Hi everyone,
I just tried the BX Tune utility from the download section. It lets you change chipset settings on-the-fly.
For some time I´ve had problems when playing mp3s while surfing. While a page is loading, sound is corrupted. I use two ISA cards: An NE2000 NIC for surfing and a Soundblaster AWE64.
Now I played around with the BX Tune utility and was surprised to find the "Passive release" and "Delayed transaction" settings under "More"/"ISA/EIO status". I still don´t know the effects of these settings, but I had switched both OFF in the BIOS, because they have been reported to cause problems.
Different for me: When I tick "delayed transaction" the formerly distorted sound is fine while I´m surfing.
I suspect I got that problem after I swapped a PCI 3com NIC for the ISA NE2000. IIRC I had "delayed transaction" switched off in the BIOS by that time, too. But then the AWE64 was the only ISA card in the system.
Anyway, if you got problems with ISA cards, check "delayed transaction".
Best regards,
Wolfram
"Delayed Transaction" solves ISA sound card probs
"Delayed Transaction" solves ISA sound card probs
BP6, RU BIOS, XP SP3, ACPI, 2x366@523(1,95V), Pentalpha HS + 1x 12cm fan @5V, 768MB, Powercolor Geforce 3, RTL8139D NIC, Terratec EWS64L, Samsung M40 80GB (2,5''), LiteOn CDRW
I culled this info from some long-forgotten BIOS guide, I am not the author:
"Passive Release
PCI can only be used by one device at a time. If this device is the PCI-ISA Bridge, we pay it special attention (as seen with the Recovery Times), and this is another setting to help. The Passive Release Buffer allows ISA devices to write without needing the PCI bus from start to finish, which would take quite some time. Instead the data is written to a buffer, then transferred up the bus at full PCI speeds.
Enable this for best performance, but disable it if your ISA cards, especially ISA SCSI cards or NICs, don't like it."
"PCI Delay Transaction/PCI 2.1 Compatible/PCI 2.1 Compliance
PCI 2.1 specification mandates that this is *always* to be enabled. Strangely enough, it's disabled by default on far too many boards. This causes an ISA device--and you do still have some, even without ISA slots or cards, since the SuperIO chip does a lot of things on the ISA bus--to be told to wait if the PCI bus is in use. It's very much like Passive Release in the regard that it's a buffer between fast PCI and slow ISA.
ISA devices now use the PCI bus, with the PCI-ISA bridge translating the data. Since the ISA bus is so slow, telling them to wait is the best idea and it's not going to cause any delay to ISA transactions since PCI is so much faster.
HOWEVER, our good friend, the Sound Blaster Live, deserves special attention. The Live appears to not query the arbiter as to the status of "bus parking," and it is hypothesized that it incorrectly assumes a "last device" schema is in use, which is the default in most chipsets. For performance reasons, VIA always parks the bus on the arbiter, which results in faster switching between devices but higher latency for any single device. This option, if enabled, can cause SB Live cards to cause crashes on VIA chipset boards and performance penalties (including high sound latency) on Intel chipset boards. A VIA chipset always parks the bus on the arbiter, as previously mentioned, while an Intel chipset (440BX or better) will park it on the last device to have used it most of the time. Other cards, such as the Aureal Vortex2, can also be affected by this, but Aureal patched this up in later driver releases. It's only a real problem in the 32-bit environment of Windows 2000 and Windows XP with ACPI in use. When older methods of assigning IRQs are in use, the cards signal to the arbiter in a different way, bypassing this problem."
If you still experience problems, you can try upping the values in 16-bit I/O Recovery Time and 8-bit I/O Recovery Time, which also deal with ISA devices...
"8-bit I/O Recovery Time
Options: N/A, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
This does nothing if you have no ISA cards. The PCI-ISA bridge has a fast bus (PCI) and a slow bus (ISA) to deal with. Transactions with PCI have to be delayed so the ISA side can cope. Usually, the delay is 3.5 cycles. This option allows you to add to that, so selecting 1 will give a 4.5 cycle delay. N/A will leave the setting at default 3.5 cycles. This is an option for overclocked PCI buses as extra delays could be added to keep the ISA bus well synchronized."
"16-bit I/O Recovery Time
Options: N/A, 1, 2, 3, 4
See "8-bit I/O Recovery Time." It's the same thing, but for 16-bit transactions."
"Passive Release
PCI can only be used by one device at a time. If this device is the PCI-ISA Bridge, we pay it special attention (as seen with the Recovery Times), and this is another setting to help. The Passive Release Buffer allows ISA devices to write without needing the PCI bus from start to finish, which would take quite some time. Instead the data is written to a buffer, then transferred up the bus at full PCI speeds.
Enable this for best performance, but disable it if your ISA cards, especially ISA SCSI cards or NICs, don't like it."
"PCI Delay Transaction/PCI 2.1 Compatible/PCI 2.1 Compliance
PCI 2.1 specification mandates that this is *always* to be enabled. Strangely enough, it's disabled by default on far too many boards. This causes an ISA device--and you do still have some, even without ISA slots or cards, since the SuperIO chip does a lot of things on the ISA bus--to be told to wait if the PCI bus is in use. It's very much like Passive Release in the regard that it's a buffer between fast PCI and slow ISA.
ISA devices now use the PCI bus, with the PCI-ISA bridge translating the data. Since the ISA bus is so slow, telling them to wait is the best idea and it's not going to cause any delay to ISA transactions since PCI is so much faster.
HOWEVER, our good friend, the Sound Blaster Live, deserves special attention. The Live appears to not query the arbiter as to the status of "bus parking," and it is hypothesized that it incorrectly assumes a "last device" schema is in use, which is the default in most chipsets. For performance reasons, VIA always parks the bus on the arbiter, which results in faster switching between devices but higher latency for any single device. This option, if enabled, can cause SB Live cards to cause crashes on VIA chipset boards and performance penalties (including high sound latency) on Intel chipset boards. A VIA chipset always parks the bus on the arbiter, as previously mentioned, while an Intel chipset (440BX or better) will park it on the last device to have used it most of the time. Other cards, such as the Aureal Vortex2, can also be affected by this, but Aureal patched this up in later driver releases. It's only a real problem in the 32-bit environment of Windows 2000 and Windows XP with ACPI in use. When older methods of assigning IRQs are in use, the cards signal to the arbiter in a different way, bypassing this problem."
If you still experience problems, you can try upping the values in 16-bit I/O Recovery Time and 8-bit I/O Recovery Time, which also deal with ISA devices...
"8-bit I/O Recovery Time
Options: N/A, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
This does nothing if you have no ISA cards. The PCI-ISA bridge has a fast bus (PCI) and a slow bus (ISA) to deal with. Transactions with PCI have to be delayed so the ISA side can cope. Usually, the delay is 3.5 cycles. This option allows you to add to that, so selecting 1 will give a 4.5 cycle delay. N/A will leave the setting at default 3.5 cycles. This is an option for overclocked PCI buses as extra delays could be added to keep the ISA bus well synchronized."
"16-bit I/O Recovery Time
Options: N/A, 1, 2, 3, 4
See "8-bit I/O Recovery Time." It's the same thing, but for 16-bit transactions."
On a torpedo to Hell
ASRock 939 Dual Sata II mobo--2x 2200+--2GB RAM--ATI x800XL--2x Seagate Cheetah 15K.3s on LSI 20160 HBA--WD 400GB Caviar RE2, Maxtor 300GB, 3x Maxtor 120+ GB = 1.1TB storage--Sony Dru-820A DVDRW--Diamond Xtreme 7.1 sound--Win XP
ASRock 939 Dual Sata II mobo--2x 2200+--2GB RAM--ATI x800XL--2x Seagate Cheetah 15K.3s on LSI 20160 HBA--WD 400GB Caviar RE2, Maxtor 300GB, 3x Maxtor 120+ GB = 1.1TB storage--Sony Dru-820A DVDRW--Diamond Xtreme 7.1 sound--Win XP