Well, I tried your suggestions and THE HORROR!!!

I decided to just ditch the sound card (what a waste of $100) and use the onboard audio on the motherboard. Thankfully, I notice no difference in sound quality between the two. The only real problem I have now is getting my microphone to work via the onboard audio.

Greetings,

I recently built myself a brand new computer for the first time. All is well except for the sound card. The sound card I purchased is the X-Fi Xtreme Gamer.

In most of the games I play such as Age of Conan and World in Conflict, I'm having a big problem with static noise. World in Conflict is unplayable because of it - there will be a lot of static and suddenly the sound will go dead.

I know I have the card installed correctly and I know I have my headphones plugged in properly. I got the latest drivers (even the BETA drivers) as well. I have no idea why it keeps making static - and it's really annoying!

When trying to use my microphone, the people I'm talking to tell me that I sound like I'm stuttering, or that it sounds like a fan is blowing right next to my face.

Thank you very much for any help you can give me.

EDIT: I'm using this motherboard if you would like to know. If I can't fix the problem, I was thinking about just removing the sound card completely and using the motherboard's built-in audio. How would I do this? If I plug my headphones into the motherboard now, I hear no sound. Do I have to take my sound card out in order for that to happen, or is there something that I need to install?

Thanks again.

I'm not sure about Vista, but in Windows XP go to Start -> Run -> compmgmt.msc and go to Disk Management to format the blank drive.

Regarding the temperatures, that's a pretty large disparity. It could be because of uneven thermal paste spread, but it's not a big deal and shouldn't affect computer performance.

As for the blank screen that tells you to press F1 (not really blank then, eh?), does it say anything else?

RayvinAzn

Well, I turn on the computer and it comes to a screen that says something like...

Checking Hardware,

Floppy Disk Check Failed, (because I don't have one)

Checking Hard Drives,

Press F1 to continue, Del to enter Setup

Here are the result from CoreTemp. Taken while I'm sitting here doing nothing.

Core #0: 43

Core #1: 43

Core #2: 35

Core #3: 35

All under 0% load.

Thanks for all the help.

The reason why I was having so many problems was because there was a little problem with one of the pins. Three of them were alright, but there was a fourth that just wouldn't cooperate.

After that, the main problem I ran into was having trouble installing Windows Vista. That was solved after I fixed the wiring with my optical drive and two hard drives.

After that, I had no sound. I fixed that by installing the sound card properly.

Now my one (and I believe only) problem is that the computer doesn't recognize my largest hard drive. It's plugged in the exact same way as the other, so I have no idea what's wrong. When I go through the BIOS, it identifies both hard drives, but for some reason I'm unable to use the second.

If that were to be fixed, I would be content, though I'm still worried about overheating. I don't see any evidence that would point to overheating, but after having my CPU reach 110 degree celsius, I'm still worried. Does anyone know of some sort of small program I can download that keeps track of the tempuratures of the parts of my computer? I still think I should organize and tie up the wires. I also have this additional fan that came with my motherboard that I could use, but I'm not sure where I would put it.

I'm very, very shocked as to how well the computer is doing. I'm able to run Crysis with everything on high with absolutely no lag! It almost seems too good to be true.

If you want to see the specs of my computer, you can check out my profile.

After you remove the heatsink, the thermal interface material can often be smeared too much to be reusable.

What I bet happened the first time is that one (or more) of your push-pins wasn't all the way seated. The push-pin design is somewhat dodgy, and it's easy to miss a pin and have a problem exactly like yours. Clean the old thermal paste off your processor and heatsink with 90% or better isopropyl alcohol and some Q-tips, apply a small drop of new stuff on your processor, and try mounting the heatsink again. You might even want to do this outside the case so you can make 100% sure that the cooler is fully seated.

RayvinAzn

Well, I took out the processor and heatsink, cleaned off the thermal paste and then reapplied it. Then I put it all back together and turned the PC on. Same problem.

I'm pretty sure I'm putting the processor on correctly. Is there anything that maybe needs to be plugged in, that isn't?