Third party Windows audio driver for onboard RealTek audio?

On 11/23/2011 3:58 PM PT, SC Tom typed:

There is no latency that I can detect. I have a couple of tennis games,
and the racquet hits and bounces are synced well. I've run games like
Timeshock! (pinball game employing EAX), Far Cry, Bioshock, and the Call
of Duty series through MW2 with no slowness, latency or un-syncs.

I have it set up for analog output, but it also has an optical
connection. My speaker system doesn't do optical, so I haven't tested it.

Interesting. Do I assume they use power through USB? I am running out of
power outlets and already use too many strips.
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"SC Tom" wrote in message ...

"pjp" wrote in message
...
"Ant" wrote in message
...
On 11/23/2011 2:07 PM PT, Dominique typed:

Ew, an USB external sound device? Isn't that like slow and annoying?

snip

Many musicians and pro/semi-pro recording studios use USB sound
devices,
for example:

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=...=USBinterfaces

Interesting. Wouldn't there be latencies and stuff? USB isn't that fast.

I don't have any USB output sound devices except midi keyboard and
electronic drums which don't exibit latency but then it's not expected
(or for my use required) with midi.

I also have a quality USB studio mic that I love. Excellent for recording
just about anything. That said, if I use the mic as input and give output
to the speakers, there is a slight but noticable lag, e.g. sounds like a
very short echo effect. I'm not sure what's involved in that but seems
obvious there's at least some type of translation going on between the
mic's usb input driver and converting it to analog before sending it to
the sound card for output.


Do you think maybe that's caused by feedback rather than latency in the
mic? That's about the same effect I got from my old (REALLY old) mic
plugged into my amp (no USB involved there).
--
SC Tom



Nope, old geezer here so experienced enough to guard against that and
unlikely when using headphones to listen

"choro" wrote in message
...
On 23/11/2011 21:17, pjp wrote:
"SC Tom" wrote in message ...

"Ant" wrote in message
...
Hello.

Is there a such thing? I seem to be having rare and random (not easy
to reproduce) problems with my current RealTek onboard audio even
with old and newest/latest audio RealTek audio drivers in my updated
Windows (32-bit XP Pro. SP3 and 64-bit 7 HPE). And yes, I tried using a

Thank you in advance.

I had the best luck uninstalling ALL audio drivers, rebooting into
BIOS, and disabling the onboard audio. Save and boot. Then reboot into
BIOS, re-enable the onboard audio, boot up, and install the latest
RealTek/AC'97 drivers. You may have an install problem, pointing to
HDDAUD.SYS or some such program. If so, search for it on you PC- it's
probably already there. Once that's taken care of, the installation
goes pretty smoothly.

That said, I haven't stayed with onboard audio for very long. It has
always been flaky for me, no matter who made the audio chip. It would
be set up for 5.1 SS, and the next thing you know, it's now 2.0 or
2.1. Put it back to 5.1 and it would stay there for a while, but as
soon as I opened a game or something that didn't support 5.1, Windows
(or the audio driver setup) would put the speakers back to stereo and
I would have to manually change them. I had a couple of Creative Labs
external USB cards that worked well, but the newer ones, not so much.
I finally bought a Zalman RM-ZSSC V2 USB card and am very happy with
it. I get great surround sound out of it, and had no problems getting
it to work right out of the box.

http://www.epinions.com/review/Zalma...t_503714057860


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000E3B872/...N=B000E 3B872


I know that's probably not the solution you're looking for, but
barring getting the MB audio drivers to work, that's the route I took
:-)
--
SC Tom



I concur. Onboard sound has always been lacking even on my current 7.1
system. Could not get it to work properly and the driver config program
didn't seem to offer much of anything (actually didn't seem to even have
one). Put in my old AOpen Cobra 850 and viola 5.1 back with both mic and
line inputs also working as expected (under Vista, no driver for 7 )

I've never understood why people need 7.1 sound systems. I certainly have
only two years and not eitht. So a Stereo system with a decent amplifier
and decent speakers is more than adequate for me as opposed to eight run
of the mill or even inferior speakers.

I have to assume you are not a gamer. Nice to hear guy shooting at you is
behind you, nice to hear car coming up on your tail etc. etc. That said, I
also have a pretty nice stereo setup. Relatively old but quality gear (pro
rack mount stuff mostly) through quality speakers. I've found that over time
I do prefer running the "back" speakers also. It's not quad or surround but
it does add the overall room acoustics, e.g. makes more sweet spots in room
among other things.

What I really dislike is "tuned port" style speakers. Seems almost all pc
speakers are this kind of design. I hate the unrealistic "boominess". My own
pc is 5.1 setup using that style woofer. I much prefer running the stereo
line out from a 2nd pc I have into the stereo when listening to music. In
fact, that pc is specifically part of the stereo as it's also used to record
from stereo thru line in connection and it's also part of the tv side of
things as it also has tv-out (for watching avi files etc.) and video capture
(to record vcr tapes, 8mm etc. and what can't be ripped I figured out my
own methods to "stream" to device I want years ago


The sound will reverberate around a room and a good recording can create
that atmosphere which surround sound systems claim to create but do so
only in an artificial sounding way. What I hate most are the bass sounds
that come thumping to you with no definition of pitch.

The bane of modern feature films, surely! My blood boils when I hear such
artificial sounds!
-- choro

"Ant" wrote in message m...
On 11/23/2011 3:58 PM PT, SC Tom typed:

There is no latency that I can detect. I have a couple of tennis games,
and the racquet hits and bounces are synced well. I've run games like
Timeshock! (pinball game employing EAX), Far Cry, Bioshock, and the Call
of Duty series through MW2 with no slowness, latency or un-syncs.

I have it set up for analog output, but it also has an optical
connection. My speaker system doesn't do optical, so I haven't tested it.

Interesting. Do I assume they use power through USB? I am running out of
power outlets and already use too many strips.

Yes, it's USB powered.
--
SC Tom

Ew, an USB external sound device? Isn't that like slow and annoying?

snip

Many musicians and pro/semi-pro recording studios use USB sound devices,
for example:

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=...=USBinterfaces

Interesting. Wouldn't there be latencies and stuff? USB isn't that fast.

Also, how well does heavy multitasking like videos, recordings, computer
gaming, etc.?
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