Sound distorted after upgrading RAM

I upgraded RAM on my old Asus M2N-E SLI today and sound does this hiccuping, sometimes distorted sound when I run some video or game.

Old RAMs were 3x 1GB DDR2 memory stick at 667MHz (non identical manufacturers). New ones are 3x 2GB DDR2 sticks at 800MHz (all of them Kingston).

After I try to put old ones in, it does the same. As if new ones messed up the motherboard. BIOS is updated. Got the newest drivers and DirectX.

Any idea what might be causing it?

Ondrej Slinták

Posted 2011-02-04T17:52:19.973

Reputation: 1 423

Are you using onboard audio? I had a similar problem with >2GB RAM and an old Soundblaster card... – Mokubai – 2011-02-04T18:19:36.323

Sound is onboard. – Ondrej Slinták – 2011-02-04T18:23:18.533

did you discover the solution? – kokbira – 2011-04-12T20:56:46.217

Yes, some capacitors were probably burned. – Ondrej Slinták – 2011-04-13T16:38:05.773

Answers

I have some sound problems with my motherboard (another manufacturer) and I think it can be solved with a bios update (but I cannot found it yet, so I've not done it). These problems was introduced with me Windows 7 installation. I also have Windows XP in my computer just to play games without sound distortion...

But in your case I think you have exploded some capacitors in your motherboard :) because you said that the problem occurs also with your old RAM chips...

Well, search more on Internet. Try to see all capacitors in your motherboard too... http://www.google.com/search?q=Asus+M2N-E+SLI+sound+problem&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t

kokbira

Posted 2011-02-04T17:52:19.973

Reputation: 4 883

Check all of the connections to the motherboard, you may have disturbed something

Tog

Posted 2011-02-04T17:52:19.973

Reputation: 4 747

1Especially the sound card (remove it and then reseat it), provided it is not built into to motherboard – horatio – 2011-02-04T18:06:33.630

In XP go to Control Panel... Performance and Maintenance... System... Hardware...Device Manager...

Click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers to see a list of your Primary and Secondary Channels. Right click on each and select Properties... Under the Advanced Settings check to see if the Transfer mode is set to DMA if available and that the Current Transfer Mode is NOT PIO. If it is PIO Right click the drive channel in the device list and click Uninstall! This might seem a LITTLE RADICAL, but it will fix the problem.

After you have uninstalled the drive channel, Windows will want to Restart your computer. During that time, it will reset to a DMA setting in most cases. If it does not, then you are stuck with PIO.

I think that my DMA problem was created when I installed a second hard drive. Oddly the Primary was PIO and the newer drive was already set to DMA.

Give it a try! It worked wonders for my sound and the darn thing runs a little faster too!

Ted Weiss

Posted 2011-02-04T17:52:19.973

Reputation: 36