IRQ Routing

Information:

Motherboard - VIA P4VXASD onboard AC'97 sound disabled *drivers up-to-date*

Soundcard - Ensoniq AudioPCI (ES1370) *drivers up-to-date*


I need a little help understanding this. After reading a bit about IRQ, I noticed that devices sharing the same IRQ routes can cause conflicts. This brings me to my problem, my sound card Ensoniq AudioPCI by Creative Labs has been crackling, popping and making weird sounds. Now I tried updating the drivers, but obviously Creative doesn't have any working drivers for it. Which brings me to the IRQ Routing, I checked my video card (ATI) and my sound card and they both share IRQ Route 11. What I want to know is how can I possibly CHANGE routes of either the video or sound card therefore making the crackling disappear.

Please help, thanks. I'm going nuts trying to do this alone for the past 3 nights.

[vee_ess]

I am fairly sure that your sound card should be able to share an IRQ, but the some of the symptoms you are talking about can possibly be caused by an IRQ conflict. Put your sound card in another PCI slot. Refer to your motherboard manual to see which slots/devices share IRQ's.

Also check other sources for the symptoms, such as different wires and speakers. Does this happen during all media or just certain files?

Well. I checked with ECS which supplied me with the VIA motherboard and they do have a section saying that IRQ 11 will conflict with some devices, it doesn't specify which. As for PCI slot problems, I only have 4. First it was in 1, that didn't work. Then with 3, that didn't work. I don't think it's an issue with the PCI slots; as for wiring. I plugged all my speakers into an older PC and had no problems with sound, no distortions or crackles, I also plugged the speakers into the black, red, and green plugs All of them had the same problem.

If this doesn't work out tonight, I plan to get another sound card tomorrow. Preferably a $50 non-creative labs one.

[vee_ess]

Your sound card is, in fact, an IRQ-dependent device. According to Creative Labs, the following may occur if it shares with another IRQ-dependent device:

Random drop outs
Repeating sound
Hissing/crackling sound
Humming - To solve the humming problems (elimination of ground loops) associated with computer soundcards and home theatre systems, please follow this link
Any other degradation of sound quality

Basically, you need to try changing the IRQ's in Windows or in the BIOS if possible, else, you need to move the card to another slot, one not next to the video card. Beyond that, there is nothing that would change the situation.

No word on how to do it in my motherboard? I've checked and the only "IRQ" thing I see if "MIDI IRQ Driver" and it gives me a setting of 11, 10 and 5 and none of them fix my problem. I guess I need to search more throughly. Any other information drop it down.