- Joined
- Nov 8, 2008
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 1
- Location
- Las Vegas, NV USA
- Your Mac's Specs
- 24" 3.06GHz, OSX Leopard/Win XP SP3, 500GB hd, 2GB RAM
So I got myself this iMac a couple months ago and I absolutely love this thing... except for the godawful Realtek sound chip causing (some) of my games to freeze the whole system, forcing a hard restart from the back power switch! In addition, when I'm running Winamp and playing music I will sometimes encounter a loud, static-sounding *pop* followed by the music completely fading out and then building back up to the proper volume, all in the space of about a second. This can also happen in other apps with lots of sound but is most noticable when playing music. I'm using a pair of Logitech Z-4 2.1 speakers which seem to work fine on my older HP system.
I'm open to any suggestions, but somehow I doubt there will be any help forthcoming until Realtek/Apple do some major work on the drivers for this sound chip. I have done all of the following to try and rectify the problem:
* Fully updated Boot Camp
* Fully updated Windows XP
* Updated DirectX, video drivers, Realtek audio drivers
* Ran an applet supplied by Intel, called the Intel(R) Chipset Device Software Installer. This is supposed to bring all motherboard drivers up-to-date.
* Ran the Auslogics disk defragmenter as well as C-Cleaner to completely optimize my system performance.
* Disabled Realtek High-Definition Audio in the Device Manager and ran one of the worst games - one called Puzzle Quest - which causes the system to freeze within 5 minutes of starting each and every time. With sound disabled the game ran for over half an hour problem-free.
* Re-enabled the sound chip in the Device Manager, and disabled sound in the Puzzle Quest game. It ran for a bit more than 5 minutes but still froze the system, in more like 10-15 minutes.
I don't know what else I could be missing, but again I'm open to any further suggestions.
In closing, it's really a **** shame that a system which is otherwise so freaking wonderful would be hobbled by one shoddy piece of hardware. I may have to buy a Creative USB sound module and risk a slight performance drop in other areas just to be able to fully use this system.
Come on, Apple! I see lots of other people complaining about this issue. Fix it already!
I'm open to any suggestions, but somehow I doubt there will be any help forthcoming until Realtek/Apple do some major work on the drivers for this sound chip. I have done all of the following to try and rectify the problem:
* Fully updated Boot Camp
* Fully updated Windows XP
* Updated DirectX, video drivers, Realtek audio drivers
* Ran an applet supplied by Intel, called the Intel(R) Chipset Device Software Installer. This is supposed to bring all motherboard drivers up-to-date.
* Ran the Auslogics disk defragmenter as well as C-Cleaner to completely optimize my system performance.
* Disabled Realtek High-Definition Audio in the Device Manager and ran one of the worst games - one called Puzzle Quest - which causes the system to freeze within 5 minutes of starting each and every time. With sound disabled the game ran for over half an hour problem-free.
* Re-enabled the sound chip in the Device Manager, and disabled sound in the Puzzle Quest game. It ran for a bit more than 5 minutes but still froze the system, in more like 10-15 minutes.
I don't know what else I could be missing, but again I'm open to any further suggestions.
In closing, it's really a **** shame that a system which is otherwise so freaking wonderful would be hobbled by one shoddy piece of hardware. I may have to buy a Creative USB sound module and risk a slight performance drop in other areas just to be able to fully use this system.
Come on, Apple! I see lots of other people complaining about this issue. Fix it already!
