VIA chipset, audiophile 2496 or suggestions

billyshuler

billyshuler

New member
I've got two m audio audiophile 24/96's in my computer. I have alot of pops and clicks, stutters and so fourth. My computer has one of the VIA chipsets in it that have some compatibility issues. My question is, are there any other soundcards I could get that won't give me any problems with the VIA chipset in my computer. I want to stick with pci cards.
 
Here is my Motherboard Information:

FEATURE/SPECIFICATION DESCRIPTION

Motherboard Manufacturer TriGem
Motherboard Name Santafe-KM
System BIOS Supplier Phoenix
Form Factor uATX
Processor Brand AMD
Processor Socket Type Socket-A (PGA462)
Processor Family Athlon/Duron
Proc. Front Side Bus Freq. 200MHz
Chipset Name VIA KM133
Chipset "North Bridge" VT8365A
Revision/stepping D
Chipset "South Bridge" VT82C686B
Revision/stepping C
Super I/O (N/A)
Revision/stepping (N/A)
Flash BIOS Device Xbus 2Mbit
Memory Type SDRAM
Memory Speed PC100/PC133
Memory Sockets 2 DIMM
Maximum Memory 1GB
Graphics Supplier VIA (Savage 4)
Graphics Configuration Down, In Chipset
Onboard Graphics Memory UMA, up to 64MB
Graphics Connector (AGP) AGP 4X
TV-Out Device No
TV-Out Configuration (N/A)
Audio AC'97 Down
AC'97 CODEC Device Crystal CS4299
Audio Jacks (Mic, Line-In, Spkr, MIDI/Game) M, LI, LO, SO, MIDI/Game
M Microphone
LI Line In
LO Line out
SO Speaker
M/G Midi/Game
Ethernet 10/100 LAN Supplier Realtek RTL8139C
Ethernet Configuration PCI, Down
IDE UDMA Modes ATA-100/66/33
Expansion Slots (AGP/PCI/Exten) AGP, 3 PCI
USB Ports 4
USB Front/Back Options 2F+2B
Serial, Parallel, Floppy, PS2 Kbd and Mouse 1S, 1P, 1F, PS2 K+M
Serial Port Front Chassis Option Yes
Available Mfg Options -G, L, A
A Audio down on motherboard
C External L2 cache on motherboard
E 1394 on motherboard
G Graphics down (on motherboard or in chipset)
L LAN on motherboard (Ethernet) P - PCMCIA slot
S S3 power management support
T TV-out on motherboard
U Graphics card (up, not on motherboard)
W MS® Windows XP hardware compliant
 
The only VIA chipset "popping" problem I have heard of involves a much older chipset that was used with Pentium III systems.

The system I'm typing on right now has an Audiophile card and uses a VIA KT333 chipset, and I have not had any problems.

What source tells you that your chipset shouldn't work with an Audiophile?
 
I'll admit i'm extremely lost with all this computer stuff. I've read here on the boards something about via chipsets causeing pops and clicks, which I have. My problems happen when I'm recording guitar and bass. Playback is usually fine though . I may be missunderstanding what i've read though. I've done tons of things to my computer to make it run smoother, I still have the problem though. I should mention that I have only 256mb's of ram. I don't understand, I didn't have any pops or clicks with my old computer, it had a pentium II, 128 mb's of ram and windows 98se.
 
The problem was traced to the Via southbridge VT82C686B. I believe this was resolved by Via and the KT333 and more recent chipsets are ok. I currently use a KT400 without difficulty.

When I had a Via KT133A chipset, I found this software patch useful...
http://www.georgebreese.com/net/software/#PCI
I was successfully using this with a single Audiophile2496 for many years.

Depending on manufacturer, some Via mainboards have a BIOS setting called "PCI latency timer" and also depending on make, this can be either enabled/disabled or a value chosen. The value of 32 is the usual default, but some have fixed their problems my changing this to 64.

Or simply try the card in a different pci slot as some are usually better than others.

What recording software are you currently using? I found Cool Edit Pro (Adobe Audition) prone to occasional clicks which I think I've fixed by disabling the on-board soundchip - not entirely certain because I don't record in this software often as I'm primarily working with Sonar.

Good luck
;)
 
Be sure you are using the M-Audio Delta ASIO drivers. I have a 2496, and when I first started using it using the default drivers, I was getting random pops and clicks. After I switched to using the ASIO drivers, I have not had that happen.
 
I have been using the delta ASIO drivers, and my software is Magix samplitude 7. JIM Y, I will definately download that patch when I get off work. Thanks for taking the time to help me out.
 
Excellent answer Jim Y, and an interesting link. As the link says, don't try installing that patch if you are running Windows XP SP2. Yeah it was the KT-133 I was thinking about. I used to do some recording on a KT-133a board, never had a problem, but there are a lot of variables with a problem like that. One motherboard might have the problem, another not.

I was also recomend disabling any on-board sound card regardless. On the general-purpose system I'm typing on right now I use an Audiophile, and it works fine for games & everything. No need for a second sound card to be enabled.

Am I understanding you that you HEAR the poping and clicking while you are recording, but you don't typically hear them while you are playing back the recording you made?
 
Actually I meant to say that I don't hear pops or clicks when using soft synths and loops, stuff like that. When I record outboard sources such as guitar and bass,the pops and clicks happen.
 
These things are tricky to diagnose.
But you say...
It was ok with Win98.
It's ok with softsynths and loops.

This kind of points to a disk problem and something XP does that 98 didn't.
Unless you stop it, XP maintains an index of file changes on disk, the "Disk Indexing Service". This causes extra disk activity and doesn't really benefit a DAW, I have this service disabled on mine.
Softsynths and loops usually play from ram, not disk, which reinforces the suspicion of disk trouble.

Is the hard disk using DMA?
Consider having a second hard disk and setting your recording software to use it for recording to.

Visit...
www.musicxp.net
Here's a link with a lot of info on curing disk DMA problems...
http://sniptools.com/tipstricks/getting-back-to-dma-mode-in-windows-xp

Although XP usually sets the best DMA mode by default, I've seen it fail to do so when installed as an upgrade over an older Windows version.
 
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The KM133 chipset has known bus-mastering bugs in the hardware.

Welcome to VIA.

I won't use them on a bet... way too many years of fighting their endless hardware/driver problems with my client's computers.

Ditch the dog board, and replace it with one with an nForce3 chipset, or an Intel chipset. Both of these are very stable. The newer nForce4 chipsets are not as well suited for DAW use as the older nForce3 type.

RME nForce4 Chipset Testing
 
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