MSI K8N Neo2 Plat. + Audigy2 woes

Question

Hi.
I'm getting the dreaded Machine Check Exception(0000009c) on my rig and it seems no amount of tinkering can get this combo to play nicely, and as I know there are quite a few more of you with the same problem out there(and a lot who DON'T have this problem) I thought it could be interesting to find out a bit more about this.
My box:
A64 3500+(newcastle)
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
2x512Mb (Kingston HyperX PC3000...old stuff from my KT333-mobo)
Audigy 2 (SB0240)
HIS 9800Pro Ice-Q
+other stuff that  doesn't affect the problem
Running WindowsXP SP2
I've tried diff bioses (1.2,1.3,1.4b1), I've tried tweaking the pci-latency of the audigy(raising from 32 in steps of 8 to 96) with powerstrip. Tried moving the card to all available pci-slots(the audigy is the ONLY pci-card in my rig, its just the audigy and my 9800 in its agp-slot).
Tried all different driver revs for the audigy, from the one on the included cd up to the latest. Tried changing that pci-clock setting in the bios(hidden setting), to no avail.
I've run memtest86+,windows memory diagnostics and prime95 as well as a few other diagnostic tools from the UBCD for hours on end without any problems whatsoever.(at first I was inclined to believe that the psu might have something to do with this, but I don't believe that anymore, the problem seems to happen to people no matter WHAT psu they use.)
Facts:
1. With the audigy2 in place my machine WILL freeze with the 0000009c-error sooner or later(might take hours, might happen in 5 minutes). It does however seem to be related to using the soundcard(just sitting in windows without using the soundcard for ANY sounds keeps the box alive a lot longer than playing BF1942 and using teamspeak)
2. When I remove the Audigy2 from my system and use the on-board sound the lock-ups stop, no more machine check exceptions.(this isn't a solution, its a workaround)
3. Some people have the same problem while other people seem to be able to use audigys in their machines.
My guess is that it might be related to what model/version of audigy one has, that earlier audigy/audigy2-cards wont work properly...
So, those of you that have the problem, what model/ver of audigy/audigy2 do you have?
Mine is a SB0240.(random 0000009C-errors)

Answer 1

Quote
Originally posted by MonarchX
How do you know if its the SB0240 or SB0350?
Model number on the box or the white sticker on top of the card.
Same card here Audigy2 (SB0240).
I don't remember the error message I got but it was something about a conflict with the nVidia RAID controller. It was right after updating the Creative drivers so I immediatly removed ALL Creative startup programs and services with msconfig. No more problems. It runs great. There is the occassional rare "burp" through the speakers but its no problem.
In "msconfig" uncheck the following under the "Startup" tab.
CTCMSgo
CTDVDDet
CTHelper
CTsysVol
SBDrvDet
regsvr32 (no problem so far with unchecking this one. I noticed there's a copy of it in one of the Creative folders. regsvr32.exe is a command line program used to register and unregister object linking and embedding (OLE) controls such as dynamic-link library (DLL) or ActiveX Controls (OCX) files that are self-registerable. This may be necessary to troubleshoot some issues with Windows, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or other programs.
Attention the same filename is used by some spyware programs.)
In fact the only startups I've left running in msconfig are...
nvraidservice
NvCpl
zlclient  (ZoneAlarm)
Next click the "Services" tab in msconfig - check "Hide All Microsoft Services" and uncheck "Creative Service for CD-Rom access".
I guess it should also be added that a couple of days ago my system became extremely sluggish and had difficulty starting up. There were a couple of BSOD's. Pressing on the back of the case near the PCI slots caused the lights to flicker. Uh-Oh! Apparently the Audigy2 card was a little loose in its slot. Reseating the card seems to have solved that problem.
Later, Conrad