Optimizing your System for Better Sound Performance
Keywords / Key Phrases: optimized, better sound, dropouts, performance, tweaked, acceleration, ACPI, sound card, Sound Blaster

When a PC is optimized ("tweaked") for a specific task, it may impact performance of other tasks. There is simply not enough left for your sound card to do its job as it should.

The following guide is separated into the following main sections. If changing one specific setting does not resolve the difficulty, it is recommended that you change it back to the previous setting, or the default setting, before proceeding with a different configuration to minimize any other conflicts.

A. General Troubleshooting Steps:

• Ensure your Sound Blaster card is installed in a PCI or PCI Express slot as far away as possible from components such as graphics card, CPU and hard drives.
• Ensure that the card slot does not share resources with other devices in your PC (mainly graphics card, drive interfaces, etc...)
• Remove all unnecessary and rarely used hardware. Every device installed in your system uses some of the available resources, even if you do not actively use it.
• Tidy up all cables inside your computer as electrical interference may be caused otherwise.
• Ensure that audio drivers are up to date.
• Download and install the latest chipset drivers and BIOS update for your computer. The major chipset manufactures are: VIA/ETEQ, AMD/Nvidia, Intel, SIS. Ali
  
  Note: If you have a motherboard with a hybrid chipset consisting of AMD Northbridge and VIA Southbridge, ensure you download the latest driver package from your motherboard manufacturer.

B. Toggle the DMA Access for your Drives:

Note: Direct Memory Access (DMA) is usually turned on by default for devices such as hard disks and CD or DVD drives that support DMA. However, a manual selection is needed as this option will not be turned on by default if the device was improperly installed or if a system error occurred. Follow the steps below to enable DMA:

Note: You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.

Windows 98SE/ME:

1. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel then double-click System
2. Select Device Manager
3. Double-click the Generic IDE Disc Type (xx) entry found under Disc Drives and click Settings
4. Check the box next to the DMA (Direct Memory Access), then click on OK

Windows 2000/XP:

1. Click on Start >(Settings) > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager.
2. Click on View and select Devices by connection. This allows you check which IDE controller the Hard drive(s) is (are) connected to.
3. Locate your Hard drive(s) and double click it (them) to open its (their) property-sheet(s).
4. This allows you to find which drive is connected as Device 0 or Device 1.
5. Right-click on the IDE Channel to which the drive is connected (in our example "Primary IDE Channel"), select Properties and Advanced Settings.
6. Click on the Transfer Mode drop-down menu shown under the device number that represents the location of your drive. Select DMA If Available.

In addition, be sure to verify that the Hard Disk Controller properties in Device Manager match that in system BIOS, especially if your motherboard and its chip sets are dated prior to the release of Windows XP.

Windows Vista:

1. Open Device Manager by clicking the Start button, click Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Device Manager. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
2. In the left pane, click the plus sign next to IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers to expand it.
3. For each icon that has the word Channel as part of its label, right-click the icon, and then click Properties.
4. Click the Advanced Settings tab, and then, under Device Properties, select the Enable DMA check box.
5. Click OK

C. Reduce the Hardware Acceleration of a Graphics Card:

Windows 9X

1. Right-click on My Computer
2. Choose Properties > Performance > Graphics.
3. Move the slider for Hardware Acceleration down 1 notch.
4. Restart the system; if necessary, repeat procedure.

Windows XP/2000:

1. Right-click on your desktop
2. Choose Properties > Settings > Advanced > Troubleshoot.
3. Move the slider for Hardware Acceleration down 1 notch.
4. Restart the system; if necessary, repeat procedure.

Windows Vista:

1. Right-click the Windows desktop and choose Personalize.
2. Click Display Settings.
3. In the Display Settings dialog box, click Advanced Settings...
4. On the resulting dialog box, click the Troubleshoot tab.
5. Click Change Settings
6. You'll probably see a User Account Control message box asking for permission to continue. Click Continue
7. On the resulting Display Adapter Troubleshooter dialog box, move the slider 1 notch to the left.
8. Click OK as many times as needed/close any windows that opened along the way, and return to the Windows desktop.

Note: Changing the hardware acceleration in Vista depends on your Video Driver Capabilities. If the option to adjust the setting is unavailable, please check with you graphics card manufacturer.

D. Change the Resources for SB 16 Emulation / Legacy Device:

Under Windows 9X, PCI Sound Blaster cards take two Interrupt requests (IRQ): One for the SB 16 Emulation / Legacy Device and one for the PCI Sound Blaster itself.

Normally, the SB 16 Emulation / Legacy Device defaults to IRQ 5, 7 or even 9 whereas the Sound Blaster usually uses IRQ 9, 10 or 11, or whatever is assigned to it.

Occasionally this allocation may be reversed (e.g.: when running Windows 98 with motherboards based on the VIA MVP3 Chipset which may not have the appropriate IRQ Routing Mini port Driver installed), or both devices may be allocated the same IRQ. This sometimes causes sound problems or may result in a malfunction of the SB 16 Emulation / Legacy Device.

To check the IRQ allocation:

1. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Device Manager.
2. Click on the Computer icon (the first icon in the list) in Device Manager to view the resource allocation for all your devices.

   If the SB 16 Emulation / Legacy Device either shares an IRQ with another device or takes an IRQ higher than the one used by the Sound Blaster, try to install the latest Chipset drivers (specifically the IRQ Routing Mini port Driver when using older VIA Chip sets).

3. In Device Manager select Creative Miscellaneous Devices > SB 16 Emulation(or Sound, video and game controllers) > Legacy Device (depending on the card you have).
4. Select this entry and click Properties.
5. Click the Settings tab and select LPT Interrupt Sharing.

   This allows SB 16 Emulation / Legacy Device to use the same interrupt as the Printer Port (Parallel Port, IRQ 7), which does not state a problem, as there hardly will be a situation where the Parallel Port and the SB 16 Emulation / Legacy Device are used simultaneously.

E. Changing/disabling ACPI Configurations in Windows 2000/XP

Note: We recommend you to check with the motherboard manufacturer for more information about performing these steps.

Windows XP:

1. Disable ACPI automatically
2. With ACPI disabled in the BIOS, reinstall Windows over the original installation
3. Disable ACPI manually
4. Copy the install CD to your hard drive
5. Edit the Txtsetup.sif file to change the ACPI Enable value to 0.
6. Save the file, and then rerun the installation

Windows 2000:

1. Disable ACPI automatically
2. With ACPI disabled in the BIOS, reinstall Windows over the original installation
3. Disable ACPI manually
4. Start Windows 2000 Setup as an upgrade.
5. Press F7 when Setup generates the following informational message: "Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver".
6. Choose the correct HAL for your system from the provided list
   • MPS Multiprocessor PC
   • MPS Uniprocessor PC
   • Standard PC

Note: You do not receive a visual indicator that auto detection is taking place when you press F7; nonetheless, please proceed normally with setup until it is completed.

F. BIOS settings

The following suggestions require you to access the system BIOS SETUP. Please contact your system vendor, or motherboard manufacturer for assistance in accessing the BIOS SETUP page.

There are several tools available to determine the motherboard manufacturer. Some of these tools are located at http://www.motherboards.org There is an option labeled MOBO TOOLS that will provide you with several options.

On a BIOS level, ensure all unused on-board devices are deactivated. This usually includes, but not restricted to devices like:

• Serial Ports
• Parallel Port
• Onboard Sound
• Onboard Game port
• Onboard Graphics

Note: Do not deactivate devices you require for the system to function properly (e.g. do not turn off your onboard graphics if this is the only display adapter you have in your system).

The following is a checklist of settings that may need to be modified, accompanied with explanations to some of them.

Your system BIOS may have all, some, or none of the following options. These options may be spread throughout different portions of the BIOS.

Enable or Answer YES to the following settings	Disable or answer NO to the following settings
PCI Streaming	Virus Warning or Boot Virus Detection
PCI 2.1 Compliance	VGA Palette Snoop (must be left disabled)
PCI (Dynamic) Bursting	Video BIOS Shadowing
Bus Mastering for PCI Slot	Video BIOS Cacheable
	System BIOS Cacheable
	Video RAM BIOS Cacheable
	Primary or System Frame Buffer
	VGA Frame Buffer
	Power Management
	Write cache pipelining
	PnP Aware OS or PnP OS Installed (Toggle)
	Peer Concurrency

• System Performance:
  Collective setting that sets a number of values to influence the systems performance (possible settings: "Turbo", "Fast", "Optimal", "Normal", etc. The naming depends on the BIOS version/motherboard manufacturer. If unclear, contact motherboard manufacturer for more information).
  
  
• VGA Shared Memory Size:
  Applicable if the motherboards onboard graphics adapter is active. Instead of having dedicated graphics RAM, some onboard VGA solutions require you to reserve a certain amount of the systems main memory.
  
  Increasing the memory set aside for the onboard graphics adapter can help reduce traffic on the system.
  
  Note: Ensure not to reserve too much of your system RAM, as this might result in a system-wide slowdown.
  
  
• AGP Aperture Size (MB):
  It defines how much of your system's memory is to be used as a data buffer for your AGP graphics card. The default setting should be half the system's RAM, however, certain cards work better with specific settings (e.g.: 128 MB despite having 512 MB in the system).
  
  
• Peer Concurrency:
  This setting defines if multiple PCI devices can access the PCI BUS simultaneously. Set this to "Disable" if you are unsure whether all PCI devices in your system support this option.
  
  Note: disabling Peer Concurrency may prevent IRQ being assigned to certain devices, and it can cause difficulties within Windows 2000 and XP if one of the several ACPI Hardware Abstraction Layers (HAL) is installed.This can cause Windows 2000 and XP to re detect the hardware.
  
  
• PCI 2.1 Support:
  All Creative PCI sound cards adhere to PCI 2.1 or later specifications. This setting must be enabled for your Sound Blaster card to function properly.
  
  Note: Some BIOS's might have various options for this setting (e.g.: 2.0, 2.1, 2.2).
  
  
• Spread Spectrum Control:
  This setting reduces Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI) by slightly modulating the master clock of your motherboard. Audio glitches might occur on some systems if this setting is enabled.
  
  
• PCI Latency Timer:
  The PCI Latency Timer is a mechanism that helps PCI bus-mastering capable devices to share the PCI bus.
  
  Each PCI device able to operate in bus-master mode is required to implement a timer, called the Latency Timer, that limits the time the device can hold the PCI bus.
  
  The timer starts when the device gains bus ownership, and counts down at the rate of the PCI clock. When the counter reaches zero, the device is required to release the bus. If no other devices are waiting for bus ownership, it may simply grab the bus again and transfer more data.
  
  If the latency timer is set too low, PCI devices will interrupt their transfers unnecessarily often, hurting performance. If it's set too high, devices that require frequent bus access may overflow their buffers, losing data.
  
  Experiment with this value. A good starting point would be 32 (often the default found in many systems BIOS's). Once the PCI Latency Timer has been changed, the new settings have to be saved and the PC needs to boot back into the Operating System. If this doesn't lead to the desired result, repeat the procedure.
  
  
• Memory Hole:
  This setting needs to be disabled unless you have a device that requires a 1 MB area assigned to it.
  
  
• AGP Fast Writes:
  Allows the graphics chip to communicate with the chipset / CPU directly. Enable this setting if your graphics card as well as your motherboard support this.
  
  
• Update the system's BIOS:
  It is advisable to update the BIOS of your system, if none of the above steps solve the problem.