Realtek AC'97 Audio BSOD

[Knowle]

So to make this story some what short, I installed Windows 7, it kinda hung on installing the creative sound blaster driver so I assumed it was an audio driver issue from the beginning. After a reboot my sound would always make snap crackle pop / static noises and what not. Totally maddening when you watch tons of stuff online / play games / listen to music.

Strange thing whenever I booted into safemode w/ networking my driver for the sound blaster card would always install first thing no problem. Still, tons of static and the like in the background. The main issue, any reboot would give me a bsod to no end unless I booted in safemode, then there was no issue. Disabled different sound cards until I found out it was the Realtek card. Then I checked out the control panel and there was a driver for realtek, sure enough if I uninstalled and rebooted without going into safemode I NEVER got a bsod. Happy days.

Then I thought I had fixed the static issue but so far I have not. I'm using a creative sound blaster audigy 2 zs card. I've installed the latest beta driver for it(when I thought I had fixed it) to no avail. Sorry it ended up being extremely long Sadly, none of this happened in XP, but im blaming it all on the drivers.

 

[limneos]

Have you let windows update search for drivers for your sound card and install them ? This is probably the most compatible drivers you will find right now, and they are proven to solve the static issue too.

If you haven't , uninstall your beta drivers which I don't know where u got them from, and let Windows Update search and find anything. If found, use those.

I'll pray with you.

 

[Knowle]

Well that's were it all started from, it was the drivers from windows update which cause it to bsod on every start up(the realtek ones) the sound blaster drivers give me the distortion no matter if they come from windows update, which made me want to try both stable and then beta drivers from the creative site, all of them give me static no matter what.

 

[Hector]

You still have this static or is it gone once you turned the realtek codec off?
If you do - disable that realtk codec in BIOS, so that it does not even show in the device manager. That's what I always do and having no issues.

 

[Knowle]

I've disabled it from the device manager and I still get static. Haven't tried from BIOS.

 

[Hector]

Can't guarentee that if you do - the static will go but that is the first thing I would try - change BIOS settings:
1) disable AC97 and see if that helps
2) if it does not, mess around with PCI latency timer setting - try different values. I think by default PCI latency timer is set to 32 cycles meaning a PCI sound card can hold the bus for 32 clock cycles. Try increasing this to 64 or even 128. This might have an adverse effect as well - hard to say , as every system is different in this regard. Bad stock value for PCI latency timer is often the root of static-like audio issues on any OS. Anyway you can always revert to the original settings if needed. Hope this helps.

 

[Hacksaw]

Was there a resolution to this issue? I disabled the AC97 in bios, checked for updated drivers, etc. but I am still getting static.

Let me now if it was magically solved.

Hacksaw.