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Thread: Sound Quality Problems ONLY When No Monitor Plugged In

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    Sound Quality Problems ONLY When No Monitor Plugged In

    This one has me baffled..

    I am using a VIA EPIA CN10000 with a Laptop HD and a Terratec EWX 24/96 sound card. There's nothing else. I'm using Windows XP Pro SP2. I've got everything working fine, digital output and line output from the soundcard are 100% perfect. But, the box is designed to be used without a monitor, keyboard or mouse. When I unplug these and boot up the PC the sound quality is terrible, I get a wierd warbling comingthrough with the sound. It's only when there's sound there, it doesn't happen when the box is quiet. It affects both the digital and analogue outputs from the card but the on-board audio remains fine. I've restored old drive images and can reproduce this easily. I've uninstalled the S3G Unichrome Pro drivers (which have been a bit of a problem for other reasons) but this has had no effect. Plugging the monitor back in doesn't restore the sound quality, only a drive image restore can get it back to sounding okay. This has started to happen since I changed the motherboard from an older, slower VIA EPIA board.

    Any ideas? Anything at all would be appreciated, I've now spent 2 full days struggling with this and I've run out of ideas (and patience).

  2. #2
    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    • kalniel's system
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    Plugging the monitor back in doesn't restore the sound quality
    That stumps my theory

    Hmm.. do you have any PCI conflicts?

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    Quote Originally Posted by kalniel View Post
    Hmm.. do you have any PCI conflicts?
    Conflicts show up as exclamations in the My computer->properties->Hardware->Device Manager Right? There's nothing showing up as a problem.

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    Flat cap, Whippets, Cave. Clunk's Avatar
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    i had a similar issue with a terratec dmx6fire card and it was conflicting with the pci-e bus, the only solution i found was to sell the card.

    maybe you could try a pci graphics card? only about a fiver and might possibly help you sort it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Clunk View Post
    i had a similar issue with a terratec dmx6fire card and it was conflicting with the pci-e bus, the only solution i found was to sell the card.
    That's my fear! My budget's all run out so I hope I can get it going. Thanks for sharing though, makes me feel a little better that it isn't just me!

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    Flat cap, Whippets, Cave. Clunk's Avatar
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    you should be able to pick a pci graphics card up for about a fiver.

    like this maybe

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    Quote Originally Posted by Clunk View Post
    you should be able to pick a pci graphics card up for about a fiver.

    like this maybe
    Cheers, I wouldn't be surprised if I had one lying around so will have a root through my boxes.

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    A quick update in case anyone's sitting on the edge of their seat wondering how this turns out..

    I've gone right back to basics to see if the problem can be solved with careful use of drivers. Here's what I managed:

    Windows XP Pro only, No extra drivers, no SP's. Fine with and without monitor
    Windows XP Pro SP2 only No extra drivers - Fine with and without monitor
    Windows XP Pro SP2 plus VIA USB Driver only - Fine with and without monitor

    So, looks to me like it's the Video driver on the driver CD which is causing the problem. Thankfully I don't need andy video output so (fingers crossed) I might have found a solution.

  9. #9
    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra
      • CPU:
      • Intel i9 9900k
      • Memory:
      • 32GB DDR4 3200 CL16
      • Storage:
      • 1TB Samsung 970Evo+ NVMe
      • Graphics card(s):
      • nVidia GTX 1060 6GB
      • PSU:
      • Seasonic 600W
      • Case:
      • Cooler Master HAF 912
      • Operating System:
      • Win 10 Pro x64
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell S2721DGF
      • Internet:
      • rubbish
    Quote Originally Posted by Pealy View Post
    Conflicts show up as exclamations in the My computer->properties->Hardware->Device Manager Right? There's nothing showing up as a problem.
    Actually they don't always - if you go click on the device properties from within the device manager (right click on the device) there is a tab called resources or something - that's where you can see the IRQ etc. and I think conflicts are listed there.

    But if you've fixed it, great

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    Update : Another night of effort and I'm still stumped. The S3G driver and monitor was a red herring. I got it working and disconnected everythying 1 thing at a time and it was fine for a while with no monito, mouse, keyboard, floppy, dvd. It soon went bad again though, my current theory is that it might be a result of removing the power from the pc. Every other time I've done either a restart or ahutdown without turning the power supply off.

    Anyone got any bright ideas?

  11. #11
    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    • kalniel's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra
      • CPU:
      • Intel i9 9900k
      • Memory:
      • 32GB DDR4 3200 CL16
      • Storage:
      • 1TB Samsung 970Evo+ NVMe
      • Graphics card(s):
      • nVidia GTX 1060 6GB
      • PSU:
      • Seasonic 600W
      • Case:
      • Cooler Master HAF 912
      • Operating System:
      • Win 10 Pro x64
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell S2721DGF
      • Internet:
      • rubbish
    I'm starting to think it's time to play with your BIOS. Not sure what options you'll find, but could be something in there. Odd though the power correlation is, it could be related to a duff bios battery, though I don't know how that would cause this problem in particular.

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    Quote Originally Posted by kalniel View Post
    I'm starting to think it's time to play with your BIOS. Not sure what options you'll find, but could be something in there. Odd though the power correlation is, it could be related to a duff bios battery, though I don't know how that would cause this problem in particular.
    Playing with the BIOS is tough work - manuals are never any use at all.

    I think the battery's okay though, it remembers settings when I change them.

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    Update - still not working and almost given up. Via haven't come up with anything useful. They did suggest plugging the soundcard directly into the motherboard instead of using the PCI riser - I got quite excited as this seemed a definite possibility - but it had no effect. I've updated the BIOS and tried everything else. The question is, do I buy a different board or a different sound card? My board options are pretty limited, there aren't too many fanless 1ghz+ boards around. Sound card wise there's a respectable USB device for £60 (the m-audio transit) so I'm erring on this route at the moment.

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    oh yeah - I forgot to mention the painful experience of checking, resetting ane experimenting with virtually every BIOS setting. I did manage to get to a situation where the problem only started to occur after a minute instead of 30 seconds but still no solution.

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    The King of Vague Steve B's Avatar
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    can you disable the on-board sound in the BIOS?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve B View Post
    can you disable the on-board sound in the BIOS?
    Done that, makes no difference. Thanks anayway!

    I'm going to re-post the question as the title is now misleading..

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