blips in sound

I have my 98SE installed on a reasonably new system (well, a few years ago;
it's a 2.x GHz Celeron-bases ASUS board, one with some sort of
BIOS-interface controlling chip that can only be driven from IIRR Windows 2k
or later - but seems to work fine without needing that).

It has always and continues to work reasonably well, with one exception:

the sound has little blips in it - short gaps, at (I think) about two a
second. It's amazing how many types of music (certainly virtually all
speech) this isn't noticeable in, but obviously it is noticeable in anything
with long notes. It has been that way since original install - I've just
never bothered to try too hard to fix it, since I don't use this PC as my
main one for listening to sounds. It's only noticeable when sound is
actually playing - i. e. there are no (noticeable, anyway; I don't have
hi-fi speakers or a fancy soundcard - it's whatever came integrated into the
motherboard) audible blips when no sound is being played.

It is something fairly low-level, in that the blips are audible when I'm
listening to an external sound source (e. g. my [analogue!] radio tuner)
connected in through the sound "card".

I've tried the latest (98-compatible, obviously) drivers for the sound
chipset (as well as the ones that were on the CD that came with the mobo -
despite the BIOS chip [called something like Guru? I can't remember], the CD
has 98 versions), and I think I've tried one or two other versions too.

Any ideas? As I say, it's often not noticeable, and I'm not too bothered,
but obviously it would be nice to fix it if anyone recognises it as a known
problem, and it suddenly occurred to me (I don't know why not until now,
after several years!) that this 'group might well know the answer.
--
J. P. Gilliver | Tel.: +44 (0)1634 203298

Essex home for sale, c. £70k: see http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/home/

"J. P. Gilliver" wrote in message
...

I have my 98SE installed on a reasonably new system (well, a few years
ago;
it's a 2.x GHz Celeron-bases ASUS board, one with some sort of
BIOS-interface controlling chip that can only be driven from IIRR Windows
2k . . .
the sound has little blips in it - short gaps, at (I think) about two a
second. It's amazing how many types of music (certainly virtually all
speech) this isn't noticeable in, but obviously it is noticeable in
anything
with long notes. It has been that way since original install -

One possible test is to instal another audio card and
see whether this also produces intermittent sound.
This requires beforehand entering the BIOS menu to disable
ASUS's Sound-on-Board circuitry (which we assume
is present.) I suspect ASUS SoB as prone to malfunction.
(In my ASUS P8 it failed totally after 18 months use.)

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Don Phillipson wrote:
"J. P. Gilliver" wrote in message
...
[]
One possible test is to instal another audio card and
see whether this also produces intermittent sound.

Hmm, yes, I could do that - I've got some old cards around, I think. (Though
I'm not sure if I've got any PCI - this modernish mobo certainly won't have
any ISA slots!) I had _hoped_ someone might have an easier suggestion, but I
hadn't thought of doing that.

This requires beforehand entering the BIOS menu to disable
ASUS's Sound-on-Board circuitry (which we assume

Yes, that's what I'm using.

is present.) I suspect ASUS SoB as prone to malfunction.
(In my ASUS P8 it failed totally after 18 months use.)

Interesting. I've always thought of Asus (and Abit) as among the better
quality mobos, but maybe the sound circuitry, being such a trivial matter
these days, isn't up to the rest of their board.
--
J. P. Gilliver | Tel.: 01634 203298

Essex home for sale, c. £70k: see http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/home/

As the processor ought to be more than fast enough to produce uninterrupted
audio, the blips are probably caused by an interrupt that is taking an
unusually long time to be serviced. It would be difficult to locate the
source of the problem, other than, possibly, disabling options and features
and devices and seeing if the problem changes or goes away.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"J. P. Gilliver" wrote in message
...
I have my 98SE installed on a reasonably new system (well, a few years ago;
it's a 2.x GHz Celeron-bases ASUS board, one with some sort of
BIOS-interface controlling chip that can only be driven from IIRR Windows
2k or later - but seems to work fine without needing that).

It has always and continues to work reasonably well, with one exception:

the sound has little blips in it - short gaps, at (I think) about two a
second. It's amazing how many types of music (certainly virtually all
speech) this isn't noticeable in, but obviously it is noticeable in
anything with long notes. It has been that way since original install -
I've just never bothered to try too hard to fix it, since I don't use this
PC as my main one for listening to sounds. It's only noticeable when sound
is actually playing - i. e. there are no (noticeable, anyway; I don't have
hi-fi speakers or a fancy soundcard - it's whatever came integrated into
the motherboard) audible blips when no sound is being played.

It is something fairly low-level, in that the blips are audible when I'm
listening to an external sound source (e. g. my [analogue!] radio tuner)
connected in through the sound "card".

I've tried the latest (98-compatible, obviously) drivers for the sound
chipset (as well as the ones that were on the CD that came with the mobo -
despite the BIOS chip [called something like Guru? I can't remember], the
CD has 98 versions), and I think I've tried one or two other versions too.

Any ideas? As I say, it's often not noticeable, and I'm not too bothered,
but obviously it would be nice to fix it if anyone recognises it as a
known problem, and it suddenly occurred to me (I don't know why not until
now, after several years!) that this 'group might well know the answer.
--
J. P. Gilliver | Tel.: +44 (0)1634 203298

Essex home for sale, c. £70k: see http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/home/

Jeff Richards wrote:
As the processor ought to be more than fast enough to produce

Yes, I figured that.

uninterrupted audio, the blips are probably caused by an interrupt
that is taking an unusually long time to be serviced. It would be

I guessed it was something like that ...

difficult to locate the source of the problem, other than, possibly,
disabling options and features and devices and seeing if the problem
changes or goes away.
[]
.... I suppose I was just hoping someone might have an easy way of doing that
(-:
--
J. P. Gilliver | Tel.: 01634 203298

Essex home for sale, c. £66k: see http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/home/