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4 Troubleshooting Your PC
If Your PC Has an Audio (Sound) Problem
If Your PC Has an Audio (Sound) Problem
Problem
Solution
No sound when
running any
applications.
If you are using Windows NT 4.0, check the volume, mute, and balance settings. Refer to the operating
system documentation for more information.
Absence of sound can also be caused by a hardware conflict. Hardware conflicts occur when two or more
peripheral devices compete for the same signal lines or channels. Conflicts between your audio interface
and another peripheral device might be due to the settings of the I/O addresses, IRQ channel, or DMA
channel. To resolve the conflict, change the settings either of the audio interface or of any other ISA
accessory in your system (refer to page 72).
No output from the
8-bit or 16-bit
digitized sounds.
This might be due to the DMA channel selected or to an interrupt conflict. Use your operating system’s
audio control software to change the audio interface’s DMA channel or IRQ setting (refer to page 72).
Audio input from the
microphone is too
low, or no audio at
all.
Check that the microphone specifications meet the requirements of the 16-bit sound components. The
microphone should be a 600-ohm electret type.
Humming noise.
If the power grounding of your audio components is inadequate, a humming noise may be generated. Plug
all devices into adjacent power outlets (outlets within 5 cm / 2 inches of each other), or use line filters.
Occasional crackles
when playing back
sounds.
These crackles are usually the result of your PC being unable to transfer audio samples within the required
time. A solution is to use a lower sampling rate. Recording and playing back at 22 kHz is less demanding
upon system resources than recording audio at 44 kHz.
The PC hangs while
recording.
Uncompressed digital audio can eventually fill your hard disk. For example, one minute of stereo sound
recorded at a resolution of 44 kHz will occupy about 10.5 MB. Before recording, check that there is enough
free space on your hard disk.
Data compression can reduce the space required. The A-law and
µ
-law hardware compression used by the
audio interface enables the sampling of sound at a resolution of 16-bits, but it generates the same quantity
of data as an 8-bit sample.
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