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EMU 0404 USB and Games. - Page 3

post #31 of 53
2/27/09 at 10:54pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the suggestions but still no go. I just don't understand though. Sometimes it crackles more than other times. Does that mean anything?
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post #32 of 53
2/28/09 at 12:23am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by obobskivich View Post
your latency looks fine in that ss man, x2 what uraflit said about trying optical

are you using ASIO (like forcing it enabled with games)? if so, try raising the buffer delay a bit
Sorry for the double posts, but how would I setup ASIO and force enable it in games?
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post #33 of 53
2/28/09 at 6:37am
You can try getting a USB 2.0 PCI card and dedicating that card to just audio. Try it in different PCI slots if you continue to have problems and/or fiddle with the settings for that PCI slot in the BIOS.
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post #34 of 53
2/28/09 at 4:08pm
Thread Starter 
Well, I just figured out it is not the soundcard that is doing it. I took a soundblaster out of an old pc I had laying around and it does the same thing. Could it be that I am underpowering my PC? I only have a 450W Power supply, so I'm wondering if that has anything to do with it.
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post #35 of 53
2/28/09 at 9:36pm
That's progress in narrowing down the root cause. I'm not enough of a hardware guru to know how much of a power supply is needed. I do, however, know that watts in a generic power supply are not equal to the watts in better name brand power supplies. If you have a generic power supply, I'd be looking there for an upgrade. I have no knowledge on how many watts or what brand.
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post #36 of 53
3/1/09 at 12:21am
Thread Starter 
I'll probably update the BIOS tomorrow to see if it has any effect. I'm just down to doing anything to get it fixed.
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post #37 of 53
3/2/09 at 6:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ham Sandwich View Post
That's progress in narrowing down the root cause. I'm not enough of a hardware guru to know how much of a power supply is needed. I do, however, know that watts in a generic power supply are not equal to the watts in better name brand power supplies. If you have a generic power supply, I'd be looking there for an upgrade. I have no knowledge on how many watts or what brand.
watts are watts, what matters is how honest the person writing the #'s is

generic PSU wattage is usually grossly overstated, if they say 500W it basically means "500W for a few seconds before a fire starts in a lab condition with an engineering sample hooked up to a flawless voltage source"

you can't "underpower" the computer, in the sense that if the PSU didn't have enough juice, things wouldn't run, but you can have dirty power, which is very easily done through using a cheap power supply

I wouldn't even bother with the BIOS, I'd take aim at that PSU and get it replaced with something worth the $$
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post #38 of 53
3/2/09 at 8:35am
I don't see how the PSU would affect latency in this case. It sounds like a motherboard issue to me.
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post #39 of 53
3/2/09 at 9:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by infinitesymphony View Post
I don't see how the PSU would affect latency in this case. It sounds like a motherboard issue to me.
the latency is checking out according to DCS checker, while hum/etc is still seeming to be his issue

so it'll either be the power supply, or the mainboard, if the PSU is some generic crap, I'd look at that...
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post #40 of 53
3/2/09 at 6:45pm
Thread Starter 
Nah, the PSU is an Antec Earthwatts, so it's not the PSU. I've updated tons of drivers for basically anything and everything in or connected to my PC. And, to my surprise, it has helped a whole lot. So you don't think updating the BIOS would do anything?
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post #41 of 53
3/2/09 at 7:04pm
The instructions for the DPC latency checker say to try disabling devices until you find out which one is causing the problems. It's a cool little program--my 0404 USB briefly clicks twice when I try to play back two different sounds using different programs, and for better or worse, DPC latency showed me that it's probably the fault of the sound drivers. DPC latency checker spikes at around 15,500-16,000 µs whenever I try to start the other audio stream. It's a USB audio interface, so I don't expect it to handle multiple streams 100% perfectly, and once they're playing it's not a problem.

However, even though we have the same sound card, my average latency graph doesn't spike unless I do something to make it spike. It hovers at around 70-80 µs if I'm not doing anything, and my specs are significantly lower than yours (C2D E6600 with 2G RAM). So, some kind of driver or firmware issue. Try updating the BIOS if you're comfortable doing it.
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post #42 of 53
3/2/09 at 11:21pm
Thread Starter 
What about reinstalling the drivers and firmware using the compatibility mode settings for XP? Would that make any difference?
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post #43 of 53
3/3/09 at 12:22am
Probably not, but you could try... In your case, I don't think it's the sound card drivers because it happens with all audio devices.
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post #44 of 53
3/3/09 at 6:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by infinitesymphony View Post
The instructions for the DPC latency checker say to try disabling devices until you find out which one is causing the problems. It's a cool little program--my 0404 USB briefly clicks twice when I try to play back two different sounds using different programs, and for better or worse, DPC latency showed me that it's probably the fault of the sound drivers. DPC latency checker spikes at around 15,500-16,000 µs whenever I try to start the other audio stream. It's a USB audio interface, so I don't expect it to handle multiple streams 100% perfectly, and once they're playing it's not a problem.

However, even though we have the same sound card, my average latency graph doesn't spike unless I do something to make it spike. It hovers at around 70-80 µs if I'm not doing anything, and my specs are significantly lower than yours (C2D E6600 with 2G RAM). So, some kind of driver or firmware issue. Try updating the BIOS if you're comfortable doing it.
QFT

the PSU issue is probably a non-issue based on drivers having an influence (didn't have that piece of the puzzle when I was looking at the PSU, did I?)

the BIOS may or may not influence things, now I have a good question: can you update the firmware on the 0404 itself?
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post #45 of 53
3/3/09 at 9:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by obobskivich View Post
can you update the firmware on the 0404 itself?
Yes, a firmware update is included as part of the 0404 USB's driver download, but if he's running Vista he may already have the newest version. I still think it would be easiest to remove the 0404 USB from the equation for now and focus on why the audio problems are happening even with onboard sound.

LHS, maybe it's an issue with the onboard sound drivers, or perhaps they won't play nice with the 0404 USB's drivers? But I'm assuming you've already tried disabling onboard sound in the BIOS...

I'll add that I've played games with relatively heavy system requirements (Quake 4, Unreal Tournament 3, BF2 set to high, etc.) on an Athlon 64 3200+ machine with 1 GB RAM and never heard a single blip from the E-MU 0404 USB.
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