Counter Strike:Source replace soundcard?

When I play FPS, mostly Counter Strike: Source, my computer freezes for a second or so, ever so often.(its playable but annoying).

According to the help forum for Valve it could be the onboard soundchip in my laptop.

First, anyone have this problem? and is it the built in soundcard?

Second, if I bought an external sound card, would that fix the problem?

How effective are external sound cards?

 

If indeed its the internal sound chip, then buying an external one or a pcmcia one (and disabling the buggy internal one) should fix ur problem.

Usually, external sound cards are much better than anything integrated with the computer.

 

Yeah, what adinu said, but there is a good possibility that valve is blowing smoke up your ass. Have you ever had any previous problems with the sound card or with any other games? Whats the specs for the rest of your machine?

 

I used to have this problem on an old desktop, but I never figured out what it was. That had onboard sound, so that could be your culprit.

 

My specs:
HP Pavilion dv9005ea,
AMD X2 TL50
80 GB HD 5400 RPM
1 GB Ram
Nvidia Go 7600 256MB

I've also had the the problem with Unreal 2004 and F.E.A.R combat but thought it was just cuz the games were graphically heavier. Apparently there are other people that are having this problem (on forums). I am not sure if it is only a valve related or just my hardware.

 

Hmmm, yeah, not sure. I mean (I have to ask) its not just typical video lag right? It happens randomly not just in firefights and stuff right? Just the idea of a sound card really affecting anything like that..well, in my experience it just doesn't seem plausible (not that it couldn't cause those problems, I have just never seen anything like that actually BE the problem). I'm not sure. Suggestion: do you have any friends or anyone at all that might have an external sound card that you could maybe "test" just to make sure it fixes your problem?

 

Thinking of "buying" one and if the problem continues then return it.

Thing is that I've had this problem when playing Counter Strike 1.6 also. On my old desktop, I had no problem with CS.

It is a weird problem. Sometimes I can just be walking and it freezes and other times it can be during combat.

 

I would suggest disabling the sound first and see if the issue goes away. At least we can isolate the problem that way, and it costs $0 unlike a sound card, which you do not even know will fix the problem. I don't know the command to disable sound, but a quick Google search should yield the answer.

 

Couldn't you just disable the sound card from the device manager? I've got a similar series, except mine is an Intel, and it lists a "conexant high definition audio" device under sound, video and game controllers in the device manager. I'm not sure if there is a setting for on-board audio in the BIOS like there is with integrated video that you can switch off. There may be and it might be worth checking before you spend any money.

 

Yes, this happens to me too. I turn the corner, see the outstretched pistol of some newbie who didn't hide himself too well, jab my mouse button---and BANG I get to watch the rest of the round in spectator round. This is because right before the BANG, the game will "hiccup" or freeze for half a second, where user input is ignored and video display is updated afterwards. It happens randomly and without warning, and does not depend on either Internet lag or number of players present.

But here's the part you're not going to like: I have a set of external USB speakers that I use to play CS:S and they come with their own soundcard. The problem occurs both with the onboard soundcard and the external soundcard. It could be how the sound is loaded that's responsible for this hiccup problem, not which sound card you have to actually play the sounds.

 

No I didn't like that answer
Hmmmm, when you play GATORDUDE are you connected via
a wired or a wireless network?
I'm wireless. Never had a problem with my desktop though.

I have a 5400 RPM hardisk. Could that be the problem? too slow?

 

Honestly it could be either one of those things, but try plugging in your laptop just to make sure it isn't your wireless.

 

Tried it both wired and wireless. Same deal. Anyone else have this problem with CS:S?

 

Well I took some time experimenting with different hardware. I tried external sound cards and different network settings.

However I think I figured out the problem. It is my hard drive or something to do with my hard drive.

When I play counter strike 1.6 or source, any other game for that matter or even when surfing the net, the screen freezes up for a second or two. When it freezes up I hear the hard drive loading. Then it goes back to normal.

Any suggestions what the exact problem is?

 

I agree 100%, disable the sound card and see if this is the problem. That is really shot in the dark and it isn't worth spending money to find out that is not the problem. Could be quite a few things so don't throw money at it until you diagnose.

 

It sounds like you do not have enough ram and the games are using your hard drive as virtual memory so that they do not crash. How much memory do you have in this laptop? Have you run task manager and checked your free memory while you are in any of these games?

 

I have a 1 gig of RAM.
I am going to check task manager.

 

Run the game, then press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC while in the game to jump to task manager, then checkout your free memory. You'd be surprised, I was having a similar problem with my desktop in BF2 and found that the game needed 1.2 gigs of ram with my video settings.

 

How did u solve the problem then?

Would lowering the video settings help?

 

I also play CSS and never had a problem until I formatted my disk couple of days ago. I guess the problem is the installation progress. It must be like

1- install windows
2- chipset drivers
3- video drivers
4- windows update
5- other hardware drivers


last time i installed video drivers last and this freezing problem occured in most of the games. i will format my disk tonight and install properly, i guess the problem will disappear...

(sorry for my english )

 

just as i thought issue has been solved after a clean install according to the list above..