Genius Sound Maker Value 5.1 Crackling Sound

Hello,
I upgraded my Win XP to Win 7 like 1 month ago.
Downloaded all drivers (from their sites) updated them... then i open WMP 11 and start playing some music. After listening to that i heard some weird sound lag, I believe its called crackling. I searched on internet found some solutions, but none worked and none was for mine sound card.
This wasn't happening on Win XP.
Oh and if i have older version of driver it works way batter (only hear crackling when my cpu goes up to 1000MB (100%) ), but then my Microphone goes really quiet like I disabled microphone boost.


Hope you understand my problem.


Here Two Pictures from two programs (DPC Latency Checker V1.3.0 and LatencyMon), while playing music.
The results are pretty much the same




SYSTEM SPECS (My PC is old):

Code:

"Windows","Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (Build 7600)"
"Internet Explorer","9.0.8112.16421"
"Memory (RAM)","1023 MB"
"CPU Info","Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz"
"CPU Speed","2802,0 MHz"
"Sound Card","Speakers (C-Media PCI Audio Dev)"
"Display Adapters","NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 | NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 | RDPDD Chained DD | RDP Encoder Mirror Driver | RDP Reflector Display Driver"
"Monitors","1x; Generic PnP Monitor | "
"Screen Resolution","1024 X 768 - 32 bit"
"Network","Network Present"
"Network Adapters","VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter | Hamachi Network Interface"
"CD / DVD Drives","2x (D: | E: | ) D: _NEC    DVD_RW ND-2500A  | E: DTSOFT  BDROM"
"Ports","COM1 LPT1"
"Mouse","5 Button Wheel Mouse Present"
"Hard Disks","C:  149,0GB"
"Hard Disks - Free","C:  71,0GB"
"USB Controllers","5 host controllers."
"Firewire (1394)","Not Detected"
"Manufacturer *","Phoenix Technologies, LTD"
"Product Make *"," "
"AC Power Status","OnLine"
"BIOS Info","AT/AT COMPATIBLE | 06/08/06 | ACRSYS - 42302e31"
"Time Zone","Srednjeevropski standardni čas"
"Battery Status","No Battery"
"Motherboard *","P4M800CE-8237"
"SM BIOS","6.00 PG"

Help pls, its really annoying

I can only guess, but you do not have much RAM for a Windows 7 system.

Does it make a difference as to the type of audio file being played?

Have you run the DirectX audio test? (dxdiag-also has a 64 bit test included)

Yeah, 1Gb of RAM is barely enough for Windows 7 itself to run in, let alone any applications. This forces Windows to constantly bang on the Page File, which is located on the very slow (compared to RAM) hard drive. This could very well be your problem.

My minimum recommendations for Windows 7 is 3Gb for triple channel motherboards and 4Gb for dual and single channel. Your's is most likely dual or single. But note even 1 more Gb will be a big improvement. Here is my canned text on RAM wizards:

These popular RAM makers have auto-scanning and/or manual entry RAM wizards to help you determine which RAM is compatible with your motherboard. For manual entry, enter/select the PC or motherboard make and model number and the wizard will list compatible RAM.

Crucial - Memory Advisor
Corsair - Memory Finder (manual data entry only)
GeIL - Memory Configurator (manual data entry only)
Kingston - Memory Search (manual data entry only)
Mushkin - Advisor
OCZ - Memory Configurator (manual data entry only)
Patriot - Memory Search (manual data entry only)
PNY - Memory Configurator (manual data entry only)
SuperTalent - Memory Finder (manual data entry only)

The following retailers have auto-scanners and manual wizards. They sell brand name and/or "house" brand (re-branded) RAM.

Newegg - Memory Configurator System Tool
MemoryStock - Upgrade Configurator
18004Memory – Configurator
4AllMemory - Memory advisor (automatic and manual)
TigerDirect - Memory Configurator (manual data entry only)

You also need to make sure you installed Windows 7 drivers for all your hardware, including your sound device. Since this is old hardware, Windows 7 drivers may not even be available. In that case, you can often use Vista drivers.

Originally Posted by Digerati

Yeah, 1Gb of RAM is barely enough for Windows 7 itself to run in, let alone any applications. This forces Windows to constantly bang on the Page File, which is located on the very slow (compared to RAM) hard drive. This could very well be your problem.

My minimum recommendations for Windows 7 is 3Gb for triple channel motherboards and 4Gb for dual and single channel. Your's is most likely dual or single. But note even 1 more Gb will be a big improvement. Here is my canned text on RAM wizards:

These popular RAM makers have auto-scanning and/or manual entry RAM wizards to help you determine which RAM is compatible with your motherboard. For manual entry, enter/select the PC or motherboard make and model number and the wizard will list compatible RAM.

Crucial - Memory Advisor
Corsair - Memory Finder (manual data entry only)
GeIL - Memory Configurator (manual data entry only)
Kingston - Memory Search (manual data entry only)
Mushkin - Advisor
OCZ - Memory Configurator (manual data entry only)
Patriot - Memory Search (manual data entry only)
PNY - Memory Configurator (manual data entry only)
SuperTalent - Memory Finder (manual data entry only)

The following retailers have auto-scanners and manual wizards. They sell brand name and/or "house" brand (re-branded) RAM.

Newegg - Memory Configurator System Tool
MemoryStock - Upgrade Configurator
18004Memory – Configurator
4AllMemory - Memory advisor (automatic and manual)
TigerDirect - Memory Configurator (manual data entry only)

You also need to make sure you installed Windows 7 drivers for all your hardware, including your sound device. Since this is old hardware, Windows 7 drivers may not even be available. In that case, you can often use Vista drivers.

I have win 7 Drivers from Genius page. Is Audio using much ram? Cuz i can run these two games Cod 2 and Css on High Graphic with no lag.

Well why does it works ok on version of 5.12.1.8? I also looked in the sound control panel (C-Media PCI Audio Xear 3D) and there's no Microphone listed when i look in Mixer. Maibe driver cannot detect my microphone?

Heh, it was driver after all... Genius Sound Maker 5.1 worked for Win XP but not for 7. Downloaded other driver (it was listed on my sound card, Genius Sound Maker 5.1 was also...) Downloaded other one and it works.. but still its a bit lower quality but i have a old sound card so what can i expect...

I am glad you got it resolved - at least the crackling.

If you go to the control panel under Troubleshooting, there are two troubleshooters you might try. One is "Troubleshoot Audio Playback" and the other is "Check for Performance Issues". Maybe one of them would lead you to a better solution.

Originally Posted by Saltgrass

If you go to the control panel under Troubleshooting, there are two troubleshooters you might try. One is "Troubleshoot Audio Playback" and the other is "Check for Performance Issues". Maybe one of them would lead you to a better solution.

Ok i try that, tnx for answer btw