USB hard drive causing sound problems

>-----Original Message-----
>Sounds like the PCI slot and the USB ports are "sharing"

>to install the Sound Blaster in a different slot.
>
>Y.
>
>"Scully" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in

>news:35f501c3e1ea$05969f60$a601280a@phx.gbl...

>> I recently bought a USB external hard drive and notice

>> whenever I have it turned on it causes a cracking sound
>> when I play music (or generate sound, eg with text to
>> speech programs). Kind of like suddenly the music is

>> played off an old record. Sure enough, when I turn the
>> drive off at the mains (or disconnect it), sound returns

>> normal with no cracking. Some points to note are:
>>
>> - This only happens with my cheap Creative Soundblaster

>> card, when I use my rubbish onboard sound, no cracking
>> happens (I have no other PCI sound cards to test, but I
>> would assume that the problem is not specific to my

>> just the fact that it's a PCI card).
>>
>> - The problem does not occur when I use Linux (thus I'm
>> guessing it's some problem in Windows XP).
>>
>> - I have the latest drivers for my motherboard, sound

>> and Windows updates.
>>
>> - I've tried moving my sound card to a different PCI

>> but that didn't help.
>>
>> - My external hard drive is fine, nothing wrong with it.
>>
>> I'm absolutely stumped why this is happening - I have

>> USB devices and they don't cause a problem (so I'm

>> it's only hard drives and similar stuff which is

>> accessed).
>>
>> Any help is appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Aaron.
>>
>> My Computer:
>> Athlon XP 2400
>> ASRock Motherboard (KV7 Something off the top of my

>> Creative Soundblaster standard sound card
>> 2 x internal hard drives (Windows XP Home / SuSE 9)
>> Cd writer, DVD drive
>> NVIDIA Geforce 2 64MB MX graphics
>> ...etc.
>>

>
>
>.
>

>-----Original Message-----
>I recently bought a USB external hard drive and notice

>whenever I have it turned on it causes a cracking sound
>when I play music (or generate sound, eg with text to
>speech programs). Kind of like suddenly the music is

>played off an old record. Sure enough, when I turn the
>drive off at the mains (or disconnect it), sound returns

>normal with no cracking. Some points to note are:
>
>- This only happens with my cheap Creative Soundblaster

>card, when I use my rubbish onboard sound, no cracking
>happens (I have no other PCI sound cards to test, but I
>would assume that the problem is not specific to my

>just the fact that it's a PCI card).
>
>- The problem does not occur when I use Linux (thus I'm
>guessing it's some problem in Windows XP).
>
>- I have the latest drivers for my motherboard, sound

>and Windows updates.
>
>- I've tried moving my sound card to a different PCI

>but that didn't help.
>
>- My external hard drive is fine, nothing wrong with it.
>
>I'm absolutely stumped why this is happening - I have

>USB devices and they don't cause a problem (so I'm

>it's only hard drives and similar stuff which is

>accessed).
>
>Any help is appreciated.
>
>Thanks
>Aaron.
>
>My Computer:
>Athlon XP 2400
>ASRock Motherboard (KV7 Something off the top of my head)
>Creative Soundblaster standard sound card
>2 x internal hard drives (Windows XP Home / SuSE 9)
>Cd writer, DVD drive
>NVIDIA Geforce 2 64MB MX graphics
>....etc.
>
>.
>