On Board Sound

Maybe a software issue too.

Reduce audio hardware acceleration:

http://support.riverdeep.net/techtips_detail.asp?id=80

Software, speakers, drivers, and finally other hardware. I think that's the four things you might be contributing to your problem.

If you can give the specs of your sound card, DX version, and maybe your mobo and CPU, we might be able to pinpoint the problem.

You can get a cheap sound card with hardware acceleration if you want, usually they're better than the on board sound. But if it persists, it could be a software issue. So for now, I suggest that you get the latest DX drivers and also make sure that you have the latest drivers for your on board audio chip.

Hope this helps somehow...

:)

Could be hardware and/or software problem. I'd suggest u get the latest drivers for your hardwares. And remember to turn off the ingame music/sound effects. Anyway an entry-level sound card is just too cheap to throw in one...

Cheers

I have the latest audio drivers.

I have a GA-K8NSC-939

Ok, that would rule out sound drivers.

Try to borrow another pair of speakers (a headset if you want too) and a good sound card (Creative for example)

Swap components and try different setups. If there's nothing wrong with the borrowed speakers, it's your speakers that have the problem. For your on board audio test, use your speakers and plug them into the borrowed sound card.

If the problem persists, get a good sound card and a pair of decent speakers. Usually, components from Creative are good enough.

I sort of did what you said Jericotolentino, I hooked up my speakers to my radio and they were fine.  The sound was crystal clear.

The sound isn't distorted, it just makes a freaky skipping/scratch noise.  I don't really know how to describe it.  I am going to use my other computer's speakers and see what happens.  I haven't tried the soundcard bit yet.

Check the volume of the sound being outputted to your speakers. Click the speaker icon on your Windows taskbar, located by the time. If the sound output is too high, then it will start to reverberate and possibly backfeed. Turn down the system volume, and see what happens.

Well, the sound is fine now.  I didn't do anything but play Halo and everything is okay.  I am using my PC as a gaming and HTPC, would it be wise to use a soundcard instead of onboard sound to prevent a problem like this.

I'm 99% positive it wasn't the speakers.  I tried the speakers on a radio and it was fine, then on another PC.

GA-K8NSC-939 have integrated audio. Is not probably hardware based, I mean, most processing is done by the drivers, and of course, your CPU. Cheap, good enough... for most people :(

If you are playing heavy games, you can notice frame looses from time to time. The same happens with audio.

Try updating drivers, bios, etc. Soemtimes solves a few issues.

http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?print=1&article_id=4068&cat_id=556
http://forums.amd.com/lofiversion/index.php/t49649.html
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t35211.html

My integrated audio is good for me. But if I have extra money (and an extra PCI slot I haven't), I may but a good sound card with DSP on-board.


Luck,

It is most definately not the speakers, but you've already found that out.

You said that the sound skips when you're playing mp3's while playing video games. If the sound is normal when you're NOT playing video games, it seems most likely that the computer is simply too overloaded with running the game, and has not enough computing power left to smoothly decode and play the mp3 (which at that point is running in the background and has less priority than the game running in the foreground). Performance may vary from game to game, as some are bound to be more demanding than others.

If you want to get a soundcard with hardware acceleration, you're pretty much limited to Creative Labs these days. It can actually make a significant difference performance wise, so I think it's a good idea for most all gamers. You can get an OEM version of the Sound Blaster Live! for $30 (plus $5 shipping) from newegg.com: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102177

It's hard to go wrong with that.

Anton

If your audio is skipping, stopping or pausing, you could have a bottleneck in your processing power.  I remember when i had an old PII 200 audio would basically take all of my processing power to use, if i scrolled down in an internet window, my sound might skip or pause, or freeze.  Check to see if you've got enough overall system resources.

Wow, you guys were great.

I restarted my PC and installed a new game and all the sound is fine.  Pretty weird.

1st.   I am 100% sure that the problem isn't  by the speackers.
2nd.  It isn't the CPU speed because you played HALO normaly.

So the soundcard or the driver of soundcard.

Try to reinstall the driver of the card and if this doest't fix the problem you must get another card.
If you don't want to buy a new card you must decrease the quality of the sound!

Hardware...

Some games requires not only CPU, but CPU priority. Leaves less resources to other things. HALO could skip a few frames (yes, is heavy) and still work fine. But other games don't allow to skip any frame if possible, so skips music.

A hardware sound car just gets the music to play and reproduces it. They have internal memory and a DSP (digital signal procesor) cpu just for sound. So, the CPU overhead is less, and if your CPU is really bussy, still have some data on its internal memory...

Should no one else respond, or care, I propose a fee split between SoyYop and myself, given the information provided as it relates to the question that was asked.

It's not very important to me however, so if someone else thinks differently (especially the asker), that's fine by me. I'm not in this for the points (there aren't many for this question anyway :).

Regards,

Anton

Sorry for abandoning the question.  I tried awarding the points a while ago and thought that I did.  I don't know if its because I'm using dial up or because I don't know what I'm doing.

That's quite alright - the link posted by Daleoran explains options and methods of closing the question.

Anton

If ChaotixMonjuish cannot assign it's ponts because of technical problems (as he saids), we can take Anton74's proposal.