Few question regarding Music PC

[mahiruha]

Hi Vortex,
well not many but I do have some good music at that sampling rate and it is growing. What I want from the card is accurate presention of music what is there in the file nothing more nothing less. I am bit too demanding in this particular case beacuse I am on my way to decide what will be the ultimate format for me when it comes to music. I am just trying these files to see how close they can come to vinyl. In that process I have to make sure that I am reproducing music out of those files in a proper manner. Actually I am planning to play those files from logitech squeezebox since it can play high resolution flac files and it is done straight away without much change in the s/w front. May be that cen give me a base regarding what to expect out of those files. Upsampling those files again isn't a worthiwhile option since it involves more processing but I will also give it a go once I am settled with the operating system
Thnaks.

 

[thevortex]

Mahiruha - have you tried playing these files through the soundcard and hear something amiss? If so, I guess you are entitled to search for the ultimate sound front end.

With your setup I would consider a NOS DAC and take a digital out to connect with it to have the ultimate front end.

 

[mahiruha]

Mahiruha - have you tried playing these files through the soundcard and hear something amiss? If so, I guess you are entitled to search for the ultimate sound front end.

With your setup I would consider a NOS DAC and take a digital out to connect with it to have the ultimate front end.

Hi vortex,
actually a funny thing happened. After listening to music PC for a day the operating system is not working anymore. Actually since I didn't make any attempt to activate windows for 2 days it is not allowing me to enter.The computer has no internet connection so it is saying it is not being able to access net to validate windows. Bit funny. Hence I have decided to install windows 7 home premium( since it is readily available) tomorrow and see how it goes.
since the music pc not working anymore so today I listened to some music through the CA player. I also burned a DVD audio from the high resolution music files and played thorugh the player which I heard before through the sound card.To my ear they sound more or less same may be the ASUS performed slightly better. May be it is new possession of asus bias. Am pretty ok the way the sound card is performing as of now. Your suggestion for NOS DAC is interesting. gives me some food for thought. For the time being my goal is to make a stable system from manually assembled pieces and enjoy it for a while before thinking about next addition.

Do have some name of NOS DAC's in mind?
Thanks.

 

[mahiruha]

Hi Guys,
don't want to clutter Raghav's thread on lossless audio so continuing discussion in this thread on wireless router.
@Ashish: Thanks for the suggestion. Well a repeater and new belkin wireless N router cost almost the same. I am just wondering if this N routers has wider coverage area and better wall penetration within the house?

@ Steven: Thanks for the suggestion. Well airport exprees is indeed a very good product but won't do the job for me. since I need switch along with a wireless router. I need to connect my xbox , one desktop to that switch. If I need to buy so many wirelss dongles it is not financially viable proposition. So a good wireless router with wider coverage area is the only choice.
Thanks.

 

[thevortex]

Well, I have been kicking quite a few of the options around on NOS DACs. Right from Chinese DACs available cheaply off ebay to some of the tempting NOS DAC kits such as the Peter Daniel DAC, Scott Nixon Chibi etc.

Right now I am eagerly looking forward to something exciting cooking closer to home. Viren is working on a DAC about which I have high hopes .

 

[mahiruha]

Hi guys,
this music pc is turning out to be a nightmare. when I tried to boot it today the operating sytem crahsed again. Actually yeterday I managed to get a new windows vista home basic installed it activated and everything was really smooth. The onboard soundcard was playing computer speaker and asus xonar essence STX was playing the Lyrita system and sound was very good but the system just crashed when I tried to boot it today.Do you guys have any idea what might be the probalbe reason.I am suspecting that the operating sytem might be getting confused with two sound cards the onboard and the external one. I have again loaded the operating system and this time I found a way around. I just unistalled the onboard sound card driver and plugged the desktop speaker to the headphone out of the asus xonar card. In the asus control panel if want to play desktop speaker I just select headphone and 2 channel for the Lyrita system. When I restarted the system windows itself installed onboard sound card. How to disable this onboard sound card is there any option in the bios setting. The system is working ok for now not sure if it will crash again tomorrow. Can anybody show some light regarding the probale cause.
Thanks.

 

[spirovious]

Why so, if installed properly & no virus threats,then it shldnt.
Try XP pro OR Win7.

 

[mahiruha]

You can disable the onboard sound in BIOS, there should be a setting somewhere in something like 'Onboard peripherals' or something like that.

You can also disable it in XP using Device manager, simply locate the icon and right click to disable.

Well checked the Bios but couldn't find anything where I can disable onboard sound. If I disable from the device manager when the computer is restarted it gets installed. Actulally I have noticed when I install the operating system first time there is no recognition of onboard sound card but when I install the realtek driver from the ASUS motherboard CD the computer just keeps it in the memory. I guess then formatting the C drive and again installing the operating system is the only solution.

 

[spirovious]

Well,I can guess-
May need good SMPS,
need Bios upgrade.

I remember,I has same prob before I chage powersupply & update Bios two times.

 

[mahiruha]

Hi,
the motherboard is Asus M2N68-AMPLUS
Theitdepot - Asus M2N68-AMPLUS Motherboard

The power supply is Corsair CMPSU-400CX 400W Power Supply
Theitdepot - Corsair CMPSU-400CX 400W Power Supply

How to update bios? Can it be a problem related to hard drive or the mother board is too weak to handle this sound card and 3 GB of Ram, at least its spec says it can handle all this.

 

[rikhav]

Call Asus helpline if any and ask how to disable soundcard from bios
I don't think any bios upgrade is required. Sometimes the BIOS is tricky and it takes time to find the exact menu

 

[spirovious]

SC can be disable from Device manager.If not directly,after installing SC driver.
Have you installed MB drivers?

 

[mahiruha]

Hi,
the problem continues. When I switched on the pc this morning just to check if the crashing problem still persist and I found it is there. I find it really puzzling that what can be the problem that the computer works fine for a evening and next morning its gone.Very peculiar problem indeed never expereienced anything like that.
Thanks.

 

[spirovious]

What is error message?
It can be due to loose cable connection,faulty cable too.
Asus has a program for Bios update with safety.

 

[mahiruha]

Well it says "windows failed to start. A recent hardware of software changes might have caused the problem. Please insert the installation disc to fix the problem." I think either the hard disc or the asus xonar sound card is the problem. I am suspecting the soundcard since I don't hear the clikcing sound from the soundcard anymore when windows starts. I have called the technician lets see how it goes if he atall turns up. The problem is these guys have never seen asus sound card so don't know much about them. Its a good lesson. I will go with a prebuilt unit for my gaming CPU, the extra premium is worth for the stability of the system.

 

[mahiruha]

There is no such thing as a weak motherboard.

There would be a motherboard manual in your box, or in the CD that came with the motherboard. On page 2-9 there is the specific instruction that enables or disables onboard audio - Azalia Audio enable/disable.

You can update BIOS on all Asus motherboards by pressing Alt+F2 at boot. The BIOS file needs to be unzipped on a USB drive and inserted before booting. If your system is stable this is not necessary.

Hi Cranky,
thanks for the info. Actually I couldn't find anything in the manual that was in the accompanying dvd. I just downloaded a manual from asus website which this azalia thing mentioned. Lets see how it goes. Another issuue I am suspecting is VLC media player was the last software I installed. Can it cause an operating ystem to crash??
Thnaks.

 

[mahiruha]

well what I am suspecting is some how some malware is getting installed and I when try to load thecomputer next day it desperately try and look for internet which is not available in the system and as a result it just crashes the system. It is tru that system doens't crash when the VLC is being played but something else it installs does the trick. Otherwise I don't find a viable logic why the system would crash next day.

 

[spirovious]

Do following-

Remove Xonar, try booting,if it does ,Xonar has issue OR PCI slot has prob.

Many has reported issues with Asus brd recently & failure to boot.You need to update Bios for that.If you read some rev on newegg,you will agree that.

If you have more than 2 Ram,try using one at a time only as Ram can be prob.
In my case one ram was faulty & Win refused booting.

 

[thevortex]

To eliminate any issues with the RAM, you could try removing one RAM chip and restart and see if that works better. Then try with the other and so on.

Also another way to check if the problem lies with the software or the hardware is by booting into a Linux Live CD. There are many out there. If you dont want to download anything you can get the latest Chip or Digit magazines and they would have what you need in all probability.

 

[mahiruha]

hi vortex,
which mother board and processor r u using? I think you are using asus xonar essence STX right. If nothing works I might just replicate ur setup at least it has proven track record and stabilty ( Does it or I am just assuming )
Thanks.