New noise in my Digi after adding video card, please help!

[vlad]

Ok, at first I was very excited to actually upgrade part of my system yesterday by installing an ATI Radeon 8500 Mac edition card.

THEN, I got my G4/400 back to the studio, and fired it up only to be completely bummed out by noise that comes through the Digi. This noise sounds like a constant high pitched squeal, combined with pink noise that changes pitch depending on the tower's activity.

This happens with the Monitor button on the Digi IN or OUT. The volume control has little effect on this noise.

The noise actually starts as soon as I power the machine on, as the screen is blank even. I'm pretty sure it's got to be hardware related. The presence of the Digi extension made no difference.

As the display changes resolutions, loads new images or the hard drive reads or writes is when I can hear a change in the sound. I have to listen back through this noise if I play a mix back.

Anybody have a similar experience? Is this just an incompatibility between the digi and the radeon? I've tried moving the digi away from the AGP slot, and even putting my ATA100 card between them.

I ran Digitest and everything checked out fine, reseated cables, disconnected anything I didn't need...

Any suggestions? Would this even warrant a return on ATI's part?

[img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] Martin

[vlad]

Other than taking it back, any thoughts, similar experiences? Anyone? Digi?

[Deirdre B]

Dear Vlad:

Thanks to you, I have found the source of MY annoying whine. I thought it might have been in my USB audio interface, but after pulling the extra video card, (ATI Radeon 7000) my audio channel is clear!

I don't know how I'm gonna work around this, since I prefer to have two monitors when working with graphics...but since this problem has been with me since I GOT my G4 (with the extra card installed by my Mac Guys!!) I'm just glad to know what the hell it is.

Your Pal
Deirdre B.

[Cornbread]

Hey, I have the same problem as well. High pitch noise coming from the output of the Digi001 and I also recently installed an AGP Radeon 8500 into my 400mhz G4. Annoying as hell!!! I was wondering why it was doin that. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[Deirdre B]

This isn't just a G4 400 issue--!

My Mac is a Brand-new Dual 1 gHz Quicksilver G4. What a hoot that I may need to bring back the old Beige G3 to record sound if I want to keep my second monitor!

man.

DB

[kite]

for what it's worth, I have Mac G4 450, with AGP graphics, and I use a Pro Max AGP graphics card, and run 2 screens - trouble free installation, and no extraneous noises ! It runs a CRT 19" and a LCD 15" -cost about £300 and is Digi/Pro Tools friendly . However have just tried to find info on their site - http://www.promax.com but can find no reference to such card. Does this mean they no longer manufacture or support it? No sooner does a good Mac product come along than someone decides to discontinue it -hope not.

[Nine Spine]

Mac G4 733 QS, 1.5 gig RAM, (3) Internal ATA Drives, and an ATI Radeon 32megDDR PCI Video Card (The only other PCI Card installed other than Digi...and AGP Slot) and I have absolutely no audio problems whatsoever. I do get the "PCI Bus too busy" errors from time to time if I am not careful though. For the record I am running (2) Sony 20" Trinitron Monitors.

I don't have a solution...just pointing out that I am not having this problem. My Digi PCI and my ATI PCI are seperated by an empty slot...don't know if that has anyting to do with it, I think I remember you saying you tried that already...

[Deirdre B]

The queer thing for me is that the PCI Radeon card was causing noise thru the USB audio interface.

THAT is wacko.

[vlad]

I'm SOOOO glad I checked this again before requesting another card be shipped from the supplier.

Deirdre, I'm glad you replied and that I'm not alone. Have you removed that 7000 to make sure the noise goes away?

Cornbread, have YOU removed it and gotten the noise to stop?

Last night i made the time to put my Rage 128 card back in, and the noise went away. This was of course, after I tried my last effort of troubleshooting:

I downlaoded the 1.26 firmware updater, and tried running that and got an error type 2. restarted, tried again, same thing.

I tried flashing it back to 1.23 and it worked and I rebooted.

Tried flashing it back up to 1.26 and it quit with a Type 1 this time. Figured maybe an extension conflict was happenning so I booted holding shift, only to boot to a blank screen.

Zapped PRAM with keys, nothing. Powered off and used the CUDA button, and still nothing.

OS X.2 has the drivers for this card natively, so I booted and held Ctrl-X to switch the startup disk to OSX. I could hear it happen, but it came up blank as well. I think this card died.

Put in the RAge, and low and behold, I don't have to listen to mixes through static and noise, and I can get display now!

Now I guess I have to decide to go with another card, abandon the idea altogether, or attempt getting a replacement for this card.

Martin

[Deirdre B]

Dear Martin:

Yes--I have removed the card and the noise disappeared. Another funny thing is this Radeon card DOESN'T have a little fan on it. Like, whatever.

I'm writing a report to ATI right now and sending them a link to this question on the DUC.

Your Geekette
Deirdre B.