dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

[ferris209]

Hey Spoon,
In reference to your FAQ article, I've been having hell with those cracks and pops, so I went to the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers and right clicked the primary IDE Channel, but I have no "Advanced" tab. So I did not uninstall the drivers and restart, as you instructed. WHere do I go from here?

Brandon

[RossRoy]

Re: dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

I have had this problem before, and found out it was my Creative drivers, along with how Windows handles ACPI and IRQ sharing. Sure, the Soundblaster "supports" IRQ sharing, just not when it's shared with almost everything else in the computer!

The problem with Windows is that it assigns everything to IRQ 9, 11 or 12 (can be something else sometimes too). And since IRQ are basically what allows the system to know when to talk to the hardware devices, can you imagine what happens when the video card, the audio card, the USB controller, the network card and the TV capture card all share that poor little IRQ9? Yep! Crackles and pops galore!

The only way I found to fix this, is to prevent Windows from using the ACPI drivers and let the BIOS assign the IRQ itself, using the full 16 IRQ instead of making everything share IRQ9.

There's 2 way you can go about doing this, the first is simple but invoves reinstalling Windows. The second is a little more risky, but can be done from whithin Windows, but I don't know if it's as stable.

*** DISCLAIMER ***
It can be done from an already installed Windows, but you take any and all responsibility if you do it! I can't guarantee it won't break something else or if you won't lose some data or anything. ALWAYS make sure you have backups before attempting to change one of the basic system drivers. You do this at your own risks!

I didn't try it myself, but I've seen it done by some other people to improve their Quake framerate. Good luck if you decide to do it!

In my experience, it's always a better idea to do stuff like changing root system drivers by installing a fresh copy of Windows, the procedure I described above.
*** Ok Here we go ***

*** First Method ***
Upon installing Windows XP, you just have to press F5 when it asks if you need to install any third party drivers, and then, in the list, choose Standard PC. Note that the list of possible drivers won't show up right away after you press F5, so don't press it 25 times until it appears That fixed my problems.

Note that using the "Standard PC" driver instead of the "ACPI" driver, you may lose some functionality like hibernation and soft turn-off, basically stuff that has to do with power management, not a big deal in my book!

*** Second Method ***
Go to Device Manager (Right-Click My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware -> Device Manager). Double click the "Computer" entry and it will expand, you will see an entry that should be called something along the lines of "ACPI Uniprocessor PC".

Right-Click it, choose Update Driver, Select Install from a list or specific location, click Next, select Don't Search, click Next, in the list it gives choose Standard PC, click Next.

It should install the new driver, it may ask for your Windows CD. Then it will reboot and you will probably have to reinstall most of your drivers, at least, those that will have changed IRQ, like the soundcard, video card, network card, etc. In theory, it should find most drivers all by itself seeing as it keep all the INF files in a specific folder along with most of the driver files too.

[ferris209]

Re: dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

I updated from Windows Home Edition to Windows Professional Corporate Edition (Upgraded?!?!?!?) It seems to little annoyances have gone bye bye. I'll monitor my playback closely the next week and see if I need to do one of the above, thanks!

Brandon

[ferris209]

Re: dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

Hey Ross, I decided try this becuase after getting XP Pro installed, things seem to bottleneck now. When I try to rip a CD, I get kicked from the interenet and now things seems really slow when I multitask. So I got to thinking it must be this ACPI thing you were talking about. So I did all of the steps for method #2, but when I get towards the end and a click to install "standard pc" it runs for a moment and then says this:
Cannot Install This Hardware: Standard PC
An error occured during the installation of the device.
The data is invalid.

So I dunno were to go from here, seems that evrything I ty to do causes a unique problem.

But I did notcie that I now have advanced tabs on the IDE ata/atapa controllers. I didn't do what spoon suggested yet. They say "DMA if available" but it is always using "PIO Mode"

?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[RossRoy]

Re: dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

Hmmm.. That Standard PC install problem seems very peculiar.. Are you installing from a slipstreamed to Service Pack 1 Windows XP CD or from an original retail version? First time I hear of someone getting an error installing the Standard PC driver, and I've installed XP this way, both home and pro editions, without a hitch.. It shouldn't happen because all it disables is the ACPI stuff, nothing else. Well it's always possible your installation CD is corrupted on the files for Standard PC (that would be quite a coincidence now would it?). Are you installing Windows on an empty partition or just installing over aprevious version?

As for the Advanced tab, AFAIK, it's supposed to be there in XP.

[ferris209]

Re: dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

OMG!! I think my CPU is crashed! after that last post I reset my computer, I didn't think nothing of it. Then it went straight to the screen which allows me to select safe mode and all that stuff. I slected start iwndows normally, then it took me to a screen which siad, Drivers enabled or drivers disabled. I selected enabled and the computer reset and sarted all over again. Now, no matetr what I select it does this, I've tried safe mode and it still won't reste porperly, even in "last known configuration that worked" it still resents over and over again and brings me to the dreaded screen. I cannot acess my Windows anymore. I've had to use my Mom's pc to make this post. WHat do I DO!?!?!?!?!?

[RossRoy]

Re: dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

First things first, don't panic! You can breathe it's not your CPU, because if it was, you wouldn't even be able to select safe mode or not. Must be a problem in Windows itself, I guess your only bet is to format and reinstall

[ferris209]

Re: dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

Whew! I fixed it, I ended up having to re-install the Windows XP Pro upgrade and everything seems back to normal. the only thing now is having to reupdate windows, that takes forever on a dialup. I guess I'll just live the thing being slow.

[RossRoy]

Re: dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

Well, when I have to update WIndows on a dialup, I usually leave it running overnight..

If you have access to a high speed connection at a friends house, there is another alternative, but it's messy

Get to Windows update, take note of all the update numbers, and download them from your friend's house by going to the Microsoft download center by hand.. takes forever, but once you have them on CD, no matter how many times you have to reinstall, you always have them!

[Spoons]

Re: dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

well hopefully SP2 will come out soon so it can be done in one go.

[ferris209]

Re: dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

Hey, thats a great idea Ross, my fiance' as Cable and I will be over at her apartment this coming week, so I'll take a CD along and load up over there so I can keep it handy. Never thought of that.

[RossRoy]

Re: dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

Let's quote our friend John Wayne about that CD : "It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it!" :p

BTW, when I say to connect to windows update and take note of the available update numbers, I mean to do it from YOUR computer, because if you do it from your fiance's (congratulations!) computer, it'll be the updates that SHE needs, not the ones YOU need.

Yeah if that damned SP2 could just come out already!! Then I could slipstream my WinXP CD to SP2 and not worry about redownloading every update each time I reinstall Windows (which is, unfortunately, MANY times).. But then, from what I heard, it turns on mostly ALL security options.. It'll be such a pain to go in and deactivate all that because I don't need it.. I already have a list of all the services to deactivate once I install Windows and a few registry key to modify or delete..

* :o Sorry about that mini rant... I've had a crappy evening... Let's just say I'm not sure if I'll keep going to music practice anymore... *

[ChristinaS]

Re: dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

* :o Sorry about that mini rant... I've had a crappy evening... Let's just say I'm not sure if I'll keep going to music practice anymore... *

Now, now! practice makes perfect! :D

[RossRoy]

Re: dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

Oh it's not about my ability to play, I can more than handle myself... Some people have just made it clear that their life might've been better had they never met me, or something along those lines... :(

[ChristinaS]

Re: dAPs playback is interrupted by clicks and crackles? (Windows XP) Huh?

Oh it's not about my ability to play, I can more than handle myself... Some people have just made it clear that their life might've been better had they never met me, or something along those lines... :(

So it's time for a change of environment