Hello! I'm very new to Linux, but I'm learning so please go easy on me.

I have a SoundBlaster Live! card, which came with my Dell. Apparently it's some kind of crippled version and doesn't use an authentic chipset or something. As a result, a lot of people on message boards have been having trouble getting it to work with alsa.

So I was very happy to find that Slackware actually works with my soundcard, after unmuting the channels in alsamixer. When I leave my system alone, audio playback (CDs, etc) is okay but I can hear distortion. But once I do anything on the computer, even drag a window around or load a web page (or even typing this message), the audio becomes sort of choppy and I hear popping.

Is this because of the lack of proper drivers / software emulation, or is this something you think I can fix?

Thanks!

Work with one of those dell's on a friend's computer and never had any good success. Ran down to Circuit City and picked up a real SB LIve for $40.00 and was up in about 2 minutes.

Brian

Thanks. If I were to get the real SBLive! card, would that fix my problem though? Seems like maybe I should get a card with Linux drivers.

Drivers for the SB Live! cards are already in ALSA, thats why Brian recomended it to you.

What you want to find is a generic basic SB Live. It will use the emu1k01. Or See what is available and check through the HCL section here to see if others have tried it and how well it worked. It is located at the top and to the right of this page.

Brian

Ok! Thank you very much.

Try adjusting the 'DSP' volume. I noticed on a certain Intel 810 motherboard, that I had to reduce the DSP volume to remove static and distortion using ALSA.