throw me a f...........rope here peeps

[Legion FWM]

please see my earlier thread am" i going insane".pray tell me why am i getting sound on my CUSL-C with the soundcard removed totally unconnected.Im still getting all window operating sounds and full cdrom audio playback.Theres no audio lead connection to my cdrom.Whats going on here!ps ive no onboard audio with this mobo........

[garnet_abx]

Are you certain that mobo doesn't have on board audio? Sure sounds like it to me!

[stevo]

you sure you have cusl2-c?? cos either you have onboard sound or you didn't pull the soundacard...you pulled something else.
Other than that what have you been smoking?
Ask my alien in my signature for the answers
cheers stevo

[Legion FWM]

yep,the soundcard was out of the machine and sitting on my bed.I checked the asus manual and it tells me onboard audio is optional and shows a diagram of the extra audio/ game port audio codec and audio codec setting jumper to enable or disable sound.I dont have any of these extras.

comp spec: asus CUSL2-C,pentIII 1ghz,256mb cas2,elsa gladac mx2,sounblaster 5.1,pioneer dvd/cdrom ,sony cd-r,

aproblem started with the s/b 5.1 not installing correctly and i was getting a driver error mmdevldr.vxd in device manager so i pulled card out restarted machine and bingo i heard windows start up sound.the soundcard was five feet away.i put a cd in and it played superb,even though there was no audio lead connected to the cdrom.My speakers connect by usb not through the soundcard so they are getting direct sound but from where,and how can i disable it, it might be giving me probs with my soundcard if when i install it, it dosnt auto disable this other source...thanx

[darkwish]

With those USB speakers, you don't even need a sound card. The digital sound is sent directly to the speakers, where it converts to analog there.
Did you have the speakers plugged into the USB port when you were testing your SB Live? Now sound ( at least from the SB) can get to the speakers if your speakers aren't even connected to the sound card. Use the analog connectors(headphone jack thingies) of your speakers to connect to the SB Live if you want to use the SB Live instead.

[tamarelle]

How can this be, Darkwish?

How can he hear sound when his CD-Rom is not connected to a sound card? Does this not mean that he is not even using his audio cables?

Assuming that the sound is captured on the PCI BUS and then transmitted to the USB Speakers, how did it get there?

Would he be able to play games and mp3s and still hear sound? If USB speakers can do all this, why are we forking out 200 bucks for sound cards?

The more I read the less I know.


H & K

[Ozzie]

I read this too Tam

I found an article about it and was going to post it but now it's not there. I'm trying to locate it.

Good question - if it works on USB - how well does it work, why do we need a sound card, and what options are available?
I did read you could have positional sound for 4 speaks...unless I mixed up my reading...gotta find that article...

*** Update - I found something at least - read this...

http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/news/trends/t981120a.html



[Edited by Ozzie on 02-17-2001 at 08:55 AM]

[DeMenAce]

So, how does the speakers sound when you are playing games? Sure, listening to a CD or the desktop sounds can be heard, but what do you see in the volume controls. I just read the srticle Ozzie posted and understand the newer speakers can handle all of the transitions. Why do WE waste 100 big ones on a sound card? When all we need is USB speakers? My wifes Acer came with all USB connection. There isn't any ps2 or serial connection. (It does have a paralel port) And it came with USB speakers! But it also has a sound card.
It would seem a waste to the manufactuer as well. IE, built in sound and video boards.

Interesting....

TIHFY

[Legion FWM]

i have finally installed the sounblaster 5.1 without any conflicts but when it was removed for the third time i still had to try the pc for sound.yep it still produced excellent sound with no card in it.After installing the s/b 5.1 i asked myself what was the point i didnt need to fork out £65 for this.All im getting really(if i dont use the 5.1 sound system) is a gameport and a few audio outlets.i tested the soundcard with some standard speakers connected to the audio jacks and it works ,but the sound quality in this mode was no better than without a card through the usb speakers.Id better keep quiet now as ive a felling creative might want me silenced now theres no need for there cards or anyone elses.im wondering now if i really need a processor or will my computer work just as well without one..lol

[taddeusz]

In all the reviews I've read of USB speakers, and it has been a while, they say that they use way too much CPU time to be useful for more than playing CD's and MP3's.

Another problem at the time was the fact that you couldn't get CD audio through USB speakers. That is actually pretty easy to fix by using CDDA to get the audio off the CD digitally (Media Player 7 does this).

I am not about to replace my trusty SB Live card. There is just too much else the CPU could be doing than to waste it on the doing all the tasks of an audio card as well.

Taddeusz

[BLoodBath]

I don't know what all the fuss is about with the sb 5.1. I have had minimal probs with it especially after getting this board. When I was running it on my tyan s1854 I had a prob with the 16 emulator, the stupid thing was fighting with the card. With the cusl2-c I had the extra resources for the emulator after I disabled the serial port and have had no probs since. Btw I still have the 16em running without a hitch.

P.S.
Sorry if I got a little of the subject.

[Sydewynder]

I have USB speakers and ran it for awhile with no soundcard (hey Ozzie! ) It digitally streams the data through the IDE cable. If you have a SCSI CDROM you're outta luck. If you look under the Control Panel (Win98SE) and click in the Multimedia icon you'll see in the CD Music tab a checkbox, "Enable digital CD audio for this CD ROM device". It will only be available if you installed USB speakers and it's related USB device drivers.

As for performance, the CPU takes a fairly big hit. On some games the sound stutters. If you are just listen to a CD it's fine. But if you surf and do that at the same time there will be breaks at times. I was using it on an 800 MHZ with 256Megs of RAM.

One big drawback is you don't get enhanced sound like 5.1 digital, reverb, etc. Just the very basics.

Interesting concept but not mature enough yet in my opinion.

[Ozzie]

Hi Sydewynder

Your last post makes it clear enough for me. I'm not about to go out and spend $100 (or more)on USB speaks just to have the results you posted above.
CPU using is a very important piece of the puzzle when setting up a system. I happen to be a system resource freak - I don't want anything loading that I don't need.
I even went out and bought a new sound card because of reports of lower CPU usage.

Still - that being said - I find it amazing that USB can do this. I wonder how much different the CPU usage is with a sound card compared to USB?
Just wondering where this technology will lead us...

[taddeusz]

It would be interesting if with future faster versions of USB if they could offload the sound duties from the CPU and put a sound processing chip in the speakers. That way you do two things. Your CPU wouldn't be overworked as with current USB speakers and the sound processing would be moved outside the case to a less electrically noisy environment. If anyone has ever turned the sound on their speakers all the way up to hear their hard drive reading or mouse moving you know what I'm talking about. I've never seen a USB audio device that does this though. Too bad. If Creative Labs has anything to do with it there probably never will be unless they're the ones that make it.

Taddeusz

[Ozzie]

Creative does make USB speaks - I did a check @ Pricewatch - about $100. I don't know anything about them and USB speaks are hard to find.
Don't forget - this board is only compatable up to USB version 1.2. Some of the new stuff is higher and people are having compatability probs...