Audio problem

I have a C-Media CMI8738/C3DX onboard sound...All the drivers are installed right but when I play MP3s games etc, the is really slow?

Disable your onboard audio in bios, buy a cheap new card, install it. Those onboard cards tend to be a real pain.

Yeah I think your right there.

You mention that something is really slow? Are you talking about the computer or the audio? If it's the computer, you may want to consider upgrading your RAM (it's possible that when you play music and games, it gets very slow because of the amount of resources they use... especially certain audio programs which have some pretty severe memory leaks). If the audio is slow, do you mean that it skips, or that it's simply slowed down? If you gave a little more info about the problem, we may be able to help you resolve it without you having to go out and purchase a new card.

AJ

I have 64meg ram was was enuff befor when I had onboard sound. Games run fine but it's the audio that has slowed down, like when the batterys run out on your walkman and everything slows up.

That's an interesting problem. Do you know when the problems started (or has it always been a problem on this particular computer)? If the problems have been since the start, then I would definately follow Guus's advice and but a cheap PCI sound card and disable the on-board sound. If the problems started at some other point, have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers? Maybe you just need updated drivers (should be able to find them on the site of your motherboard manufacturer). Is it also possible that you have a program running in the background which adds an effect to your sound? I know my sound card has a program with it which allows you to add/create effects (including slowing down the sound) which holds until you change it back to the default settings. Just a few suggestions.

AJ

It's a new mainboard so yeah the problem was from the start. I'll have a play about see what happens. If nothing happens then I'll get a new S/C.

Just ha da thought, would it be to do with that I have only got 38% system resource?

If you've only got 38% system resources, that would be a good bet as to why your audio is "being slow" as you mentioned. You should check to see what programs/apps you have running in the background. If you run too much at the same time, it will cause you to have low system resources as well as making your audio go slow

Delete from Start>Programs>Start Up any link to programs you dont't need loaded on startup, such as online chat clients.

If there are items not there which do appear in your system tray (next to the clock), try opening those programs and hunting a checkbox option to not load on start up.

If there isn't an option and you don't need that program, try Start>Run and type msconfig .
Then click OK, and choose the StartUp Tab. Then uncheck the programs you're sure you don't need to start on startup :)

I'm also using CMI8738 on my old PC running at 64mb SDRAM, but I'm not getting any problem playing MP3s. What MP3 player program do you use? Be specific. So we can help you. You said you only have 38% system resources. You can try Proud's advice.

38% resources!?! REBOOT MAN REBOOT!! Its obvious that your using Windows 9x/ME. Heh, Your system resources should never be allowed to go below 60%, and even that is pushing it. 38%, wow, I don't even think my computer can run on that low of a resource.

I suggest doing what Proud said. Disable all startup items that arn't needed to free up those resources. You should have no less than 72% after a hard boot. If its less than that clean out more. In the msconfig startup tab, if you don't know what it is, don't touch it. But stuff like realaudio, aol, aim, msn messanger, etc... uncheck it. If you see some other stuff in there your not sure of list them here and we can walk you through it.
cheers
x

Oh, yeah, in the StartUp Tab, uncheck loadqm, it's evil M$ crap.

As is M$ Debug Manager (MDM, and also PDM?), but that can be disabled by turning off script debugging in IE's Advanced options :)

xmaddness, does a double...type (©2002 Proud) mean I get double points? ;)

Hmm. AC97 onboard audio is al-la-winmodem, making the CPU do most of the work, right?