Silent Thunder Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Hello, This is my first post here so please disregard any matters of my post that differ from the norm and feel free to give advice on how I can better myself in regards to this forum. That aside: I have recently purchased a new MOBO, RAM, Processor for my Desktop PC. This is not my first build but this is the first time I've encountered this particular problem. After successfully installing everything my computer runs fairly smoothly aside from one problem. Whenever I play anything with audio I experience a type of lag/echo every 5-10 seconds. The first thing I did was reinstall my sound drivers. Same problem occurred. Next, I tested my 5.1 Logitech Speaker System. It works fine. Next I tried my PC with a pair of headphones and a 2.1 speaker system that I verified worked fine on other computers. Both had the same problem. My new MOBO is an Asus Commando MOBO which came with a sound card so the next thing I did was phone ASUS's technical support. The technician suggested faulty memory or compatibility issues with the Memory and suggested I test my memory then if that worked out fine to contact the manufacturer. First things first I downloaded and ran Memtest 86+ for 9 successful passes with no errors. So I determined that the memory was not faulty, correct me if I'm wrong. This was the first time I've ever run a memtest. So, now I'm here. I have 2 sets of Corsair XMS2 dual channel RAM (2x1048 mb) PC6400 800Mhz and am wondering if it has compatibility issues with my hardware. A compiled list of my hardware: Asus Commando MOBO + included Sound Card 2 sets of Corsair XMS2 dual channel RAM (2x1048 mb) PC6400 800Mhz Intel Pentium D 925 Processor 3.0GHz 4MB Cache 800MHz FSB, Dual-Core, Socket 775, EDIT: Sorry. Typed in wrong Proc. Fixed. Logitech X-540 5.1 Speaker System 750W power Supply GeForce 7300GT video card If any more info is needed I can provide that too. Any help is appreciated. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Any help is appreciated. Thank you. I have owned and worked with two Commando boards. I have also installed and setup more than a few of these boards. They were created for Core 2 technology and I personally had no problems with the audio. Have you lowered your DRAM speed? With four sticks, I would set the DRAM from 800Mhz to 667Mhz to deal with the on motherboard memory controller's inability to run at full speed with four slots being populated. Does this issue repeat with only two sticks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Thunder Posted February 8, 2008 Author Share Posted February 8, 2008 Thanks for the tips. I just now tried setting my memory to 667 Mhz and have seen a moderate improvement. But now I suffer an occasional hang even while I'm typing. I have to go to work for a few hours now but I will try changing to two sticks when I return and see what happens. When I change back to two sticks should I set my memory back to 800 Mhz? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employee RAM GUY Posted February 8, 2008 Corsair Employee Share Posted February 8, 2008 Yes but with the CPU you have I would suggest DDR667 with just two modules as well unless you over clock your CPU. In addition I would suggest setting the memory Voltage to 2.0 Volts with 4 modules installed and set the NB/MCH Voltage to +.05 Volts as well and set the TRC to 24 and if you have the setting called Write to Precharge Delay set it to 15. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Thunder Posted February 9, 2008 Author Share Posted February 9, 2008 Alright. I've removed two of the sticks. Set it to DDR2 667Mhz set the mem voltage to 2.0volts set the NB voltage to +.05, set the Write to Precharge Delay to 15. The ASUS Commando does not include a TRC setting though unfortunately. I noticed that RAM GUY said "In addition I would suggest setting the memory Voltage to 2.0 Volts with 4 modules installed and set the NB/MCH Voltage to +.05 Volts as well and set the TRC to 24 and if you have the setting called Write to Precharge Delay set it to 15." Now. I did that with only two modules installed. Am I only supposed to do all that with the 4 modules installed. In regards to your comment before that. My CPU is not overclocked ATM. I decided not to overclock it for the time being for two reasons. 1 because I'm sort of a novice at overclocking and 2 because if it's not working 100% now I didn't want to screw with it too much without some solid advice first. Lastly. I should mention that the problem does still persist although not quite as badly now. The time between laggy periods is now more like every 10 - 20 seconds and only every 30 seconds if I have only a single program running. If I run more than two programs it almost becomes as bad as it was before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Thunder Posted February 9, 2008 Author Share Posted February 9, 2008 Well. I went down to a local computer store and decided to try some DDR2 667 Mhz RAM, all they had was Kingston so I stuck with that. I came home, installed it and woe is me same problem. Next I tried restoring my BIOS defaults and, again, same problem. so I've decided that it's gotta be the sound card. I'm gonna give Asus a call tomorrow to see if perhaps there's some better drivers for it or else I'll just replace it. BTW, as a side note, the reason I come to this conclusion is because I opened up my task manager and watched my Processor for a bit and it turns out that when, and only when, my speakers output a loud sound from the audio then my processor usage spikes by a good 20-40%. If I've come to the wrong conclusion from this some advice would be nice. Thanks again for everything so far. PS/EDIT: Actually. I just started up WoW just to see how well it would do and I watched my Processor usage while I was at it. It was using about 40-50% during the whole time. Is it possible that my processor is faulty/not good enough? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 I would perform a fresh installation of the OS. You may have software issues and/or spyware/malware virii events. However, that board was certainly created for the use of Core 2 technology and the Pentium D is nowhere near as robust as the Core 2. You may well be correct in your assumption that there is a processor deficiency. I would perform a fresh install of the OS to test this out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Thunder Posted February 9, 2008 Author Share Posted February 9, 2008 I actually thought of this before too but... seeing as I just replaced the MOBO, this IS a fresh install of the OS. And I've been having this problem from the moment I installed the sound drivers the first time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 Certainly that CPU is not very robust and might be issuing the errors. I seem to remember (now that you mentioned it) that I had issues with the sound on my first Commando when I installed sound drivers from the website. I then removed the sound card physically. Here's what I did. Use add/remove programs to remove the sound card software. Shut the system down and remove the sound card. Restart the system. Click Start --> Control Panel --> System --> Advanced --> Environment Variables Locate "System Variables" and click "New" For "Variable Name", enter "devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices" (without the quotes) and set the Variable Value to "1" (again without the quotes). Click "OK" and "OK" again to close the System Properties window. Reopen the System Properties and the new environment variable will be enacted. Go to the "Hardware" tab. Click the Device Manager button. Click the "View" menu and choose, "Show Hidden Devices". Now you go to the Sound, video and game controllers section. You will see the Supreme FX device and it will be greyed out since it is a non present device. Right click on it and uninstall it. Download Ccleaner from Here and run this program to clean out previous links to it. Reboot and: Download Registry Crawler (30 day trial) from Here and type in SupremeFX. Remove all entries to this driver. Reboot and reinstall the drivers from the CD. If this still does not work, I have a friend who installed the VISTA drivers (Manually) to fix issues he was having with a Striker Extreme and the same card. Good luck and let us know what the results are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Thunder Posted February 10, 2008 Author Share Posted February 10, 2008 Alright. I tried everything you said and again, it helped a little but did not solve the problem completely. As a side note. The drivers I've been using are the ones that came on the disk with my Mobo and are actually SoundMAX instead of SupremeFX. Also. I made sure to note that my sound only lags, echoes, statics, etc... when I see a spike in my CPU Usage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 Also. I made sure to note that my sound only lags, echoes, statics, etc... when I see a spike in my CPU Usage. I bet that you would not find this issue if you upgraded to a Core 2 CPU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Thunder Posted February 11, 2008 Author Share Posted February 11, 2008 Aye. I've been thinking the same thing for a bit now but I was neglecting the urge to do so because I didn't want to shell out the extra cash needed to do so. Being a College Student already hurts the wallet. :p I'll assume that is going to be the solution to my problem though and thank you for your help and declare this case solved for now. Thanks again and may your near future be filled with good fortune. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 Thanks again and may your near future be filled with good fortune. Thanks :) There's another easier fix though. Purchase a Soundblaster Live or Audigy for ~$10 - $20.00 Then the CPU will not need to deal with the Audio. Games will be faster as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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