Specifications

board-based audio: noise. With tons
of traces for the expansion slots,
RAM, SATA, PATA, etc., a moth-
erboard can generate an incred-
ible amount of electrical noise.
Motherboard designers try to mini-
mize the noise factor by situating
audio circuits away from especially
noisy circuits like power, but such
design measures are ultimately
bound by a motherboard’s produc-
tion costs.
Your board may simply have a
circuit that’s too close to the audio,
which would create noise under
certain circumstances. Not all is
lost, though. You may want to first
try playing with your mixer levels
and speaker levels to see if you can
minimize the sound. Sometimes,
increasing the speaker’s volume
while decreasing the volume from
the motherboard can help reduce
the noise problem. This is a long-
shot, but you may also want to
make sure the speaker isn’t picking
up interference from the system
because its power cables are
wrapped around the LAN cables.
If that doesn’t work, it may well
be time to buy an Audigy 2 soundcard.
AUDIGY ACTING UP
Following a recent LAN party,
my computer refused to boot.
After some thorough testing, I
found that the naughty piece
of hardware was my Audigy
soundcard. It caused the system
to randomly lock up, and
refused to accept drivers. I hate
my non-EAX onboard sound. Is
there any hope, or has my card
seen its final days?
—RUBEN MARTINEZ
Creative’s soundcards are known
to have issues when interacting
with mobos equipped with VIA’s 686
southbridge, but assuming you don’t
have such a motherboard, there are
a couple things you can try to solve
your problem.
The Doc recommends that you
first try the Audigy card in a com-
pletely different system to see if
it’s still functional. If it misbehaves
in that box, send it to the spice
mines of Kessel. If you find that
the card works in the alternate
box, then it’s time to examine your
system. Try plugging the card into
another PCI slot, getting the latest
BIOS and chipset drivers for your
motherboard, and possibly mov-
ing your other PCI devices around
to see if that solves a conflict.
Furthermore, onboard devices
on new motherboards work by
bridging through the PCI bus. Try
disabling a few onboard devices
to see if the problem clears up. Of
course, running this all on a clean
install of Windows XP may also
help solve the problem. If none of
this works, then you’ve got a nice
new door stop.
FIX MY WONKY WI-FI
When I’m on my home wireless
LAN, the signal between my
router and laptop will drop out
every 15 minutes or so. The signal
strength is excellent or very good
the rest of the time. It just dies
without warning. The laptop will
find the router again in about 30
seconds, and I will see a message
from Windows XP asking me to
select my network.
I’m using Windows to
configure the connection and
have all other third-party
networking utilities disabled. I’m
at a loss for why this happens.
—JEFF LOPER
Most likely, the problem has nothing
to do with an error or misconfigura-
tion on your part, but rather with a
bug in Windows XP’s Wi-Fi configu-
ration applet, which surfaces when
Windows detects more than one
available Wi-Fi network. The fix is
simple, download Service Pack 2
from www.windowsupdate.com and
install it. We haven’t had a single
dropped Wi-Fi connection since we
installed the update.
ADVANCED EXACT AUDIO
COPY TRICKS
I recently started using Exact
Audio Copy to convert my CD
collection to MP3. I love its
effortless operation! Just one
question: When I rip, say, a
soundtrack with multiple artists,
the program creates multiple
folders for the album. As you can
imagine, this creates a lot of
folders for albums that feature
multiple artists. Is there a way to
force the program to create a
single folder for the album, like
when I rip a single-artist CD?
—CHRIS CUPLER
This same problem haunted a
couple of Maximum PC editors, and
we’re happy to report it’s relatively
easy to fix. You just need to tell EAC
to use a slightly different naming
scheme for compilation CDs than it
uses for single artist CDs.
Open EAC, go to the EAC Options
panel, click the Filename tab,
and check the “Use various artist
naming scheme.” EAC uses differ-
ent variables for track artist and
CD artist. If you want to create an
artist/album/track number –track
title naming scheme, you can use
%A/%C/%N–%T for the normal,
single-artist naming scheme, and
%D/%C/%N–%T for the various art-
ist naming scheme. ■
HOME SPEAKER REPAIR
DOS AND DON’TS
I have a Logitech Z-680 sub that’s developed
a rattle inside of the box. I believe something
inside has come loose. When I play my system
loud it tends to rattle from inside. I know it’s
not the actual driver rattling. I’ve checked
it closely, and I want to resecure whatever is
rattling inside of the cabinet.
—MARCO LEBRON
The Doctor has experienced the infuriating “sub-
woofer rattling” phenomenon as well,
so we feel your pain, Marco.
Unfortunately, it’s just not
a good idea to attempt to
dismantle the subwoofer.
Not only will it void your
warranty, it could also permanently damage the
device.
If you examine the Z-680 subwoofer, you’ll notice
there are no exposed screws or signs that say “open
here.” This is done for a reason. All subwoofers are
explicitly designed to be completely air tight and
are sealed shut at the factory to ensure that when
the driver moves, air moves only one way—out of
the subwoofer’s port. The precise flow of air out
this channel helps bass sound nice and tight. If you
remove the driver you will break the unit’s air seals,
and there’s a strong likelihood you will cause perma-
nent damage to the subwoofer.
The Doc advises you to send the unit back to
Logitech for repair or replacement. You can call
Logitech’s customer support at 702.269.3457.
Instead of trying to open a
busted sub, just send it back to
the company for a replacement.
69 JANUARY 2005 MAXIMUMPC
Don’t let the winter weather get you down. Even in the coldest conditions,
you have your PC—as long as it’s healthy, that is. If your PC isn’t totally in
the pink, it’s time to e-mail the Doctor (
[e-mail]), for
his special brand of PC medicine any less potent.
Don’t let the winter weather get you down. Even in the coldest conditions,