Baarod -
I've attached a snapshot of Memory allocation reported by Device Manager after booting with the 3 GB constraint, as you requested.
Dale
P.S.
So you're in Bradley. Close enough to catch Bears' training camp come summer! :)
Same address ranges in use with 3GB. Is the IRQ doing the same thing with and without the memory constraint as well? If not we can hard map that IRQ to the X-Fi in your BIOS rather than letting ACPI do it.
Let's get an .nfo so I can look at the rest of it to make sure -- please run this command: msinfo32 /nfo %userprofile%\desktop\dale.nfo and post the file that appears on your desktop.
Da Bears: Yeah, we can hear them from here. Could have walked through the neighbor's backyard to see them if they wouldn't have put that fence up.
Last edited by baarod; 10 Feb 2009 at 02:40.
The X-Fi is assigned IRQ 19 in both cases. Memory allocation space is the same as well. (Clarification: The memory addresses I posted earlier and the subsequent Device Manager screen captures were both with MSCONFIG limiting RAM to 3072 MB.)
I did a considerable amount of experimentation/testing this morning and found that no matter what RAM I set in MSCONFIG, only 2048 MB RAM is being recognized. Evidently the granularity of RAM control offered by MSCONFIG is limited to blocking/unblocking memory chips. (I have a pair of 2048 MB chips in the first paired slots and a pair of 4096 MB chips in the second paired slots.)
I have attached my system info files captured at both configurations, 6144 MB and limited to 3072 MB (actually 2048 MB). ReadyBoost is enabled in both configurations. The latter configuration has clear, undistorted sound, although I still get momentary drop outs - seemingly any time I initiate an action (e.g., launch an application, open a document in an open application, click on an IE link, etc.).
Thanks again for your help.
Dale
P.S.
What's with the weird IRQ assignment for PCI-to-PCI bridge?
I've tried digging in to this crackling and popping issue with X-Fi cards, the most notable suggestions for trying to resolve this are;
Set the PCI Latency to 96 or greater (in BIOS)
Overclock the PCI bus to 40 MHz instead of 33 MHz (in BIOS)
Unfortunately, it was sad to learn that Creative has not come up with a fix to this issue though it has affected some of it's users for several years now. Makes me have second thoughts on Creative's customer commitment.
NosferatuX -
Thanks for digging. My Phoenix BIOS settings function does not support changes to either setting. Do you know of a utility "safe" to use in Win 7 that will allow me to experiment with these PCI bus settings?
Dale
P.S.
While there is ample evidence that the PCI bus problem exists, it also seems probable that at least the current beta drivers also have a problem when more than 3 GB of RAM is present. In my case, crackling and popping completely subsides when I restrict RAM to 2 GB, in which case the only symptoms of the PCI bus problem are the sound drop outs that occur when I initiate a new process (see above postings).
Last edited by dsopocy; 10 Feb 2009 at 16:22. Reason: Additional info.
Ok. We're pushing the envelope now
There's a software that can let you adjust the PCI bus speeds manually that works in 32 and 64 bit Windows XP but will run in Vista, thus can be run in Windows 7. This is the only software to my knowledge that specializes in these adjustments as most tools adjusts cpu and dram timings. I'd suggest you read up on this and proceed with extreme caution. The software can be downloaded here accompanied with instructions as well.
Adjusting PCI latency to improve sound quality and reduce/eliminate sound distortions are used by musicians to manage multiple interface devices (i.e. midi, amps, musical instruments, etc.)
I tried PCI Latency Tool as you suggested, but Windows 7 is too smart for it. It blocks loading, denying configuration space to the application. This happens even in compatibility mode and with UAC turned off.
My best hope appears to be finding some way to work around the X-Fi's memory management bug within the limitations of the limited configurability of my Phoenix BIOS.
Dale
I'm not sure, but this post by Mark Russinovich to his technical blog may shed some light on this issue. Although it appears to be related to Vista, virtualized files are, I think, the conceptual basis for libraries.....
Mark's Blog : The Case of the Phantom Desktop Files
Dale, please try disabling UAC and running it as administrator. On the issue you're encountering running the latency tool, please give more details so we can make it run on your system.
The reason I went back to this, to date, I've not found any other notable solutions to this "Crackling and Popping" that does not involve PCI Bus adjustments short of changing the Audio Card completely
I'm most willing to see what we can do with this issue of yours
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