Expert help needed!

[cje]

OK guys, you may or may not know that I have my Q6600 on this board at 3ghz. Which in itself is quite an achievement as this board can be pretty unstable.

Now, I do NOT want to go higher. I want your thoughts on my issue. When there's a high graphical load with the fsb overclocked, my X-Fi crackles. When the fsb is at stock, no crackles, no matter if SLI is enabled or disabled.

Something is causing my x-fi to crackle when the fsb is overclocked. What could it be? I have tried higher NB and SB voltages. The pc is stable, but something isn't right.

PCIE is at stock 100mhz, and SPP<>MCP is on 200 (have also tried auto).

Something is causing something to go wrong, and here's where I want you help. What else is there to try? I could try playing a bit with NB GTL values, what should I try to set it as? + or a -?

Any thoughts would be well received.

Also, tried VTT at 1.3. Haven't tried it any lower...

Also, don't have an option in the BIOS for pci:fsb ratio's or anything like that.. :s

[kylzer]

Try overclocking your PCI-E bus from say 100-105 may help.

[cje]

Sorry, should've said. Tried that also. 100,101,all the way to 105. To no avail.

Seriously annoying. I can get rid of it to an extent by reducing sampling rate to 16 bit 41000khz. But using dual monitors on 2 separate cards and having a video play on one, and a game on the other induces the crackling again.

EDIT - ONLY ways to get rid of crackling for good is to reduce clocks to stock (from 3ghz to 2.4ghz) or take 1 gpu out. :(.

I can reduce it to a very tolerable amount by reducing sampling rate to 16 bit 4100khz, but with crazy amount of load (itunes movie on one screen and game on the other, it just doesn't want to fly).

Maybe I should stop being so picky..... But if you guys have ANY ideas. :)

[kylzer]

Hmm i guess you could try reinstall audio drivers ect

maybe decrease your overclock :(

[cje]

Really old nvidia driver (174.74) used to get rid of it with my old 9800GTX+ cards. Countless re installs of drivers and clean installs won't cure it. I've had this problem since September. It's just that I don't run across it at all really now. Just that one case today where I tried to watch an ituens movie and play Dirt on 2 seperate screens. I'll try enabling SLI and 186 drivers, though not confident at all.

EDIT - with SLI enabled now it doesn't crackle with itunes and a game on the other screen.....

But if anyone has any ideas about the dual gpu crackling issue. (BTW, it can also crackle in some games even with 16 bit sampling rate with SLI enabled).

[kylzer]

Maybe try disabling 3D audio in the nvidia control panel ?

stuff like this is very annoying to fix :@

[cje]

Doesn't do anything. IT doesn't happen now with SLi enabled. I can watch an itunes video on 2nd monitor, and play a game on primary without crackling...

How I hate this motherboard and SLI and Nvidia and their poopy drivers. :smile: Can't wait till I get my new build underway.

[Dimebag]

Striker II Extreme board right? I take it this is an Nvidia chipset board? Potentially a 790i or something like that?

There is a massive on going issue with Creative cards that has been known about for quite a while, but Creative were very slow to admit it at frist.

Believe it has something to do with the way the graphics driver handles the interupt refresh cycles, does it in a sluggish fashion causing your crackling and popping.

More info here:

http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=24669

Used to be adjusting the PCI latency timer on older boards would sort out saturation issues on the PCI bus causing the cards to crack and pop, especially on older VIA chipsets, but we're going back a bit now.

Hope you can find something on that page that might help.
Otherwise buy a new mobo to get a better chipset, or get a new soundcard. Sad but true.

[system7]

I see asus have adressed an issue with a bios update on G92 SLI sound quality on the striker II extreme:

http://uk.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=q8RE9mdlDnDHRRRR&templete=2