and pop and some others don't. when i get money i'm gonna get new ones.
  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited June 2005
    Ah, so it's only music that pops?

    Do me a favor. When you're playing a song in Winamp, make it so that you can see the bars, not the wave thingy. (Like this, right above the track time: http://bars.net.ua/images/news/18238/winamp.jpg (Ugh I hate 50 Cent...)).

    When you're playing the album, do the bars actually HIT the top part? If they do, what's happening is called 'clipping.' It basically means that it's being amped too loud and the signal gets lost above a certain dB level. Let me know when you look at it.
  • MayorMayor
    edited June 2005
    yeah, its always does that. i never really thought that was a problem. oh, and now my speakers hum when nothing is being played through them.
  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited June 2005
    Alright. I never noticed it either, until I had this one really poorly ripped song (dB way too high). Go into Winamp and go to the Equalizer. You'll need to bring down the dB PreAmp slider about halfway between 0 and -12, or wherever works best for you. If it hits the top once in awhile it's ok. But if it's doing it constantly, that's very bad and will cause the pops.

    For the humming. Make sure your speaker wire isn't around too high of electromagnetic devices. I might be wrong, but I always thought it could cause interference if the cables aren't sheilded properly.
  • sfleurietsfleuriet Texas New
    edited June 2005
    hah simple fix!

    are the speakers externally powered? (batteries, or ac adapter) It could either be that, or you have the volume too high on the speakers themselves.
  • MayorMayor
    edited June 2005
    its just a chord coming from the subwoofer to a surge protect. and my computer volume is never all the wave.
  • sfleurietsfleuriet Texas New
    edited June 2005
    Mayor wrote:
    its just a chord coming from the subwoofer to a surge protect. and my computer volume is never all the wave.

    ok does one of the speakers have a volume control on the speaker itself? if so, try turning it down some.
  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited June 2005
    That might work, but it's probably even before the speakers. Try the PreAmp slider in Winamp, first.

    Edit:
    Or it could just be a hardware conflict, like prof's been saying all along. I don't know, I haven't had to worry about that, so I'm just starting with what I know.
  • MayorMayor
    edited June 2005
    its actually a hiss, not really a hum. i'm sorry i keep coming back for help, but the problem never seems to go away.

    edit - crap, i'm now hearing the hiss through my headphones. awesome.
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