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Hacking SigmaTel Drivers for E1705/9400, i need knowledgable helpers - Page 14

post #261 of 553
12/29/06 at 8:50am
First of all thank you very much for taking your own precious time in creating such a great driver/app. I am also having the crackling sound every once in awhile especially when Im listening to a song and at the same time scrolling down a webpage.
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post #262 of 553
12/29/06 at 9:10am
Srika, I am curious to know how the hacked drivers sounded better and do you mean a better EQ. I have nearly the same machine but mem/drive/vid and I also returned to original drivers only because of the input having bad noise on it that had to be turned off in an inconveinent way (which I've described on this thread). That sensitive input may have been picking up some sporadic EMF in your machine causing that crackle. In Sigmatel's initial promo they allude to a very flexible plugin toolkit available to manufacturers (not you and me). Which means yes you can add just the EQ but will need either still another driver pack from another laptop or figure out what to hack in there. If you figure it out let me/us know as I'd like to remove the "Audigy" stuff completely. Aside from EQ I find it completely useless. In the meantime you can always use the EQ in your players: Winamp, WMP, and most others including DJ softwares have one that hopefully sounds not so artificial. Let me also suggest that by cutting more than boosting sliders and then normalizing the gain may alleviate that artificiality. Remember where the "hacked" Sigmatel EQ placed it's zero line so as to force you to use more cut. Good luck with it. Sincerely, Geep
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post #263 of 553
12/29/06 at 9:42am
Srika and Scarmine Please read my posts at 219 and 212 on this thread and understand that this chip is in a very bad place for an audio device with input gain to be, especially an unbalanced input and sharing a power bus that isn't well filtered. I could go on but what you need to know is when you are not using it, turn that input down all the way while selected not just mute it. When using it hit it hard (high signal) keeping the panel gain low maximizing S/N ratio. Let me knowif this cures the crackling as it cured a constant low level whining for me. Geep
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post #264 of 553
12/29/06 at 11:22pm
Geep:
Thanks for the info. I will check it out.
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post #265 of 553
12/30/06 at 12:39am
As I'm reading through the pages of this driver development, I'm a bit confused. Is there a new driver that has these hacks already installed that would open up the new options for the Sigmatel 9200 sound card? I have this card in my Dell XPS M1710 and am very frustrated by it's crippled features. I'm trying to page through this thread, but I can't find what it is that I need to download.

Thanks
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post #266 of 553
12/30/06 at 1:48am
Rolc, Download the file from post #206 "here" (right click save as) and follow Pieter's instructions. I would recommend getting Dell's driver installer from their web site so you can reinstall the "correct" driver if you choose. They keep this input out of the mix because it is very noisy and latent (it's direct monitoring must be digitally buffered). When you are not using it, turn that input down all the way while selected not just mute it. See mypost at #219. Don't bother with recording 24 bit files as nearly all those extra bits will be below the input noise. Luck to yah! Geep
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post #267 of 553
12/30/06 at 2:42am
Driver level EQ alternative There is an audio enhancer available that can be used globally not as a player specific plugin. It is called SRS Audio Sandbox and while not a graphic EQ it has bass enhancement as well as treble "detail enhancement" plus some trendy psy-acoustic crap. Saw it first on Demonoid BT but SRS labs offers a demo. Geep
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post #268 of 553
12/30/06 at 11:14am
So i have been having trouble with the sound on my computer when playing Mp3's...generally it just skips . sometimes not much, sometimes a lot. im pretty sure it has something to do with one of the background processes......it does tend to skip right when I close the lid of the laptop (just for a second tho). I was wondering if the driver you guys have made will better utilize the chips processing? I have been skimming and it looks like there are just feature unlocks?
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post #269 of 553
12/30/06 at 2:21pm
Piro, No it won't help at all. If you don't really need the features don't do it. Frankly I'm surprised that E1705 will continue to play with lid closed as the default is to hibernate or sleep unless you mean in the media only boot mode which I've never used. I would in fact consider getting rid of Media Center if it were possible to up or downgrade to another XP without losing my programs. May I suggest that you try connecting any simple USB sound device just to see where the problem is. Also in your player's options/prefs try changing sound settings especially buffering. Lastly a fresh install of a program like Winamp may cure your ills. Good Luck, Geep
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post #270 of 553
1/4/07 at 4:08pm
Hello all. Thank you so much for solving a problem (recording to Steroe Mix) that I have been trying to find an answer for since i purchased my E1705 many months ago! I was wondering if anyone would care to take a look at the Windows Vista version of the Sigmatel driver to see if they can unlock the same functionality in it. I downloaded the Dell E1705 Vista 32 driver (http://ftp.us.dell.com/audio/R142219.EXE) and looked over the ini file the my machine uses (WRT_M2-7.INI) but couldn't make heads or tails about what should be changed or not. Thanks in advance!

Steve
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post #271 of 553
1/4/07 at 10:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Geep
Srika, I am curious to know how the hacked drivers sounded better and do you mean a better EQ. I have nearly the same machine but mem/drive/vid and I also returned to original drivers only because of the input having bad noise on it that had to be turned off in an inconveinent way (which I've described on this thread). That sensitive input may have been picking up some sporadic EMF in your machine causing that crackle. In Sigmatel's initial promo they allude to a very flexible plugin toolkit available to manufacturers (not you and me). Which means yes you can add just the EQ but will need either still another driver pack from another laptop or figure out what to hack in there. If you figure it out let me/us know as I'd like to remove the "Audigy" stuff completely. Aside from EQ I find it completely useless. In the meantime you can always use the EQ in your players: Winamp, WMP, and most others including DJ softwares have one that hopefully sounds not so artificial. Let me also suggest that by cutting more than boosting sliders and then normalizing the gain may alleviate that artificiality. Remember where the "hacked" Sigmatel EQ placed it's zero line so as to force you to use more cut. Good luck with it. Sincerely, Geep

I think it was just a question of the EQ - I boosted the highest 4 bands +2, +3, +4, +5 to get that crisp sound. You cannot do this without the EQ. The sound is rather dry without doing this. Funny thing because I had a E1505 CD 2.0 prior to getting this one, and it sounded better with the Creative Audigy MB package. I mean, it sounded REALLY GOOD. I can't figure out what the difference is.
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post #272 of 553
1/4/07 at 10:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Geep
Srika and Scarmine Please read my posts at 219 and 212 on this thread and understand that this chip is in a very bad place for an audio device with input gain to be, especially an unbalanced input and sharing a power bus that isn't well filtered. I could go on but what you need to know is when you are not using it, turn that input down all the way while selected not just mute it. When using it hit it hard (high signal) keeping the panel gain low maximizing S/N ratio. Let me knowif this cures the crackling as it cured a constant low level whining for me. Geep

I will try this out and let you know! I thought it only applied to the line-in recording and since I wasn't doing anything with that, I didn't pursue it. thx
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post #273 of 553
1/7/07 at 11:33pm
hi, i was wondering if the .ini file will work on my xps m1210, i got the audigy option when i ordered it, and it not really an audigy soundcard. i am primarily concerned with getting the line in to moniter, and the recording latency to go down since i'm trying to record some music with a multitrack recording program. the audigy software seems fine except for the latenct and the lack of monitering, can anyone help me out?
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post #274 of 553
1/8/07 at 6:30pm
Srika, The E1505 sounding crisper is very likely the actual speakers,cabinet and positioning. Subwoofer balancing may also play into it but I'm sure you played with that. Sorry to say my E1705 has much better highs on the right speaker than on the left. GEEP
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post #275 of 553
1/8/07 at 7:10pm
Kaijirus, Opt for the ASIO driver. If you don't have one already get Wuschel's ASIO4All But that will only let you monitor thru your recording software and the latency will report down to 3ms but will sound about 50ms, no better than the hacked driver. If you get rid of Audigy software it may improve latency: I don't know I didn't remove it on my machine even when I used the Hacked driver. All the Audigy stuff remained active. If you are going to Multitrack get an interface: Presonus Firepod or Firebox are said to work well even with Media Center. For now, Y split your input signal to a mixer or separate monitor amp and skip monitoring through the computer. Any decent software can compensate and record your audio signal in it's proper time. (I'm presuming you are not recording MIDI software instruments which can only be monitored through the computer.) Good luck. GEEP
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post #276 of 553
1/9/07 at 4:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Geep
Srika, The E1505 sounding crisper is very likely the actual speakers,cabinet and positioning. Subwoofer balancing may also play into it but I'm sure you played with that. Sorry to say my E1705 has much better highs on the right speaker than on the left. GEEP

I am only referring to when listening on earphones (I have Sennheiser CX-300 earbuds, btw. Before that I had the Sony EX-51 and EX-71's).
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post #277 of 553
1/9/07 at 8:18pm
Srika, Oh, I missed that. Same chip? STK9200? It is the amp. Component tolerances would not do this but some support circuitry (R/C networks) could. Some ini entrys apply a fixed curve. Control panel choices for desktop, bookshelf, phones. If these weren't set the same on both machines then even the same phones would sound radically different. Could you have overlooked this? [ Control Panels/Sounds and audio devices/volume tab/advanced/speakers tab/phones (or no speakers) ]. On a really simple machine this is all you'd have. Good sounds Sincerely, GEEP
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post #278 of 553
1/13/07 at 12:42am
Hey guys.
I have a Inspiron 6400 (Canada) and downloaded and followed the procedure posted by falerus on page 2. The only difference I see so far is the "Line-In" option in the 'recording' section of volume control. Also, when i go to Sigmatel Audio in control panel, the only thing I see is a checkbox with "Allow reconfiguration Pop-Ups for this Jack." There are no tabs or anything like in the screenshots posted.
What I need most desparately is the ability to record whatever sound is being outputted by the soundcard and record it. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks everyone for all the work you're doing here!
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post #279 of 553
1/14/07 at 6:04am
Rijet, I think you need to review the last few pages if you are determined to use a modded driver : the most recent "hacked " driver which you will find within. I would suggest instead using a small external mixer to drive phones and return your output back to input or a simple stereo resistive splitter with about 20 ohm resistors feeding the phones (and 10-20k ohms back to input if you need to input another signal). A resistive splitter prevents your phones from coloring the sound going back into the input. A simple y split cable is fine if you use an external amplifier or amplified phones. Geep
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post #280 of 553
1/16/07 at 6:32am
Great work!

Which version is the most up to date for the 9400?

Right now the internal subwoofer turns off when i plug in headphones, is it possible to keep it on? (i use speakers connected to an amp instead of headphoens, and its nice to be able to switch by turning off the spkrs, instead of having to unplug too.)


I cant get the mic jack to output, I configure it as "headphone output" but no dice.


Do any of the other features besides the equalizer work? (like dolby, bass boost) They dont seem to have an effect.


Does the sigmatel chip support EAX with default drivers?I have the audigy 'upgrade', according to RightMark3Dsound EAX1,2&3 are available. I'm wondering if you get EAX in games without the audigy upgrade.


Also the easiest way to change to the hacked driver is to use the "update driver" function in the hardware manager, it doesnt interfere with the audigy software installation, and can be rolled back.
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