Onboard sound

I have a Satellite A100-528 bought secondhand,I have XP sp3,which was reinstalled after a crash.I can't play audio cd./dvd or soundon video.Are there specific ATI or Toshiba drivers??
If not can I use an external USB sound driver for the built in speakers.I have been searching for over a year without success!!!!
brian

Satellite A100-528
XP sp3,which was reinstalled after a crash
Brian, the drivers and utilities for that model are here.
The order of installation matters. Install the ATI display driver prior to any other drivers. Install the Common Module before any other Toshiba utility.
-Jerry
Attachments:
install.txt ‏7 KB

Similar Messages

Unable to make microphone to work on NVIDIA MCP55 onboard sound card

Hello.
Some time ago, I bought a nice HP xw9400 Workstation (with Dual Core AMD Opteron 2216) from Germany. Despite it's starting to become old by today's standards for some stuff like gaming, it's still quite okay to use and the SAS HDD makes it boot fastly. And it has one of the best cases, you can plug PCI/PCIe/PCI-X cards very easily and it's very nice to change or add HDDs. Maybe I'll upgrade the CPUs (I can upgrade the bios and it seems it can support better CPUs) if I find them on eBay or other place.
I have less problems with Arch than the rest of distributions, but I still have weird issues. Despite my computer hardware is somewhat old, I still experience weird problems everywhere (it seems I have some kind of weird "luck").
I have problems using my microphone under Arch with "NVIDIA Corporation MCP55 High Definition Audio (rev a2)" onboard sound card , here is the relevant info.
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=5907a … f5d2b9d88c
$ ls -l /dev/snd
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 60 Dec 12 00:00 by-id
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 80 Dec 12 00:00 by-path
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 7 Dec 11 23:58 controlC0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 9 Dec 12 00:00 controlC1
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 6 Dec 11 23:58 hwC0D0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 5 Dec 12 01:34 pcmC0D0c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 4 Dec 12 02:33 pcmC0D0p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 3 Dec 11 23:58 pcmC0D1p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 2 Dec 12 01:28 pcmC0D2c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 8 Dec 12 01:43 pcmC1D0c
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 1 Dec 11 23:58 seq
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 33 Dec 11 23:58 timer
% arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC262 Analog [ALC262 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 2: ALC262 Alt Analog [ALC262 Alt Analog]
Subdevices: 2/2
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 1: Camera [USB Video Camera], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
% arecord --list-pcms
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=NVidia
HDA NVidia, ALC262 Analog
Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=NVidia
HDA NVidia, ALC262 Analog
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, ALC262 Analog
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, ALC262 Analog
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, ALC262 Analog
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, ALC262 Analog
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, ALC262 Analog
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, ALC262 Analog
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
default:CARD=Camera
USB Video Camera, USB Audio
Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=Camera
USB Video Camera, USB Audio
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Camera,DEV=0
USB Video Camera, USB Audio
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Camera,DEV=0
USB Video Camera, USB Audio
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Camera,DEV=0
USB Video Camera, USB Audio
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Camera,DEV=0
USB Video Camera, USB Audio
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Camera,DEV=0
USB Video Camera, USB Audio
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Camera,DEV=0
USB Video Camera, USB Audio
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Camera,DEV=0
USB Video Camera, USB Audio
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
(I was unable to make the microphone on the usb webcam to work, but that's another issue I'll ask in a separate forum thread...)
% head -n 1 /proc/asound/card0/codec*
Codec: Realtek ALC262
I found this in Gentoo forums, very similar issue and a fix that don't works (see in a bit further)
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-88 … art-0.html
And this...
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1672571
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1475588
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … bug/577178
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/ubuntu … rking.html (2007 forum post, but very similar)
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-bugs … 02583.html (2009)
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=522101 (2009, closed in 2011)
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=474383
-> http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-bugs … 02583.html (it seems the bug tracker works quite bad or there's some issue looking at that issue, so here's the mailing list message about it)
I also tried create /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf and add the following line to it...
options snd-hda-intel model=6stack
And no luck! I tried it and still appear both "Rear Mic" and "Front Mic". I'll provide a screenshot later.
I'm starting to understand this, maybe it can help me...
http://alsa.opensrc.org/Record_from_mic
I tested both sound hardware by using arecord and audacity, no luck at all
% arecord -Dhw:1 --dump-hw-params
Recording WAVE 'stdin' : Unsigned 8 bit, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
HW Params of device "hw:1":
ACCESS: MMAP_INTERLEAVED RW_INTERLEAVED
FORMAT: S16_LE
SUBFORMAT: STD
SAMPLE_BITS: 16
FRAME_BITS: 16
CHANNELS: 1
RATE: [8000 48000]
PERIOD_TIME: [1000 32768000]
PERIOD_SIZE: [32 262144]
PERIOD_BYTES: [64 524288]
PERIODS: [2 1024]
BUFFER_TIME: (1333 65536000]
BUFFER_SIZE: [64 524288]
BUFFER_BYTES: [128 1048576]
TICK_TIME: ALL
arecord: set_params:1233: Sample format non available
Available formats:
- S16_LE
% arecord -D hw:1 -f S16_LE myfile.raw
Recording WAVE 'myfile.raw' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
arecord: pcm_read:2031: read error: Input/output error
% arecord -D hw:1 -f S16_LE -V myfile.raw
Recording WAVE 'stdin' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
arecord: pcm_read:2031: read error: Input/output error
% arecord -D hw:1 -f S16_LE -V -r48000 myfile.raw
Recording WAVE 'myfile.raw' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
arecord: pcm_read:2031: read error: Input/output error
% arecord -D hw:1 -f S16_LE -r48000 myfile.raw
Recording WAVE 'myfile.raw' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono
arecord: pcm_read:2031: read error: Input/output error
% arecord -D hw:1 -f S16_LE -r44100 myfile.raw
Recording WAVE 'myfile.raw' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Mono
arecord: pcm_read:2031: read error: Input/output error
% arecord -D hw:1 -f S16_LE -r16000 myfile.raw
Recording WAVE 'myfile.raw' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 16000 Hz, Mono
arecord: pcm_read:2031: read error: Input/output error
(I tried them with my user and root, same results)
I had an Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro, but removed it to see if there was some problem. I'm still unable to use my Microphone even on onboard audio hardware. I'll try to use it once I have the microphone working
Regards.
Last edited by timofonic (2013-12-12 04:11:57)

Sorry, that was wrong, I meant
arecord -l
Have you tried making a virtual loopback device like above and using
arecord -vv -fdat out.wav
You should see the #### fluctuate as you speak into the mic. If not, then unmute and turn up your mic in alsamixer. That loopback device will allow you to capture your sound card and hear it at the same time. Another way to do it is to use a jumper from line out to line in on your sound device. You won't be able to hear it while you record though.
If your sound device works, then you can capture what's going through it. You'll need to determine which vitual device your mic is.
Example
arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC662 rev1 Analog [ALC662 rev1 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 2: ALC662 rev1 Alt Analog [ALC662 rev1 Alt Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Loopback [Loopback], device 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 1: Loopback [Loopback], device 1: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7

K7N2 Delta Onboard Sound Disable Question

I have a K7N2 Delta motherboard with a MSI FX5600 256MB DDR video card. I am currently using the onboard audio. Ever since I first built this computer I have been having nearly every game I play on it lock up and freeze. I am thinking that it is a sound issue that is causing this problem, so I want to install a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live. I have several questions that I hope someone can answer as I have exhausted all avenues and still don't have any answers. Here are my questions:
1. How do I disable the onboard sound? ie Which jumper is it and what are the
jumper settings?
2. Which PCI slot is recommended for installing the sound card so that I won't
any IRQ conflicts?
3. Is this actually an audio problem or is there something else wrong with this
motherboard or video card?
This is becoming very frustrating because when the computer locks up all I can do is just reset without shutting down. I'm becoming more and more worried that if this continues unabated I'm going to crash the hard drive and have to replace it only to have the problem persist. I hope someone can give me specific answers to my questions. Thank you in advance for your help.

First. Is it K7N2 Delta-L or Delta-ILSR (the one with an actual Soundstorm chip on it)? If you have the actual Soundstorm chip, use it! It will sound much better than an SBLive. Assuming you have the normal K7N2 Delta-L like I have:
1. To disable the onboard sound, first uninstall the drivers for it, then you need to go into the BIOS by holding the Delete key while you boot up. Then find the section "Integrated Peripherals" and in that section "Onboard Devices". Press Enter and find AC97 Audio and disable it. There are no jumpers.
2. PCI slots 1, 2 and 3 are usually not shared with other stuff like you AGP or USB ports. PCI Slot 3 is the ideal choice. 1 is usually covered by your video card fan anyway. For the SBLive, on Windows XP/2000, get the newest drivers from Creative Labs. The file is named "LiveDrvUni-Pack(ENG).exe" and it's file size is 23.3 MB (24,451,404 bytes). They have fixed the "nforce2 + gameport incompatibility".
3. The problem may be audio related...or not. Which drivers are/were you using for your onboard audio? nvidia or Realtek? Actual Soundstorm chip or crappy software codec? It could also be video card related. Fastwrites? 8x or 4x AGP?

I'm at a loss with the onboard sound

I can't get my 6 5.1 speakers to work on mt KT4 Ultra board, so I'm considering putting my Sound Blaster back in and disabling the onboard sound. What kind of a performance hit will I take?
I can get the fronts to work, or the rears to work but not all six. I have tried everything I can think of.
Thanks,
Al

Hi,
Have you set up the C-Media drivers for 5.1/6.1 sound? The settings for each speaker configuration can be found if you double-click the c-media icon next to the clock and select the settings button. Note how the plug configuration changes if you change the type of speakers.
I found that the 6.1 configuration with the headphone(?) option ticked makes all my 5.1 speakers work ok. I'm not saying I haven't got any sound problems but at least they all work.
I've also found that individual apps also need to be setup for the better speakers as well. PowerDVD needs to have the setting specifically set or the sounds all over the place.
Hope this helps
YT

Will not boot after disabling onboard sound

I am trying to install an SB Audigy2 ZS sound card but each time I disable the onboard sound card, I cannot boot my system. It will not boot to CD either. I have tried disabling with SB Audigy2 ZS card installed and without the card installed. I am using the third PCI slot since the video card uses the first slot's space.
I tried it without 2 of my hard drives in case I was running low on power, but still will not boot.
Any ideas?

i have the newer mobo and also have audigy zs it install just right for me but i have it in pci slot 4 (the last one on my mobo) your manual of your mobo will tell you which pci share the same irq ..but when i had your version of mobo i still had it in slot 4 so try pci 4 or 5 to see if that resolves your problem it souds like your video card and sound card are tying to share the same irq which is a big no no

How do I disable the onboard sound in CMOS?

I have a KT4 Ultra, and I want to disable the onboard sound so I can use my own Soundblaster card. How do I do this? I've looked through the BIOS, and nothing seems to stand out. Do I have to do it on the board itself?

I just downloaded the KT4 Ultra book and will run you thorugh what you have to do....
Your board has "C-Media 8738MX 6-channel audio with SPDIF out" so you will have to disabled it in Bios if you want to use a PCI sound card.
1. Reboot your PC and press "DELETE" to enter Bios.
2. Select "Integrated Peripherals"
3. Scroll down until you see "OnBoard PCI Controller" and then "Audio Controller". (It's last on the list!).
4. Select "DISABLED"
5. Select "SAVE & EXIT SETUP".
6. Turn off your PC.
7. Put your new PCI Sound Card in...I recommend PCI Slots 2-5. Try to keep PCI 1 and 6 clear....
8. Reboot. Your OS will go into "FOUND NEW HARDWARE". Wait until it's done.
9. Put your new PCI Sound card driver CD in and load the new drivers....REBOOT.

How do I disable the onboard Sound card in BIOS on the Equium A200

I am using a Creative Sound Blaster external soundcard but the recording level is very low and have been advised by Creative to disable the onboard sound card in BIOS but there is no option to do this. Can anyone help ?

Hi
You cannot disable it in the BIOS.
If you want to disable the sound card you can do this in the device manager!
cheers

How do I disable the onboard sound card in BIOS on the Equium A200 PSAE2 ?

I am using a Creative Sound Blaster external soundcard but the recording level is very low and have been advised by Creative to disable the onboard sound card in BIOS but there is no option to do this. Can anyone help ?

Do not post twice!
Follow this
http://forums.computers.toshiba-europe.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=99828&

[Solved] Conflict: ATI Radeon HDMI vs onboard sound crashes PulseAudio

Firstly, please excuse my ignorance about audio issues!
I have a mate running Arch who has an ATI Radeon HD5450 graphics card (using radeon driver) and onboard sound also. He doesn't want to use the graphics card for audio purposes at all. He's getting (seemingly) random switches between PulseAudio thinking its default audio sink is the onboard sound and the graphics card. When the latter happens, PulseAudio crashes out.
(Tried setting the kernel boot parameter 'radeon.audio=1' to try and make the HDMI audio work, but to no avail. Though card is in radeon driver matrix saying HDMI audio feature should work with this card.)
Issuing these commands usually gets things up and running again:
pulseaudio --start && pacmd set-default-sink alsa_output.xxxxx.analog-stereo
where alsa_output.xxxxx.analog-stereo is the appropriate string from the 'Default Sink' line of the ouput from the command:
pactl stat
Tried switching the HDMI input/output off using pavucontrol but after an indeterminate time it creeps back and kills off PulseAudio.
Can the graphics card be blacklisted as a soundcard by PulseAudio or Alsa in some way?
Any ideas to resolve this most welcome!
PS: Had a look through the Arch Wiki on PulseAudio and it helped quite a bit with understanding pactl and pacmd commands.
Edit @29/01/14: Problem solved - by going deeper to kernel level!
From the wiki:
If both devices use the same module then we can use the *enable* parameter from snd-hda-intel module, it's an array of booleans that can enable/disable the desired sound card [put in /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf]:
e.g
options snd-hda-intel enable=1,0
Useful commands to check situation:
cat /proc/asound/cards
cat /proc/asound/modules
aplay -l
Last edited by ninian (2014-01-29 23:14:35)

Silex89 wrote:
Hi there!
If you're using the latest kernel spin (3.13), you don't have to really put that kernel parameter in your bootloader config anymore because it's enabled by default already. Which DE are you using? GNOME, GNOME Flashback, Cinnamon and Unity have all integrated with pulseaudio and no extra configuration is needed. If you're using Xfce, LXDE, KDE or any other WM/DE, you'll have to install pulseaudio-alsa and alsa-utils to get it working. That made my HDMI audio work out of the box on my ancient KDE session with the open source driver.
I hope this helps!
Best of Luck
Hi,
okay I just removed the kernel option, thanks for the advice!
I'm using xfce and I already had installed pulseaudio-alsa and alsa-utils, anyway the strange thing is that before switching to headphones (on the other card) it worked, but now it seems that is dead...
Thank you for helping!

Adding a soundcard with onboard sound.

Is it possible to add a soundcard without disabling the onboard sound? I'd like to use the card for recording and use the onboard for gaming, etc. Is that possible?

It is possible as long as both soundcards do not conflict with each other and both drivers + the OS can support this configuration. But you got to try it out yourself!

K8T Neo-FIS2R onboard sound limitation?

Reading southmikes unofficial guide, it seems you can't use both onboard sound AND a PCI sound card (such as a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz).
Is this still correct with the 1.6 BIOS? I want to use the microphone input on the motherboard, but the the TBSC for output.

Quote
Originally posted by thegrommit
Reading southmikes unofficial guide, it seems you can't use both onboard sound AND a PCI sound card (such as a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz).
Is this still correct with the 1.6 BIOS? I want to use the microphone input on the motherboard, but the the TBSC for output.
It was fixed with BIOS v1.3. I use an SB Live! and the onboard sound card, too.
It was not driver dependent, the BIOS disabled the sound card that is behind the ISA bridge.
How can I say that? ISA bridge? There ain't no stinking ISA slot on this mobo!
Look at this listing that I obtained under Linux, particularly the devices labelled
as 00:11.0 and 00:11.5.
$ /sbin/lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8385 [K8T800 AGP] Host Bridge (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI bridge [K8T800 South]
00:05.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 02)
00:05.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 02)
00:06.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]
00:07.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
00:07.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 07)
00:08.0 Network controller: Harris Semiconductor Prism 2.5 Wavelan chipset (rev 01)
00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8169 (rev 10)
00:0d.0 RAID bus controller: Promise Technology, Inc.: Unknown device 3373 (rev 02)
00:0e.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device 3149 (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C/VT8235 PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6202 [USB 2.0 controller] (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6202 [USB 2.0 controller] (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6202 [USB 2.0 controller] (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6202 [USB 2.0 controller] (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [K8T800 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV250 [Radeon 9200 SE] (rev 01)
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] (Secondary) (rev 01)
The numbers are BB:DD.FF (BB - bus number, DD - device number, FF - function or subdevice) Function number 00 means it's a main device, function numbers other than 00 with the same
bus and device number is something on or behind the main device.
With BIOS v1.2 and lower, 00:11.05 was not in the list when the SB Live! was plugged in.
The BIOS disabled the device. Or did not keep the info about it - it's almost the same since
Linux also use the PCI BIOS calls to detect the devices. I did not try "direct" mode that
talks directly to the PCI bridge.

Disabling onboard sound on K8T Neo?

Hello,
I'm probably being really stupid here but I just can't seem to find the BIOS setting to disable the onboard sound. Can't find it on any of the BIOS pages, can't find it in the manual and there doesn't seem to be a dipswitch on the board itself.
Anyone?
TIA

I must have looked through that menu 20 times and not noticed the submenu. Cos it's in yellow rather than white I read it as a title rather than a menu item.
I am stupid. Cheers.

Onboard sound not detected

ive pulled out my Sound Blaster (after i have uninstalled all drivers and software) and enabled the onboard sound card in the BIOS. (set it to "Auto" as there is no "enabled" option)
but it isnt detected by Windows? why? i dont have any other soundcard installed nor any drivers, so where is it?

no there wasnt any problems with FarCry and the Sound Blaster...
anyway, the problem is, it isnt detected at all! there is no trace of it in the device manager, nor anywhere else. when i put in the MSI drivers CD the soundcard drivers arent even listed! just the other enabled stuff like USB and so on. but no sound card! weird!
now i have formated my C drive, reinstalled Win2k and there it is! the onboard soundcard. played farcry with it, performance was even worse. one night wasted, lesson learned: onboard sound is bad for you!

Which is better for framerate -- onboard sound or SBLive 5.1?

Heya,
I have an SBLive 5.1 and I was just going to pitch it when I assembled my new rig with the K8T Neo. But I read a review on HardOCP (here) and it said the onboard sound is incredibly CPU intensive and Q3 took a 21% (!) framerate hit with the onboard sound activated.
They go on to advise that one should use a PCI-based sound solution, but I'm sure they mean one of the newer SB Audigy-based cards and not my (old) SB Live...
So my question is this -- is the SB Live going to be better for gaming performance (framerate) than the K8T Neo's onboard sound? I hate to have two sound systems on my PC (redundancies always seem to cause problems) but a 20% hit on gaming is unacceptable when I'm coughing up this cash for a supposedly "high end" solution.
Thanks!
Z

While it is true that onboard sound can have a major impact on game performance (~20%), what you may not realize is that adding a PCI based solution will not eliminate the entire performance hit. In other words, even the most modern PCI based sound cards (Audigy 2, for example) do not completely eliminate the load which audio puts on a system. To see an example of this, Tomshardware conducted a benchmark almost a year ago which compared the framerates of several sound solutions.
Note: the Realtek chip (ALC650 AC'97 Audio CODEC) used in the THG benchmark is an older version of the same integrated audio chip on the K8T Neo (ALC655 AC'97 Rev 2.3 Audio CODEC). There may be a modest improvement in performance with the newer CODEC.
Now, concerning your soundcard: although your SB 5.1 Live! card may put more load on your system than a new Audigy 2 or Hercules card, it should certainly improve performance when compared to the on-board audio solution. Sound quality should also improve (although if you have 6-channel speakers, you could only run 5 channels of audio).
The SB Live! series produced beastly little sound cards. If you want to further improve sound quality (or need more audio channels), consider an inexpensive (~$40) Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. Or, if you want to improve your gaming performance further, you could shell out ~$70-$100 and get a top-of-the-line OEM sound card.
In general, on-board audio blows. You get what you pay for.
-Angler

Is the onboard sound better than SB live!

I been thinking of using onboard sound right now Im using a old sound blaster live! its not the 5.1 What do you guys think ? See my sig for mobo type
This is the sound chip on the mobo Realtek ALC650 it has 4 to 6 chan. and it also has a
S-bracket that has analog to digital audio outputs by intergrating both SPDIF.
Anyone here use there onboard sound? I would like to buy sometime till I can get a new soundcard I want to free up a pci slot.

Uninstall the SB Live, and all related components thru device manager, then go to control panel>add or remove programs. Remove any Creative programs related to the SB Live. Shutdown and remove the SB from the system. Upon bootup, enter BIOS, and in the "Integrated Periphrials" section, set the AC97 to enabled, and reboot.
During bootup, it should find the AC97, and ask for the drivers, cancel the prompt. Then open the folder containing the drivers, and install from there.
One thing to check while you have the case opened to remove the SB, look for the front audio header, usually "JAUD1", there needs to be 2 jumpers installed in order to direct sound to the rear audio ports. These are normally installed before the board ships, but can be left off. Never hurts to look. I believe the jumpers go on 5-6 and 9-10. Check your manual to verify. the front audio header is located at the bottom of the board, near the front. If you have no manual, click here to download one.

How to enter bios, disable onboard sound, and install a sound card

How do I enter bios, disable onboard sound, and install a sound card?

Hi,
You may also have to disable, security for the PCIE x1 slot.
Windows 8.1 - Accessing the UEFI (BIOS) Setup
Regrads

Onboard sound

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