975XBX2 - Poor Sound Quality

[MrStumpy]

I am not really a fan of on board sound cards and I have setup my share, but the Sigmatel is by far the worse I have ever run across. Are there any other drivers (besides the Intel provided ones) that help this card? When I have a headset plugged in I hear more scratch/hiss than I do sound. Is anyone else having this problem? It is not a real show stopper for me because the system I am replacing has a SB LIVE 5.1. It is a shame that this board is suppose to have a 7.1 subsystem but it sounds more like something you would get out of a PC speaker trying to emulate external speakers. Just wondering if anyone else is having similar issues.

Thanks
Steve

[seanriddle]

Steve-

I'm not using a headset, but it sounds fine to me using the 5.1 speakers I was using with my previous PC. I don't hear any scratching/hissing. I'm running Vista 64-bit.

My only complaint is that I'd like to be able to include my rear speakers when playing normal stereo files. My old SB Audigy did this, but I can't set up this PC to do it. There's a "Speaker Fill" enhancement shown on the speakers properties page, but it puts very little volume into the back speakers, and there doesn't seem to be any fader control.

Sean

[gilp456]

Hi Steve,

This seems like another setup issue with your Sigmatel driver. There are several flavors available on the Intel website. I would recommend using this one:

5.10.5208_XP32_XP64_MCE_2K_IAS.EXE

It cleared up most of my issues. If you do try it make sure to completely uninstall the last driver otherwise it won't install correclty and will still use the original driver files. Good Luck!

[MrStumpy]

I got the Sigmatel finally working like it should. I am guessing whatever driver I had installed was not right or did not install properly. My next issue is with 2 devices not showing that they are installed properly in the device manager. I am going to post that next.

Thanks for the info
Steve