Re: VIA Envy24PT sound card driver loads at startup properly 9 of 10 times
- From: Paul <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:27:41 -0400
John Smith wrote:
Windows XP Home Edition SP3 With all the latest MS updates and hardware driver updates including the latest and correct driver for the sound card.
Onboard sound chip is disabled in BIOS and the driver for it is not installed.
The sound card, Chaintech, Envy24 Family Audio Controller WDM, is installed/seated properly and uses the (virtual) IRQ 16 exclusively. (It shares an I/0 port with the standard PCI-to-PCI bridge)
Every now and then when my computer boots into Windows and the sound driver loads I hear the normal "pop" of the speakers then a jarring squeal or tone, sometimes very high-pitched, sometimes its medium pitched, but I have to shutdown and restart the computer. Or, I can uninstall the driver in device manager and reinstall it if Windows doesn't do it automatically, and that stops the squealing noise as well. This has continued to occur since I puchased the card over a year ago, and, after two reinstallations of this Windows OS.
All the drivers that load for this device are signed for MS Windows Hardware Compatibility and no conflicts are shown in device manager, system information, or in DirectX diagnostic tool.
Any ideas about what might be causing this or heard of similiar experiences?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=29-120-103&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=100
"Icky drivers. I mean really icky.
DO NOT LET WINDOWS AUTO INSTALL THIS CARD. If you do uninstall and reinstall
the 4.37b drivers."
"This can be remedied, as can the 'squeal of death' by disabling/enabling
the Envy 24 in Device Manager, but it's just another hassle that makes
this card not worth the trouble for me."
"The newer cards at first boot sometimes give off a high pitched squeal
or the sound is weak and echoed, cured by a warm reset, might be a newer
driver issue, who knows."
"Also, it seems that some time in mid-May these cards started getting problems
with squealing. Before then seems to be good."
"On about 1/3 of bootups, card comes on with continuous ~5 kHz squeal or
distorted sound."
"The new sound card worked but I had a very annoying squealing sound that
popped up occasionally. I uninstalled through the Device Manager and
reinstalled with drivers from the VIA Arena (thanks to my fellow NewEggers)
and it works well now." <----- ???
Apparently Viaarena has a download.
If you look at the main chip on your AV-710, it might have printed on
it -- VT1721 Envy24HT-S. The HT-S should help you select a driver from
the Viaarena audio drivers. There is a picture here, of another Envy24
based card with closeups, to give you an idea what is printed on it.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/6254/2
The design is a distributed one. The main chip is basically a DMA
engine. The audio is actually handled by external chips. An AC-97
sound chip is used for part of the function. But the main chip also has
I2S capability, and I2S is a serial interface that connects to things like
the Wolfson DAC. It is the choice of those external chips, that
determines how good a sound card it is. But a botched initialization
of the external chips, could ruin things. (And in a sense, as
far as the AC-97 chip goes, that makes it not much different than
an AC-97 chip soldered to a motherboard.)
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/audio/controllers/envy24ht-s/
Audio circuits have output loading limits. For example, devices like
the Wolfson can have very high output impedances, and should be
buffered before being connected to other circuits. The buffer
adds noise, which is why the signal is not buffered in the first
place. Some enthusiast sound cards, leave 8 pin sockets, so that
users can purchase and plug in, better quality opamps.
Now, if an opamp is used, and the opamp is loaded too heavily,
it can degrade the phase margin of the opamp, causing it to
oscillate.
I have a feeling the "pop" and the oscillation, could both be
side effects of an improperly designed sound solution. It'll be
interesting to see whether a driver change can do anything
about it - the problem may occur earlier than a driver is
installed, and have something to do with what the main chip
does to the external chips.
I suspect there is a lot written about Envy24 out there,
so you may find more interesting tidbits if you keep
looking.
HTH,
Paul
.
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