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clothesburner · Location: USA Posts: 412

The specs of my computer are as follows:

Motherboard/Chipset: ASUS A7A266 DDR SDRAM 266 MHZ FSB AGP Pro/4X Socket A Motherboard with Ali M1647 North Bridge System Chipset

CPU Type/Speed: Athlon Thunderbird XP/1.7 GHZ

Amount of RAM: 778 Kingston 2100 DDR RAM

Graphics Card: Matrox G550

Operating System: Win XP

Service Packs: Service Pack 1a

Primary Recording Software: Cool Edit Pro 2.1

M-audio Products: (2) M-audio Omni Studios and (1) Delta 1010

Driver Version: 5.10.00.29

IRQ # for Delta 1010: 7

IRQ # for Delta 66 #1: 4

IRQ # for Delta 66 #2: 5

Sharing IRQ with any other device besides ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering? No, however ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering is listed alongside each device.

Problem: No matter which Operating System I put on this machine be it Win 98SE, Win ME, Win XP with Service Pack 1a, I get clicks and pops whenever I press play or stop. The audio itself is fine – there are no clicks and pops within the data – but when I hit play or stop the beginning or end of the audio is mingled with an annoying click, annoying enough for me to switch cards if there isn’t a fix for this. I have tweaked buffer settings, not just within my software but also in the M-audio Delta control panel and am at a complete loss. The only other thing left to try (besides switching soundcards) is to upgrade from a 1.7 GHZ Athlon XP Processor to a Pentium but honestly I would like to avoid that expense if I can. Does anyone have any idea what could be the matter? Again, I am at a complete loss. Thanks.

ozpeter · Location: Australia Posts: 3200

I came across [url=http://forums.syntrillium.com/topic.asp?FORUM_TITLE=Cool Edit&CAT_ID=4&TOPIC_ID=8417&FORUM_ID=15&TOPIC_TITLE=noise showing up out of nowhere&REPLY_ID=47582]this thread [/url] by searching for "delta clicks" and there seemed to be others. You've probably already rummaged through, I guess? Maybe many, many times....

- Ozpeter

clothesburner · Location: USA Posts: 412

Thanks Ozpeter. I gave it a shot but nothing changed.

Does anyone here think it can possibly be the chipset? I mean, most everyone suggests Pentium for computer based recording including M-audio, the makers of my soundcards.

Win 98SE, this motherboard = clicks and pops on stop and play

Win ME, this motherboard = clicks and pops on stop and play

Win XP/Service Pack 1a, this motherboard = clicks and pops on stop and play

My friend's old P2 machine, a Dell nonetheless, with a Delta 44 = absolutely no clicks and pops on stop and play, the most fun machine I've ever mixed on, 14 tracks open while recording two.

???????????

Mark T · Location: Norway Posts: 890

jonrose · Location: USA Posts: 2901

XP service pack 1a has other problems, too.

If I might be so bold as to repost a short article (I can't find the URL again):

_____________________________________________

TOP STORY - info you need to make Windows work

XP Service Pack 1 hoses CD-ROM and floppy-disk access

By Brian Livingston

Microsoft's launch of its new Windows Server 2003 line is just taking place as
I write this, and my readers are starting to send fascinating tips about its
secrets. But while I'm compiling a new batch of articles on that subject, the
most interesting gotcha I've heard of this week involves Windows XP with
Service Pack 1 installed.

Jeffery Davidson, manager of information systems for the ATP Oil & Gas
Corporation, sent in the following well-documented tale. Have a listen:
"Last week, my company purchased two new Panasonic Toughbook laptops for some
of our field personnel. I configured them with Windows XP and Office XP, made
sure that all of the patches and drivers were installed, including XP Service
Pack 1a, added all of the third-party software they needed, and sent them out
to the users.

"The users both came back yesterday and complained that they couldn't get the
floppy drives to work. After duplicating the problem, I spoke to Panasonic's
tech support, who told me that this was a problem with the SP1 installation.
He referred me to Microsoft's Knowledge Base article 811839 -- 'An I/O Device
Error May Occur When You Access the Floppy Disk Drive in Windows XP Service
Pack 1.'

"Apparently, the problem is caused by Windows dynamically changing the
computer processor power state to a deeper idle state (from the C2 state to
the C3 state).

"To fix the problem. the article referred me to another KB article, 811840 --
'How to Change the PromoteLimit Value for the Transition from C2 to C3 Power
States.' This fix involved editing two strings of four bytes in six binary
keys in the registry, increasing the time that must elapse from 100
milliseconds to 500 milliseconds before Windows XP promotes the processor from
a C2 to a C3 power state.

"When I changed the registry, the two laptops were able to access their floppy
drives successfully.

"All well and good. Here's where I started to get concerned. Late last week,
one user who had a Compaq EVO D510 desktop machine suddenly started
experiencing severe endless loop crashes. Unable to repair the problem, I
decided to wipe the drive and reinstall Windows XP.

Initially, I was unable to restore the system from Compaq's restore disks. The
technical support folks at Compaq decided the problem was a bad restore disk.
I was able to manually install XP, and then manually install the hardware
drives from the corrupt disk.

"After the installation, I again installed ancillary programs and downloaded
patches, including XP Service Pack 1a. After SP1 was installed, I began to
experience problems with the CD-ROM drive intermittently not reading data from
the different CD-ROMs I was trying to install from.

"The error message I would get was 'An I/O error has occurred while installing
a file. This is usually caused by bad installation media or a corrupt
installation file.' I could either abort or retry. However, retrying did
nothing but repeat the error message.

"I decided to search the Microsoft knowledge base for 'I/O Errors' and
promptly saw the same KB articles I used yesterday to fix the laptops. I
decided to try the same thing on this desktop, even though I hadn't
experienced problems with the floppy drive.

"Surprisingly enough, it worked. But that's what bothers me. Why is XP SP1
causing these problems with different kinds of I/O operations? This has now
occurred on three out of the 60-odd machines I'm responsible for, so it's
widespread enough to want Microsoft to come up with a better solution than
manually editing several binary strings in the registry. For that matter, I'd
tell them myself, but they don't have a great feedback system, as you probably
know."

______________________________

Just further proof that XP is still in beta.....

Heheheheheh!!!!! Big Grin

clothesburner · Location: USA Posts: 412

> Hey Anthony,
> i have a few clues. first what happens when your only running the 1010?

When I'm mixing/monitoring, I'm only going through one card, the Delta 66. I've put the card on its own clock to see if that would fix the problem and it did not.

> and have removed the other cards? does this issue still exist?

I've never removed the other cards to see if this would change anything. If that's the only way I can mix/monitor click-free then they have to go as in, "be replaced."

> are all your harddrives the same make?

I have a 40GB Maxtor 7200 RPM 2MB Cache Drive plugged directly into the motherboard for the OS and a 160GB 7200 RPM Maxtor partitioned 80/80 with 8MB Cache for storage and another 40GB 7200 RPM Maxtor with 2MB Cache slaving off of that - these two drives are plugged into a Maxtor Ultra ATA 133 Card. For these drives I am not given the option to select DMA mode but I am given that option for the drive that is housing my OS.

> is your audio drive Master on the second chain? used to be needed on older
> systems!

Yes, the 160 is the master and the other 40 is the slave. The 40 that is the slave use to be master before I got the 160, and even back when the 40 was the master and there were no other drives slaving off of it the problem still existed.

> with an older board like that disabling ASPI might be the way to go!
> press F5 when loading windows pick standard PC
> there is a way to change it without reloading but you will have to call Gary
> for that.

Remember, this issue has existed no matter which OS. I've tried 98SE, ME, and XP with SP1a and no matter what, have always gotten clicks and pops when I press play and stop. Asus says the A7A works fine with a normal install of Win XP.

> lastly, the Ali chipset was a rough one, the only decent (even that was
> questionable)
> was the Iwill XP333 or KA266. even they has a few issues with audio.

The chipset is the one thing that's constant throughout this whole matter.

98SE, this motherboard and chipset = clicks and pops whenever I push play or stop
Win ME, this motherboard and chipset = clicks and pops whenever I push play or stop
Win XP with SP1a, this motherboard and chipset = clicks and pops whenever I push play or stop

I really think that's what it is. I have a friend with a P2, 500Mhz processor, Dell motherboard who NEVER gets clicks and pops with his Delta 44.

> i know money is tight, but you could relegate the old computer to internet
> use and
> VST/sampling.
> the new P4s are so awesome i cant begin to tell you.
> thanks
> Scott

I just want to be sure before I fork out anymore cash. Thanks Scott. I'll be in touch soon.

Anthony

William Rose · Location: USA Posts: 467

Which of these three cards is set as "first" wave out device in CEP ?

Does it make any difference if you try changing the "first" device to any of the other two ?

Can you get the clicks to stop if you remove any of the cards ?

It would really help if you'd have one installed, try it, then add another.....

clothesburner · Location: USA Posts: 412

I've switched the cards around every which way, I've monitored through different I/Os, nothing has worked. The only thing I've not done is pulled the cards and then reinstall one at a time. That's a lot of work for failure to be waiting at the end.

twright · Location: USA Posts: 230

i have a delta 410 and have experienced the same thing. i just lived with it, and low and behold, it disappeared. it just stopped happening. how long have you had these cards? one thing that you may try is to install the drivers that came with the card. i installed the latest drivers from the m-audio site, and my computer went crazy. i uninstalled those and re-installed the ones that came with the card, and everything was fine. hope this helps.

clothesburner · Location: USA Posts: 412

twright, thanks for your input. In reply, all I can say is that I've tried every M-audio driver under the sun and it's the same no matter what I use. I truly and honestly think it's the chipset. I've spoken with several people in the industry who all say the same thing: "The Ali Magic chipset never did a thing for audio," and so therefore I think I will proceed with my upgrade to a Pentium. I just wanted to be 100% sure this, my current set up was unusable before shucking out anymore bucks. Again, thanks.

twright · Location: USA Posts: 230

FWIW, i run an Athlon XP 1800+

clothesburner · Location: USA Posts: 412

Ha ha... damn. Sad

clintfan · Location: USA Posts: 455

Maybe your DirectX software is old? I think they're up to version 9 now. Just a thought...

-clintfan