Win98
SBLive 5.1 (using WDM drivers)
512MB
XP 2000+
Asus A7V333
Listenting to winamp for a while. i stop playback to watch a flash flick. go back to winamp. i find the sound to pop. kind of sounds like ten pulses a second. just pop pop pop. it also happens in d3. heavy sound load and d3 stutters.
I've got the SB LIve(not 5.1) on a A7V333 and I've never noticed a poping. I use the Creative drivers, but choose for it to install only the drivers, nothign else. You didn't install the live ware crap did you?
Win 98... I'm guessing system load becomes too heavy and the sound buffer suffers. Win 98 = memory leak heaven, and unline NT-based OS's, the leaks aren't cleaned when the owner process terminates.
Mobi, you don't want to reduce the PCI Latency, you want to increase it so the soundcard can hold onto the bus longer. A PCI Latency of 64, or 128 is recommended.
Mobius, that was an issue with an older VIA chipset to begin with. (KT133A with the 686B southbridge to be exact) When I ran my A7V classic (KT133 chipset, 686A southbridge), my SB Live NEVER clicked, popped, or paused on anything but poorly encoded mp3s done by morons that shouldn't even be using a computer to begin with. I have that same card stuck in a system with a K6-450 on a motherboard with an ALI Alladin V chipset and it works like it did on the A7V, and the K6-2 350 system it was in before that. Next time, do a little research before spouting off BS.