Back again; audio troubles

Question

I'm back again with the same audio problems. Got Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card w/latest drivers. I installed a usb 2.0 card about 2 months ago for an external 160GB seagate hdd. The card was a 4 port VIA vt83c572 pci-usb controller which I got from E-Bay; very reasonably priced. I've got the seagate hdd and a Linksys wrt54g wireless router attached to the usb 2.0 card. The router is unplugged and the hdd is turned off; audio is excellent. When I power on the hdd or connect the router, my audio becomes very distorted. I've tried looking for drivers and after a Google search there was an article that stated this: "WinXP - Due to licensing agreements, USB 2.0 drivers are not available for download. USB 2.0 drivers are supplied on CD with new mainboards. If you have misplaced the driver CD or have questions about the USB 2.0 driver, please contact your motherboard manufacturer or Microsoft." Of course mine is a Dell Dimension 8200. Another statement was this: "Although, all PCI/USB cards are currently using the same NEC µPD720120GC-9EU, the drivers are by and large proprietary and only function with the branded USB2.0/PCI card that the drivers are written for. In other words, the drivers obtained from Keyspan will NOT work with an Adaptec card and vice versa." My conclusion is that I've gotten a fluke for a sound card or wrong drivers. Any observations from others here?
Jay

fireberd · Answer

Jay, the Turtle Beach sound cards are 'not the best around'.  You may be better spending $30 for a SoundBlaster card and dumping the Turtle Beach.   I see a good amount of posts with conflicting problems with that card.   The first part about USB on motherboards does not apply to you since you have a separate USB card.  However, the drivers for the card should have been supplied with the USB card or available at the card vendors download site.  Also, maybe the e-bay purchase wasn't a 'bargain' after all.   One other comment, if you have an Ethernet connection, that is preferred over USB for communications.  USB should only be used as a 'last resort'.    ADDED:  Some other thoughts on the USB.  The communications, if you MUST use USB can be connected to a USB 1.1 port and will work just as fast as even the 1.1 port speed is greater than your broadband link.  Also the external drive can be connected to a 1.1 port temporarily to see if one of the USB devices is causing the conflict.  It won't transfer data as fast but I bet you won't notice any speed difference unless it is a very big file size transfer. Message Edited by fireberd on 01-31-2007 07:02 AM

oldyeller · Answer

Thanks Jack. After switching my extenal hdd to a front usb 1.1 port and turned it on, audio was great. So looks like a conflict between the sound card and the usb 2.0 card. I had bought the usb 2.0 card for editting home moveis stored on the external hdd. Some are pretty big as the camera captures in avi format, which I convert to mpeg1.   Jay

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Back again; audio troubles

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