Voltmodding Audigy2zs?

[trodas]

The question is - anyone did it?

I probably hear you - WTF? WHY? Well, because of the damn audio-clicks and pops that arise and are getting worser each time my machine get faster... And because I can't get over 200Mhz FSB w/o audio issues (not stability issues, can bench before O/C mod at 242, now probably higher...)

Let me explain it better - for more that a year I trying to get my FSB up from 200Mhz, witch cause only minor problems - using AC3 filter and quickly pausing/unpausing volume in AC3/DTS movie (any player) mostly end of hearing noise from all 5.1 channels. Terrible, is not it? And sometimes BF2 come up with noise cracking and stuff. When I changed the alpha timings from 9-12 to 7-12 -> it get far, far worser. Not only "sometimes" then, but mostly and not few cracks, but many audio crack.
At least the timings obviously made things faster and that is only 200Mz FSB.

I tried to nail the problem for realy long time and used the knowledge and help from many famous overclockers and clever guys - as you can see, I almost hijacked the nForce2 tweaker thread there:
http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/show...7&page=5&pp=15
...and despite attempts like:
a) choosing the not shared PCI slot (second on bottom on DFI LP B mobo)
b) increasing the PCI latency (32 - 64, 96 - 160 = no help)
c) tweaking with the CPU disconnect, P2P-EXT settings and such
d) adding a aditional grounding from the mosfet to the MOBO
...I was not able to fix the issue.

I tought that X-Fi might fix things, but no - hell, in fact, I just stumbled upon a whole bunch of guys, who pay almost 300$ for X-Fi Fatality card to get same problems with noise and poping I have! This is a cold shower for me, as it looks like these problem's aint "trodas specific", but more "creative specific" ...

It is also wonderfull to see, that they believe that drivers fix it:

http://forums.creative.com/creative...scending&page=1

What now?


So I think that I should do what any extreme user will do - add a heatsink on the main Audigy2zs chip and tweak a little the card voltage regulators to supply a LITTLE more voltage to the chip - and pray that this will help.

Anyone did it before??? Any other solutions I possibly overlooked???

[zabomb4163]

use a noncreative sound card. better SQ.

[trodas]

Could be a solution, but the damn creative suxxkas are supported extremly well in games, have EAX surround sound that really make you believe you are in the middle of the action and futhermore:
a) Battlefield 2 have even a X-Fi option!
b) Creative cards show the least CPU utialization
...not to mention X-Fi got 64MB of audio buffer, so this limit the number of data, going throught the bus significately

After all, even with the issues, it looks like... Creative crap was won? (something like M$ tough... )

Anyway, your recommendation for soundcard is?

[Jochenp]

Mine would be hercules

[trodas]

And what is the link to the card?

All I can say for "Hercules" is, that there was at some time a graphic card maker with the same name, hehe

[zabomb4163]

try the mytique. its by far the best sound card on the market

[Jochenp]

Hercules made freaking awesome graphic cards ,I have a 8500 AIW of hercules lying around here, but they stopped that market because there was too much concurention.

[Plague_oc]

do you know if this is by any chance mobo specific? i might be picking one up soon

[BugsBMD]

I have had my fsb at 2x200+ for along time now and have had no problems. Great sound card. I have also used more then one sound card. I have a Audigy 2 ZS. Are you sure that it is your sound card is not bad or it is another problem?

[trodas]

Guys, I, of course, I would like more FSB, however my soundcard produce then quirks and stuff, so I better stay at 200Mhz. Audio cracks aren't anything I want to hear...

And as you can read in my first post, there is a whole lot of user complaining in Creative forum about the very same problem
And since most users run DFI mobos way past 200Mhz, then it can't be a mobo problem

Some fellas says that fixed the issue by softmodding Audigy2zs to Audigy4, but Im a bit affraid and also I don't know what they do it - flash mod could be kick-ass, mainly if it allow me to get rid of the FireWire I did not want in my system at all

Anyone know?

Other than that, I considering the X-Fi, mainly for the buffer and the nice drive bay, but hell, it cost 280$ bucks (I can imagine better spendt bucks...) and it did not yet get sold in there, so unless someone is willing to help me, then I stay at 200x12.5 - it is not slow at all