Mandrake 9.1 / Sound Issues

[coldfireuk]

Hi guys

Basically I am having problems with my setup:

Mandrake Linux 9.1
Athlon XP 2500+ Barton
512MB Twinmos PC3200 DDR
120GB Seagate Baracuda 7200.7
Radeon 9700Pro
Abit NF7-S v2 Mainboard
Soundblaster Audigy Soundcard
Connexant HCF 56k Modem

It keeps randomly locking up, instantly freezing with a high pitched squeal coming from the speakers.

I have a funny feeling it has something to do with PCI / AGP settings in the bios too as I was playing around with this and it got a bit better. Settings I changed were:

FSB Spread Spectrum (0.50%) - what is this?!!!
AGP " " (0.50%) - ""
CPU Thermal Throttleing (Enabled)

Problems never occured in Win98, Win2K and WinXP. All were used very intensively also. This linux scene is pretty new to me and I need to get this sorted!!!

Thanks guys

[christos]

Have you checked /var/log/messages or dmesg for any info on the system state when it crashed?
Might be worth removing the soundcard for a while to see if the problem re-occurs.
Is it using the soundcard and video card properly? It detected the right cards and loaded the right drivers (again can be found by looking through either /var/log/messages or /var/log/XFree86.0.log

If in doubt drop the contents on here and i'm sure we can sort it.

Chris

[coldfireuk]

OK well I know the soundcard is being used properly as I got the emu10k1 driver from sourceforge.net. The Display driver however is just the auto install one. I can't get the xfree86 4.3 driver to install as it says it conflicts with elements of the mandrake install of xfree86!!! Any help here would be apreciated to!

I tried to get to the xfree86 log but the whole thing locked up just as I did - just co-incidence as a lot of other thinhgs were going on too!! - the whole install got screwed up so my xfree86 log is looking rather fresh and new!!!

I think this all started when I shoved my HCF modem in, but I have even tried swapping that for another modem (Intel536ep) - still the same problem. Could the fact that the AGP card and the Modem were sharing the same IRQ's etc be the cause of this. I have moved the modem now, but have not had a chance to test it all out again.

As for removing the Audigy - I only just got it and really like the sound quality over the NForce2 Soundstorm - + there is no bass / treble controls for it in Mandrake 9.1.

Any thoughts on this / advice would be great!!

[DMR]

Originally posted by coldfireuk
Could the fact that the AGP card and the Modem were sharing the same IRQ's etc be the cause of this. Yup, quite possibly.

Originally posted by coldfireuk
I have moved the modem now, but have not had a chance to test it all out again. If that doesn't clear up the IRQ issue, turn off Plug-N-Play OS support in your BIOS if you haven't done so already.

As for your questions concerning the BIOS options in your original post, I think you'll find all the info you need in the results of this Google search (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22FSB+Spread+Spectrum%22&btnG=Google+Search).

:)

[coldfireuk]

well swapping the modem out seems to have solved the problem.

/crosses fingures!!

thanks for your input guys

[deanrantala]

It sound as if you got the system overclocked a bit somewhere.

Spread specrtum is used to reduce electro magnetic interfearence. It is usually best to disable all three: FSB, AGP, and CPU - ESPECIALLY if you got the system overclocked.

Disable Plug and play support.

Be sure LBA is enabled for the hard drive.

Enable caching of video ram, and bois.

Also be sure you are using OSS "emu10k1" modules and not ALSA "snd-emu10k1" modules.

Also, does it run fine for a while and THEN do it? If so it is a good chance that you got cooling problems - either the result of poor ventalation, bad CPU fan motor, or overclocked CPU.

[dalek]

I think we have the same mobo. If you are still having problems let me know and I'll pm you my settings. I would try reseting the cmos and then load the safe values thing on the right of the BIOS screen. That's what I did and I have had no problems with mobo.

let me know. . . . .

:D :D :D

[coldfireuk]

ok guys it is still not working :(

I have tried the latest kernel (2.4.22) and the latest drivers for the Radeon 9700pro. Even tried a PCI network card - BUT ITS STILL CRASHING!!!

I know the bios is set right - its my job to make sure these things run well everyday of the week - and I am sure mine is setup right. I had no probelms at all in Windows 2K for ages, not a crash in months. This is a linux only thing and I need to fix it!!! I dont want to go back to windows :(

[dalek]

Try e-mailing Abit and describe the sound you hear. See if they have a clue. I assume it is the mobo speaker that is doing the noise. They may can point to something. I'll reboot and see if I can see something in my BIOS. The only thing I changed in mine was the plug n play to disable. That's all I remember changing.

Meantime, I think you tried moving the jumper and reseting the cmos and then reloading the default values. Just to make sure.

Back later.

:confused: :D :D :D

[coldfireuk]

ok well I have tried resetting the cmos several times. the noise comes from the main speakers (like the amplified ones) not the m/b one. thought it could be the RAM but that memtested perfectly for a whole night!!! really am gonna give up if I can't get this thing to work.

[dalek]

I just noticed that you have SATA for your hard drives. There are people that would like to know how you got it to install to begin with. There are problems with Linux and SATA. I have read about it in several forums. You may need to wait till 9.2 comes out really strong and see if it supports better. I hope it will.

I hate that I didn't see that earlier. I suspect that may be the problem.

If you want you can try the enterprize Kernel. When you install you have to hit F1 and type in "Linux". That will use the Kernel thats usually for business servers. I don't know if it will work or not.

:confused: :confused: :D :D

[coldfireuk]

thing is though... i am not using the sata and I have disabled it in the bios :confused:

[dalek]

Now I'm :confused: . Try this. Goto Mandake Control Center. Click on "System" then Logdrake on the right pane. Put a 'x' next to the boxes, you may want to do one at a time, then click 'search'. When it comes up see if you can find a error message in there. It will usually say something failed. Maybe that will point to something.

Syslog is the big one. It may take a while to process. If you find anything, which you should, post it and we'll see if we can figure out something. Highlight and cut n paste usually works in MCC.

After we're done we can convert this thread into a book. he he he

Actually, I hope we can figure it out and get you going.

:confused: :confused: :confused:

Where's mdwatts???