IRQ troubles and crackling sound.

[Radiation]

I have a sound card I need to keep on a real IRQ but windows keeps putting it above 15 into the fake range, I have disabled about 4 or more devices in the BIOS that use up IRQ's and windows won't do anything with them even though they are free.

This is a fresh install of XP so nothing should be interfering, i keep changing the card to different PCI slots and when i start windows it will often at first say its using a sub 15 IRQ but when i come to install the drivers it changes to above 15.

The sound card works ok but not with a low latency buffer and even 512 has pops and crackles, i really need it set lower which was the whole point of buying the card in the first place.

I tried installing windows as Standard PC instead of ACPI so i could set IRQ's manually but i had problems because it couldn't read the SATA drivers from the floppy a second time after the formatting had finished, everything was physically fine so windows or the drivers of Standard PC were not working well, so im back to ACPI.

I would really appreciate some help if you can thanks!

 

[Codmate]

It might help to know which card and motherboard you're using.

First of all check you're using the correct (usually latest) drivers for both soundcard and mainboard. Also check whether you need a BIOS update for your mainboard, or if you need to install George Breeze's PCI latency patch.
Then check your settings in Control Panel:Sound And Audio Devices.

Also check the settings in your drivers. I know that M-Audio's drivers have 'Disable application control of hardware' (or something similar) checked in the 'hardware' tab when you first install the card. This can cause weird behavior when using your sequencer.

Next check the output and input settings in your software (would help to know what you're using). Make sure you're using ASIO if it's available. If it's an M-Audio card choose 'M-Audio ASIO driver' or similar.

If you're still having problems, close down any running applications.
I have problems recording and running P2P software - and I have a dual core CPU and 2GB RAM! Anything that is hitting the hard disk should be stopped.

 

[Radiation]

Thanks for the advice, most of it i have done already but some i will now try as i hadn't thought much else could be a problem, i mainly thought the irq was the enemy.

Good guess with m-audio, its the audiophile 2496 which i did have working ok ages ago so i know it can be fine even with acpi, the motherboard is an asus a8v deluxe, everything is updated including bios, the only piece of hardware that i thought might cause problems from what i've read is the sata drives or possibly the tv card maybe?

 

[Codmate]

Yeah - the 2496 should be fine with ACPI, my Delta44 is a very similar architecture and works well.

I would guess at some incompatibility with the TV card - try pulling it out and uninstalling the drivers.

Maybe try just disabling it in device manager first as that saves opening the case.

I've found that certain a/v codecs can mess with hardware settings a bit too.
Since it's a fresh install this shouldn't be a problem though...

 

[Radiation]

Yeah - the 2496 should be fine with ACPI, my Delta44 is a very similar architecture and works well.

I would guess at some incompatibility with the TV card - try pulling it out and uninstalling the drivers.

Maybe try just disabling it in device manager first as that saves opening the case.

I've found that certain a/v codecs can mess with hardware settings a bit too.
Since it's a fresh install this shouldn't be a problem though...

Yeah i plan to get it sorted one way or another, still very annoying you can't force an irq though, its always good to have options.