It7Max2 v2 Audio static during hard drive transfers?

[worthless]

Just got my It7max 2 v2 on Monday, seems to be a great board so far except for one oddity... Any sound playing (mp3, wav, system wav) during heavy disc activity will exhibit major static. For example if I'm listening to mp3s and I start unraring a large file, or if I'm transfering large files between discs and an ICQ message comes in... static.

It does not appear to be related to my sound card (sb audigy), or the pci slot it's in, because I get the same problem with my mpg decoder card, the sound output gets staticy and video stutters during disk activity. It does not appear to be disc specific, as I have 3 hard drives (not in any raid config) and the problem occured using all combinations of drive to drive transfers, and even occured (though not as bad) when copying a file to the same drive.

I flashed to the most recent CF bios, that didn't fix it.

I read about a similar problem with other boards using highpoint 374 raid controllers, and apparently those problems were fixed with newer highpoint bios/driver releases... so I updated my highpoint drivers to v1.23, still not fixed. I then modded the it7max2 CF bios to include the new highpoint 374 v3.01 bios, and upgraded my drivers to the new 3.01 drivers... still no fix!

starting to get really frustrated here... anyone have any advice/insight?

Here is my current system config

antec 400w ps
it7max2 v2 CF bios (modded for hpt374.301 bios)
p4 2.66ghz (running at stock until I get this problem sorted)
thermalright ax-478 w/ thermaltake smart case fan II
1gb (2 dimms) corsair xms pc3200c2 (running at 178mhz cas2.5 till I get this problem sorted)
hercules gf3
soundblaster audigy
RealMagic Hollywood+ dvd/mpg decoder card
plextor cdrw on primary ide (master)
pioneer dvdrw on primary ide (slave)
secondary ide empty
Maxtor 60gb ata 133 drive on highpoint parallel ide port
Western Digital 120gb special ed on highpoint sata 1 (using soyo serial ata adapter kit)
Maxtor 60gb ata 133 drive on highpoint sata 2 (using including abit serillel adapter)
usb mouse
usb keyboard
onboard nic enabled
onboard sound disabled

freshly installed win2k sp3 with most recent drivers for all hardware. IAA installed. Motherboard inf file installed...

am I forgetting anything?

Thanks,
~worthless

[Creative]

When I move my raddy around i get static thru my headphones and even sometimes when not even touchng raddy....:(

Its making static sounds now....yerp onboard sound with IT7 MAX2 rev2 using 3.34 sound driver :)

PS
also now when i use the scroll whell on my mouse it comes too...kinda like a hissy static sound.....but it is over run by music when put winamp one....its only when no sound.....wierd....:confused:

[worthless]

Hmm, weird. I get no static at all until a sound plays. Are you using SATA adapters too? I'm wondering if that's the cause, never had this problem before on any other highpoint chipsets.

[Mentaly]

Hi

Is your Audigy in pcislot 3 if not try it, try taking your hd`s of the sata and over on the normal ports. I also have Audigy but get no sounds under heavy disk activity.


Menty

[worthless]

The audigy is in pci 2 right now. Is there a specific reason why pci 3 should be used?

I'll try swapping it out when i get a chance, but I dunno if it will help because my mpg decoder card (with a seperate audio out) is on pci 3 now, and I get the same problem when playing sound through that.

I'll try running only the hard drive on the parallel raid, if the problem continues I'll try running only a hard drive on the standard ide. I'll report back what I find.

[Creative]

Yep Im using SATA Adapters. Maybe I should try without them?

The board is going in about 5 hours so might just leave it :D

[worthless]

Well, I tried just about everything I could think of... after countless hours of searching forums and FAQs, here are a few things that *might* solve some other peoples problems, but did not solve mine...

Highpoint drivers - I read that the highpoint 1.2x series of drivers were causing audio crackling issues for some people. The 3.0x bios/drivers cleared that up. Unfortunately it didn't help me.

Soundblaster drivers - If you installed the drivers off the original cd, you were OK, but when you install the drivers off the web, a few extra programs are run at startup CTHelper, Jet Detection, and some Update Registry exe. CTHelper I guess is notorious for causing problems with some chipsets, I already had those programs disabled anyway, so that wasn't the case for me.

ACPI - Of course, we've all probably been through the ACPI compatibility issues before, I thought I would be over them by now considering all my hardware is pretty new. I uninstalled ACPI and installed the standard PC drivers instead, didn't help anything, so I went back to ACPI.

Finally I disconnected both the drives on my SerialATA connectors, the audio problem was gone. I have two different kinds of SATA adapters, the highpoint one that comes standard with the IT7-Max2 and a Soyo adapter that I bought seperately. As soon as I plugged a drive in to either serialATA port, using either serialATA adapter, the problems came back. I put both the drives on the parallel controllers and my system is working fine now.

So that narrows the problem down to either the SerialATA ports themselves, or to the adapters. Guess the technology just isn't quite ready yet... either that or my board could be bad, but since the parallel half of the highpoint controller is working just fine, I'd think it's the adapters...

Hope this helps someone. Kinda bummed that my case is full of ribbon cables again... Those SATA cables help me keep everything so nice and tidy :P