Fixing distorted sound in Windows
Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 6:17 pm
For the last few weeks I have had intermittent problems with my sound card. Sound would studder or pop on and off! It is a built-in SoundMax and I never expected it to be fantastic, but it was getting really bad. So I went on Google and started searching...
There were tons of posts about this problem, but nothing seemed to help. Then I found a post that changed all of that immediately! Check your IDE drives to see if they are set to DMA!
In XP go to Control Panel... Performance and Maintenance... System... Hardware...Device Manager...
Click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers to see a list of your Primary and Secondary Channels. Right click on each and select Properties... Under the Advanced Settings check to see if the Transfer mode is set to DMA if available and that the Current Transfer Mode is NOT PIO. If it is PIO Right click the drive and click Uninstall! This might seem a LITTLE RADICAL, but it will fix the problem.
After you have uninstalled the drive channel, Windows will want to Restart your computer. During that time, it will reset to a DMA setting in most cases. If it does not, then you are stuck with PIO.
I think that my DMA problem was created when I installed a second hard drive. Oddly the Primary was PIO and the newer drive was already set to DMA.
Give it a try! It worked wonders for my sound and the darn thing runs a little faster too!
Ted
There were tons of posts about this problem, but nothing seemed to help. Then I found a post that changed all of that immediately! Check your IDE drives to see if they are set to DMA!
In XP go to Control Panel... Performance and Maintenance... System... Hardware...Device Manager...
Click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers to see a list of your Primary and Secondary Channels. Right click on each and select Properties... Under the Advanced Settings check to see if the Transfer mode is set to DMA if available and that the Current Transfer Mode is NOT PIO. If it is PIO Right click the drive and click Uninstall! This might seem a LITTLE RADICAL, but it will fix the problem.
After you have uninstalled the drive channel, Windows will want to Restart your computer. During that time, it will reset to a DMA setting in most cases. If it does not, then you are stuck with PIO.
I think that my DMA problem was created when I installed a second hard drive. Oddly the Primary was PIO and the newer drive was already set to DMA.
Give it a try! It worked wonders for my sound and the darn thing runs a little faster too!
Ted