Matrix Games Forums

Not to start a fight or anything like that. I just got through discussing SB sound cards with the systems people at Motherboard Express (they are BTW very good). Verified the problems with SB cards, specifically with reference to certain Athlon chips.

This may explain some of the game sound problems, workarounds the users would have to pursue on his own, I believe it varies by type of Ahtlon chip.

Also, if anyone is playing this game without the benefit of Cacheman, they may be doing so at a disadvantage. Whatever sound problems I had with my P2 450 and Aureal-Vortex sound card were solved immediately and totally by using Cacheman. X-Setup is also highly recommended.

Bng

Hi Bing,

I have the Athlon-SB combo, but I just don't think any conflict that might be there is worth doing anything about. SPWAW is the only game or application where I have any problems, and they are not that severe. If I had problems in other things also then I'd be looking for a solution!

Do you have any links that show a verified problem and a link to Cacheman?

Hi Don -

If you don't have a real problem, don't try to fix it. Cacheman is available at:
www.pcforrest.freeserve.co.uk/index.htm

under Windows, then Third Party Utilities. Since it is freeware, you have nothing to lose by trying it. You may be surprised how it improves performance. X-Setup is also available at the same site.

I wouldn't be without Cacheman, I know that.

Bing

I have the SB Live - Athlon combination and have absolutely zero sound problems. I believe it isn't an athlon SB Live issue but a problem with the 686B Via southbridge on an all Via motherboard. Latest Via 4.31 4 in 1 drivers are supossed to fix any problems.

Originally posted by thor:
I have the SB Live - Athlon combination and have absolutely zero sound problems. I believe it isn't an athlon SB Live issue but a problem with the 686B Via southbridge on an all Via motherboard. Latest Via 4.31 4 in 1 drivers are supossed to fix any problems.

I agree.

I have SB Live! and Athlon
and I've not noticed anykind of problems
with it. Motherboard with Athlon may however
bring some problems. Far as I can recall,
some early Athlon motherboars(especially the
cheap) had some minor problems with third
party hardware like soundcards.

Atleast so I recall looking usenet messages about them few months back.

Thanks for the comments, one and all. I'll keep this thread open for a few days, then forward pertinent stuff to the Motherboard Express people. I'm sure they will be appreciative, so if anyone can shed light on this problem, please add your comments.

Bing

Hi Bing,

I'm giving Cacheman a try and using one of the pre-sets. Haven't done anything yet with it installed but it looks like a good program!

Well,I did have some problems like was stated. It has to do with if you have an VIA chipset on your motherboard also. I downloaded a patch for my MB and it fixed everything.

Originally posted by Don:
Hi Bing,

I'm giving Cacheman a try and using one of the pre-sets. Haven't done anything yet with it installed but it looks like a good program!

Here's some settings from the SP'er - sorry I forgot his name - who introduced me to Cacheman:
Min AND Max: 10240
Chunk: 1024
Name: 2048
Parh: 64

These worked well for with v4.5, maybe it didn't solve anyone else's sound problem, but it sure did mine. Now, what with Photoshop, I use the "Power User" settings and these seem to work quite well.

X-Setup is also worth looking into. You can't beat the price one both of them.

Bing

The very first thing I noticed was almost 40 more MB's of RAM available at startup - I like that! If I ever quit reading forums I'll try it on other stuff!

Bonk...Clank .... Thump .... Bump!!

As many more comments as you would like, gentlemen - ladies, too. The answer to the Athlon - SB conflict isn't clear cut, not at all.

Keep those cards and letters rolling in ...

I will forward them to the custom builders.

Bing

That's one bump for man ....

And another bump for mankind.

Bing

One last bump .... I'll close it out tonight if no further comments.

I would have thought more replies on this issue. Maybe everyone has solved their sound problems with the game??? Hope so.

Bing

Hey Bing , why don't you post your system configuration and I'll be able to give ya some ideas.

-CPU type
-Motherboard
-Ram
-Video Card
-Operating System
- etc...

Thor -

Please read the above. I do not have an SB board, furthermore my problems in that area were solved by installing Cacheman and X-Setup.

I introduced this thread for the benefit of those who DID have SB and experienced problems. The idea is to forward the comments to a custom system builder with whom I do business, that's all. Sort of a public service event.

Thanks for your interest anyway ... and your offer of help.

Bing

Thanks everyone for the comments - if nothing else Sapper Don was introduced to the estimable Cacheman freeware app, which he seems to like.

I"m getting Turtle Beach Santa Cruz with my new computer, with any luck it will not create problems with v5.01.

Thread closed, but if anyone has more to add in the future, by all means do so.

Bing

Howdy Bing

This has been most interesting thread. I have new MB and Athlon (Thunderbird) and SBLive without any problems. I had some oddities in past while I had Celeron in my workmachine (spwaw-engine), but they were caused by old MB (440BX or something like it) but I had no problems with the game itself. I have also Turtle Beach Tropez in this thing and it works fine beside the SBlive. Live is for gaming and Tropez is for music-thing.

Thanx for good link, I found there some utilies that I really do need.

mosh

It all depends on weather you have a VIA chipset on your motherboard.I was having some conglicts and downloaded 'viapfd100' from www.viahardware.com.This is for people with SB Live problems.