Overclocking Affecting Sound Card?

Microwave · 5 May 2009 at 17:23

I have a Creative X-Fi sound card which has worked fine since I bought it. Recently, when I boot up Windows brings up the "found new hardware" wizard for my sound card. As if my drivers aren't installed, even though they are.
(The sound card shows up in device manager).

However, after (a seemingly [I can't work out a pattern] random number of) restarts it will work again as normal, no error message, nothing changed.

It it possible that overclocking has something to do with this? As I know there's an option in the BIOS to do with PCI frequency which is set to auto.

Thanks

Plec · 5 May 2009 at 23:26

You could try setting the pci frequency manually via the BIOS just to rule the overclock theory out.

The first thing i would try, however, is re-seating the sound card in the PCI slot and re-installing the drivers as it could be it isn't quite making the connection properly in it's slot - which is why it's hit and miss as to whether the card is recognised on boot up.

Microwave · 6 May 2009 at 22:07

I've set that manually to 100.

Tried re-seating the card and re-installing drivers.

When I did each of these things it worked again after the reboot. But the next time I started it up after that I have the same problem...

Plec · 6 May 2009 at 22:30

The only other suggestion i have is trying a different pci slot as the one your using may be damaged.

good luck.

Microwave · 6 May 2009 at 22:35

I've tried in both pci slots. It shows up in device manager in both slots. I think it may be driver related?

Could the drivers be 'getting confused' if they were installed for each pci slot? Do you need to install the drivers again if you use a different slot?

Plec · 6 May 2009 at 22:43

It's sounding more and more like a driver issue or conflict.

No, you shouldn't have to re-install drivers using a different slot - windows should pick it up and adjust accordingly.

Have you tried the latest driver updates or even down grading your drivers?

Have you installed any hardware or software that's coincided with the problem?

I'm guessing really with the above but my point is computers are strange beasts and their operating systmes even more so - so don't rule anything out.

Hope you get to the bottom of it.

Edit: the only other thing worth trying is disconnecting all non essential items for booting your system - eg spare hdd's, dvd, fans etc and do a few reboots and see if that cures the problem. If it does - it may be a juice issue to your pci slots.

Plec

game4it · 6 May 2009 at 22:48

Did you enable the onboard sound during overclocking by any chance or is it definitely looking for the Xifi drivers?

ecat · 6 May 2009 at 23:49

If you suspect your overclock, and quite honestly this could be the problem (1), then try at default settings and work your way back up

(1) One of the first things to show signs of stress when my over clocks get a little to ambitious is my G15 keyboard, or rather the loading of the little apps that drive the lcd - resets to default, forgets my configuration and loads a random selection etc. There are other little indicators of over ambition if you look for them.

Plec · 7 May 2009 at 10:10

ecat, makes a good point, and for some reason i negelected to add this info in any of my posts - it should have been one of my first suggestions. (that side of my brain must have gone to sleep.).

This really should be your next step in trouble shooting your problems as it's logical and has the bonus of being relatively quick to get a result. It may not prove to be your problem - but it's got to be investigated if you've had no luck with the above.

Good luck.

Geckovich · 7 May 2009 at 10:56

You're not using windows 7 by any chance are you?

When I first installed the RC I got this a few times with my sound card, stopped after about 3 reboots though.

Microwave · 7 May 2009 at 11:16

game4it said:
Did you enable the onboard sound during overclocking by any chance or is it definitely looking for the Xifi drivers?

The onboard sound is enabled but the 2 sound devices (ie onboard and my xfi work at the same time).

ecat said:
If you suspect your overclock, and quite honestly this could be the problem (1), then try at default settings and work your way back up

(1) One of the first things to show signs of stress when my over clocks get a little to ambitious is my G15 keyboard, or rather the loading of the little apps that drive the lcd - resets to default, forgets my configuration and loads a random selection etc. There are other little indicators of over ambition if you look for them.

Yeah, I guess I'll try throttling back the overclock. It is very stable though - which is confusing.

Funny you should mention that about the G15 because mine does that occasionally, maybe twice a month maybe. How does the overclock cause that?

Geckovich said:
You're not using windows 7 by any chance are you?

When I first installed the RC I got this a few times with my sound card, stopped after about 3 reboots though.

Nope, Vista x64.