soundblaster card = crap music

Just what sort of speakers do you have? It could be their fault.

Just what sort of speakers do you have? It could be their fault.

the brand is 'Philips', they are the kind used for walkmans etc, they go in your ear.

The base output of these speakers is fantastic on my portable cd player, good on my other old pentium4 computer and horriffic on the AMD computer with the soundblaster card.

I guess that the makers of the soundblaster card probably realised most people use speakers with seperate power supplies which means that the base output can be sh-t and most people wouldn't know it!

The headphone output can sometimes give you very different quality than the speaker outs. Where you cd player was designed with headphones in mind, soundcards like regular stereos can give you subpar performance due to their focus on enhancing main speaker output.

The headphone output can sometimes give you very different quality than the speaker outs. Where you cd player was designed with headphones in mind, soundcards like regular stereos can give you subpar performance due to their focus on enhancing main speaker output.

Yea sounds about rite, guess i got lucky with the soundcard in my old computer. I will have to find out what brand it is and see if i can get somthing similar, then chuck the useless soundblaster card in the bin!

Mystic, I have been using Soundblaster cards for years, and have been very happy with them. Your problem may be related to an incorrect setting. First, go to 'sounds and audio devices' in your control panel. Under the 'speakers' tab, check the dropdown menu, and make sure that you have 'stereo headphones' highlighted. If not, do so, and click 'apply'. If this doesn't do the trick, post back and I will give you some further things to do in the Creative software.

You mean this game has audio? Well, I never knew it. I guess it's good that I've never been interested in sound from a PC. Plus it would wake my wife up when I get up at 3AM to get a couple of hours of game time in.   

You mean this game has audio?

No, i dunno, i mean propper music, this issue not related to the game.

If this doesn't do the trick, post back and I will give you some further things to do in the Creative software.

I have been through all those settings exaustively, there is nothing more to be done.

well i could try the sounblaster card in my old computer, if it sounds good in there then i will know it is the AMD system that is somehow draining the base out of the card.

One thing though, in my old computer, i can hear the HDD murmur in my speakers. every time the HDD light flashes, i can hear it, and it is a bit annoying, what could cause it?

have been through all those settings exaustively, there is nothing more to be done.

In the Creative software, under 'speaker settings', there is a tab called 'bass boost'. It will allow you to add as much bass as you can stand, as well as set the cutoff frequency. There is also a graphic equalizer, for finer tuning. In the Creative Audio Console there is a 'speakers' tab that should be set to headphones. IIRK, it is defaulted to synch with windows, but it wouldn't hurt to check.

In the Creative software, under 'speaker settings', there is a tab called 'bass boost'

Unfortunately, even a slight increase in base causes speaker distortion. There are two main causes of speaker distortion - amp too weak, or speakers too weak. Since the speakers work fine on the other system, i must assume the power output of the soundblaster card is simply too weak.

In the Creative Audio Console there is a 'speakers' tab that should be set to headphones. IIRK, it is defaulted to synch with windows, but it wouldn't hurt to check.

Synch with windows? that dousn't sound good, windows operating systems are always on the lookout for ways to screw things up!

Synch with windows?

This only means that changing the speaker settings in windows will also change them in the CAC.

i can hear the HDD murmur in my speakers. every time the HDD light flashes, i can hear it, and it is a bit annoying, what could cause it?

Are you sure you don't just have loud hardware? I live alone so I can use nice speakers, but it seems like I've never had a PC box that was anywhere near quiet.

Some of them had very loud hard drives, others loud power supplies, and my current box has what seems to be a vibration issue that I can make go away temporarily by pressing down on a place along the line where the front panel "connects" to the main casing.

If the disk sound is really in your speaker output, this seems like a Q for Mumble even if he doesn't care about PC sound personally. IIRC, he's an electrical engineer.

If the disk sound is really in your speaker output, this seems like a Q for Mumble even if he doesn't care about PC sound personally. IIRC, he's an electrical engineer.

Yes the sound is definately an electrical interference in the speakers. Like the good old 'electric drill' effect on the tv.

I did notice a bit of electric current hit me the last time i touched that HDD too.

Hey, I'm no expert with soundcards. I use the Nvidia sound chip in my AMD mobo and it sounds great to me.

Curious though...do you have to disable onboard sound in bios in order to use a soundcard? It's been ages for me since I've set one up.

Curious though...do you have to disable onboard sound in bios in order to use a soundcard? It's been ages for me since I've set one up.

I don't think it is 'essential' no, just somthing that is recomended. Any features you can disable in bios would only make your computer faster and more stable - unless of course the feature you disable was related to performance!

do you have to disable onboard sound in bios in order to use a soundcard?

You should always disable the onboard sound whenever you add a new sound card. It isn't done in the bios, though. It is done in the 'device manager' in windows.

You should always disable the onboard sound whenever you add a new sound card. It isn't done in the bios, though. It is done in the 'device manager' in windows.

Actually, it is done in the BIOS.

Once it is disabled in the BIOS, the drivers will no longer be loaded for it in Windows (since it will no longer be detected) and it will no longer show up in Device Manager.

Hmm. So I have learned something tonight. I haven't owned a proprietary rig in some years; the last one was a Compaq, and I used the device manager to disable. I'm not sure that there was even the option to do it in the bios. The bios in this system was pretty crappy, with few options for change by the user. But like I said, it has been a long while, and my memory may be playing tricks on me.

Maybe, maybe not.
I have seen some pretty sparse BIOS setups over the years, and Compaq is not known for letting customers get too creative with their machines.

The bios in this system was pretty crappy, with few options for change by the user.

I have seen some pretty sparse BIOS setups over the years, and Compaq is not known for letting customers get too creative with their machines.

Try an HP with the ASUS A8NLA mobo. From what I learned about it, ASUS built this mobo specifically for HP. No support from either site with regards to BIOS updates, since it is a 'special' mobo of course. Should have been called a mofo as far as I am concerned since the settings options are very, very limited. I am surprised that I was able to at least select between pci and pci-e when I installed my card since it is one of the most bare bones mobo I've read about to date. This is why I am saving for a new mobo. HP, Compaq, Dell, Gateway... whatever... my opinion is they can all take a long walk off of a short pier. And don't even get me started on Circuit City or Best Buy... or even the small independent electronics/PC outlets. None of them know shit when it comes to answering questions and a few of them even went so far as to tell me that I was more informed than they were on a said product. What the hell ever happened to good customer service backed by knowledgeable people (of course Stardock rules... can you say brownie points?) who could actually carry on a conversation without sounding like they're talking out of their ass? Hell, one guy who owns his own PC upgrade/repair shop had no clue when I asked him about a couple of different graphics cards. Then I whipped out the tech specs and he was baffled. This is a guy who is supposed to inform people about their PC's... and I was actually teaching him... now that's scary. Sorry for the rant.

I got my HP from Best Buy, and it also has an ASUS motherboard in it.
The BIOS does not have all the options I would like, but it has the essentials.
I have replaced the video card (Evga Nvidia 6800 GS SE CO), power supply (Thermaltake 460W), cpu fan (Zalman), sound card (SB Audigy 4) and added an extra gig of ram (so 3GB now).

HP has had a BIOS update, and I can set it for PCI-e, turn off onboard audio, onboard network and other stuff, and stuff.

It has been a very reliable machine and gives less problems with GalCiv2 than many on this site from all the problem reports I have seen.

I guess I got a good model from HP.

But, I also opened up a few machines when I was looking, and I know what to look for.
I was a computer tech for a dozen years so I have never used either HP or Best Buy for troubleshooting or advice. But I was staying in a small motel room at the time of purchase and money was very tight, so I had decided to buy a canned system this time instead of building it myself.

money was very tight, so I had decided to buy a canned system this time instead of building it myself.

Just typed about three paragraphs and when I hit post I get the old cannot find/doesn't exist and then my stuff is gone... hate that!
Anyhoo, trying again, I am in my mid thirties and only got my first computer in 2001. It was a lame little HP Pavilion 7955. My high school was one that only allowed the 'super smart' Einsteinians access to the class however, and in the end it seemed like the state's purchase of a dozen or so Apple IIe's IIRC was more for the handful of teachers who ran the classes than the students. I would always see them in that comp room after school pissing around doing their own thing (yes, I was there due to detention, go figure).
Anyway, my wife had a little windfall of fundage this past summer so we thought we would buy a new computer. If only I'd known then what I know now... things would have gone much differently. I mean, I am always learning about this (even last week I had to ask the super lame question of the meaning behind a 20+4 pin mobo connector)so it isn't necessarily a bad thing. Now however, I think that I know enough to put my own system together and that's what I am working towards ($$$$$=OUCH).
To get back to you Moosetek13, I do know that HP has a BIOS update, but my machine came with the update already installed (v3.11 IIRC) so nothing doing there. I can't complain too much since HP never really did me wrong... they just put some stupid limits as to what you can and can't do. I upgraded from the integrated 6150LE graphics with a GeForce 7600GT and let me just say, even though it isn't a top of the line card, my GC2 games have never looked better! . I also upgraded the psu and went with an OCZ Gamextreme 700 watter. Lots of room to add on down the road. I was going to add more memory but since my mobo only has one pci-e slot and I would like to go to SLI, I am now saving for a better mobo and a new processor (seems that AMD is making the 939 socket go the way of the dinosaur). Plus, even though it says I can go as high as 4GB of RAM, the actual specs only allow for three with the rest for the restore partition or something like that, despite the board having four slots.
All the tech talk is actually interesting to me... anyone else care to share some system specs about their rigs?

With WinXP you won't see much difference between 3GB and 4GB. Anything above 3.5GB is reserved address space, so your programs will never use it anyway. To get full use you would have to go to 64-bit.

I'm not complaining about the single BIOS update from HP. It means that they at least took care of some problem. No further updates hopefully would mean the BIOS is stable at this point.
More options would be nice, but when getting a PC from someone like HP certain trade-offs have to be accepted. They do not want newbies trying to tweak what they don't understand, which in the end cost them more in tech support. As it is, it has what I would consider essential, with the possible exception of the option to turn off the video BIOS shadowing.

One thing that people tend not to bear in mind when it comes to sound quality - the motherboard's chipset.

If your AMD is one of the older ones reliant on a VIA KT chipset, therein lies your problem. I went from awesome sound quality on an nVidia nForce board (an Abit NV7-133R specifically) to utter crap on a replacement VIA board (KT600A chipset) due to going from HyperTransport-backed onboard audio (nvidia's precursor to the nF2 SoundStorm chipset) to generic PCI-bussed RealTek sound (even though both effectively had the same damn sound chip). One was slaved to a serial HT bus, the other was slaved to PCI. Onboard sound tends to suck when slaved to native parallel PCI, yet it's completely unhindered with serial HT.

I ended up having to use a sound card with tweaked PCI latency values simply to get halfway-decent sound out of that rig, and I dumped it two years ago in favor of an AMD64 with HT and onboard sound. Never looked back.

Course, your speakers and/or their connections could also be at fault, but I'm sure that's already been covered.

Thanks for taking the time to find and reply to my old post Pyrion.

yea having a good quality motherboard is the way to go.