Windows does its nut again

[Tapewolf]

Okay, what I'm doing is slightly unusual, but I'd appreciate any suggestions.

As mentioned in the DMFA Radio Project thread, my soundcard has freaked out again and is mixing the USB bus data into the audio signal, which is Not Good.

I've just bought an Asus Xonar D2X card to replace it.  This is a high-end consumer card, the problem is that it's not supported by Windows 2000.  Do not ask why I am using it, that's a different topic.

Anyway, just for S&Gs, I installed the XP drivers in Windows 2000.  The results were unpleasant - while it didn't bluescreen like I had half expected, the startup sound and the default beep were horribly distorted.  I am on the latest drivers, BTW.

This is where it gets interesting - further experimentation reveals that it's only the windows sounds which are distorted.  The ASUS diagnostic utilities work, crystal clear.  So do Oblivion, WinAmp, Audacity and Goldwave.  All 3rd-party applications seem to work, it's just when Windows itself tries to play sounds that it sounds nasty.

Has anyone ever come across the likes of this before?

[rabid_fox]

Only on Windows 3.11 (yes, that one) - there was some kind of distortion on the Windows (.wav files) but there was no problem with anything I'd recorded to the computer.

I realise just how flipping useless this information is, but it's always nice to time-travel back to the early 90's, eh?

[Darkmoon]

Maybes is a problem of .wav quality? The .wav files provided by Windows could sound fine on lesser sound cards, but could have "distortion" when played by equipment that actually plays them "correctly".

Seems like the easiest solution, if everything else is working, is just to find new sounds you like and replace the Win sounds with those.

[Tapewolf]

Maybes is a problem of .wav quality? The .wav files provided by Windows could sound fine on lesser sound cards, but could have "distortion" when played by equipment that actually plays them "correctly".

Yes, that's pretty much it.  The default sounds are all recorded at 22Khz or 11Khz - it looks like the soundcard throws a hissy-fit if it's asked to play things back any slower than 44Khz.  So it's not strictly Windows' doing after all.

Seems like the easiest solution, if everything else is working, is just to find new sounds you like and replace the Win sounds with those.

I've resampled them to 44Khz and it seems to be happy now.

[Darkmoon]

Well, it's really a good thing, if you think about it. You have a solid sound card that wants to you to listen to high-quality files.