forgive me if this has already been covered on the forum but i didnt see it.

this problem started a few days ago, and i CAN NOT get it to go away. i get static and weird popping type sounds whenever i have winamp running in windows and all the time in games. whenever i scroll in a window or do pretty much anything(mimize,minimize, close, any normal navigating of the os) i get static type noise and popping and squeeking sort of noises. in games it happens all the time. throughout the entire game, no matter what i am playing.

well i have tried reinstalling the drivers several times, and i have tried reinstalling a few of my games and the problem still persists.... i'm not sure what caused it in the first place since it just started out of no where. i didnt install anything new or do any other modifications. if anyone has any ideas i would really apreciate your help.

here's my specs:

amd k6-III-450 with via chipset(i also just installed the inf update earlier today which seemed to do nothing.)
sb live! value w/ liveware for win2k
viper v770 ultra w/ detonator 5.13
wd 13 gig hd
128 meg of ram

i also have a cheap isa 56k modem, 48x creative cd-rom, and a netgear 10/100 nic, but i didn't think that stuff would be part of my problem.

thanks for the help.

i think i know what your talking about. Try muting your line-in and any other sound components not in use like aux.

Do you have a microphone attached to your live card? If so try muteing it or taking it out and testing the sound quality. You can get some weird feedback from crappy microphones.
Make sure the connector for line-out hasnt come a little loose.(It happened to me)Lastly if you just added a fan to your pc you might be getting a little interference from it. Thats all I can think of for now.

hmmm... i muted everything but play control and wav and i still get crappy interference... i dont have a microphone connected to it either. i checked the connection into the computer and into the sub, and speakers and they're all fine. but i am still getting noises....

also thanks for the help.

alright. i tested my soundcard and speakers in my win98 box and they both work fine. no background noise or anything like that. so at least i know its a software problem.... any ideas?

I think it's the VIA chipset on your board that doesn't like the SB live! What you should try first is lovering the hardware accelleration of the SB live in your conroll pannel. If this doesn't help... is you Graficcard PCI ? If it is the only way might be to replace it with an AGP card.

If you get crackling sound with an AGP grafic card I bet it's a geforce..in this case do the following

START - RUN - REGEDIT -HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\NVIDIA
Corporation\Global\System

In the system folder if not already there(as on some PC's this tweak won't
do this part, if the following is already there then no need to continue as
the tweak is complete.) add a new Binary Value called Super7Compat
(you must write it with capital S and C) Then modify it with a value of 00
00 00 00

Thats it, reboot and no more geforce crackle. Again i say , if you still get
crackle it is because your SBLIVE card and the VIA chipset do not work
together very well.

I'm having the same symptoms.
sb live value
asus a7v880 mobo (viakt880/kt8237 chipset)
ati radeon9600

Disabled onboard audio in Bios.
Muted all audio inputs except wave.
Changed SB to other pci slot in order to give an unshared irq.

But the problem remains.

BTW, disabling smooth scrolling in IE reduces the amount of noise, but is not a real cure for the problem.

If anyone has suggestions, please tell us !

The obvious solutions:

1. Install the proper chipset drivers for the motherboard.
2. Update the motherboard firmware, and load BIOS defaults
3. Make sure the SB Live! doesn't share IRQ with other devices (See at BIOS POST)
4. Update Creative Drivers (Have good succes by installing the 5.12.1.3521 WHQL and then install the Unified 5.12.1.252.WHQL)
5. Check for ghost devices in the Device Manager

More Info