A long debated issue on many forums is the "should you disable the on board sound card" issue. There are those that say it should always be done, and those who say it is not necessary. I have always held that if you do the setup correctly with the software, you do not need to disable the on board card. Just make sure each has their own IRQ.
This i believe for two reasons, 1. it allows any normal windows sounds to function to the OBSC, and the Dedicated card to handle audio work, and 2. most problems stem from improper setup not card issues. No drivers istalled, wrong sample rate, lack of understanding the needs of the software. Basically user error. My experience comes from setting up three different system so far and never having a conflict, with one exception of when i first installed my delta card i had to go in and assign it a seprate IRQ from the video card for some reason.
Any thoughts on this? I would like to hear from a bit more experience.
A Mac question. and others too
As long as there are different sound device manufacturers, there will be differences of opinion on this one.
As long aqs there are different Operating Systems -- and tweaks, which tweaks, no tweaks, partial tweaks, etc. -- there will be differences of opinion on this one.
As long as there are soundcard drivers, there will be differences of opinion on this one.
As long as there are different motherboards with different internal sound devices in them, there will be differences of opinion on this one.
And then there is the all important PEBKAC situation. Multiple soundcard choices have led many to believe that their expensive aftermarket soundcard had died but in reality they -- or a software glitch -- had selected an onboard soundcard that had no speakers hooked to it. This may by far be the culprit in a majority case situation, at least that's my observed opinion. When people make dumb mistakes after posting to forums, it is difficult for some folks to type that out. Human nature.
Too many parameters that can affect whether or not this works on your particular machinem I've encountered what appeared to be identical setups in which one worked with onboard sound still invoked, the other problematic until onboard sound was disabled.
If it does, then by all means do it if you like.
If you have problems and the problems are solved by turning off the onboard sound in the BIOS, then do that.
"If it works, don't fix it."
--Mac
As long aqs there are different Operating Systems -- and tweaks, which tweaks, no tweaks, partial tweaks, etc. -- there will be differences of opinion on this one.
As long as there are soundcard drivers, there will be differences of opinion on this one.
As long as there are different motherboards with different internal sound devices in them, there will be differences of opinion on this one.
And then there is the all important PEBKAC situation. Multiple soundcard choices have led many to believe that their expensive aftermarket soundcard had died but in reality they -- or a software glitch -- had selected an onboard soundcard that had no speakers hooked to it. This may by far be the culprit in a majority case situation, at least that's my observed opinion. When people make dumb mistakes after posting to forums, it is difficult for some folks to type that out. Human nature.
Too many parameters that can affect whether or not this works on your particular machinem I've encountered what appeared to be identical setups in which one worked with onboard sound still invoked, the other problematic until onboard sound was disabled.
If it does, then by all means do it if you like.
If you have problems and the problems are solved by turning off the onboard sound in the BIOS, then do that.
"If it works, don't fix it."
--Mac
-
NystagmusE
Wow Mac, well said.
All I know is that I had an experience where I installed a new soundcard and it started malfunctioning--spontaneously muting the left channel on certain programs.
So I looked up some info that I think might have been on the manufacturer's website of the soundcard that said to disable the onboard soundcard in the BIOS. After I did that, it worked. Ever since then, I disable the onboard soundcard when installing a new one. For me, it's just a pre-emptive attack on a possible problem.
I don't mind the risk of losing an extra sound output because the soundcards I use are better quality than the onboard ones or so I'm told. Also, the integrated soundcard might take up more CPU than a PCI soundcard... I think I read that somewhere but I'm not entirely sure.
All I know is that I had an experience where I installed a new soundcard and it started malfunctioning--spontaneously muting the left channel on certain programs.
So I looked up some info that I think might have been on the manufacturer's website of the soundcard that said to disable the onboard soundcard in the BIOS. After I did that, it worked. Ever since then, I disable the onboard soundcard when installing a new one. For me, it's just a pre-emptive attack on a possible problem.
I don't mind the risk of losing an extra sound output because the soundcards I use are better quality than the onboard ones or so I'm told. Also, the integrated soundcard might take up more CPU than a PCI soundcard... I think I read that somewhere but I'm not entirely sure.
If it is a completely different mobo and sound device, I assume nothing about it.MrHope wrote:
All I know is that I had an experience where I installed a new soundcard and it started malfunctioning--spontaneously muting the left channel on certain programs.
So I looked up some info that I think might have been on the manufacturer's website of the soundcard that said to disable the onboard soundcard in the BIOS. After I did that, it worked. Ever since then, I disable the onboard soundcard when installing a new one. For me, it's just a pre-emptive attack on a possible problem.
A lot of guys read forums and websites and just become tweak-happy.
For instance, look at all the XP audio tweaks that abound, when in reality I have found that there are only THREE basic OS tweaks needed inside XP SP2 for doing reliable audio work. So has Sound-On-Sound, where you can read the three tweaks in an archived article.
I often wonder how many problems are actually caused by those sort of pre-emptive tweaks and maybe wouldn't have happened to the guy at all if he'd have just left things alone and TRIED IT FIRST.
In the case of onboard sound disabling, I don't think that could create a new problem, though.
"If it works, don't fix it."
"If it stops working, troubleshoot, then repair."
"Never 'fix' anything, 'repair' it."
My first wife had my cat fixed when we got married.
The poor SOB was always different after that.
He used to go out all night long and come home in the morning with a look of satisfaction on his face, go to sleep in the window.
After she had him 'fixed' he became a lazy and fat piece o' nothin', man.
I had to get shed of that woman, beware the ones with the testicle lock box.
On the other hand, she was the one who drove me to drink. God bless her.
--Mac