OK, if you would review this thread quickly for the background: http://www.hardwareforums.com/setting-irqs-17608/?highlight=ROLAND I changed the soundcard slot. It initially showed up as IRQ 10. Yay, I thought. After actually installing the driver, it is on IRQ 16, same as my soundcard... what? there are plenty of open IRQs!! But, I'm no expert on IRQs and maybe I AM barking up the wrong tree: I noticed something new. At least one of the static pop sounds I seem to be experiencing seems tied directly to the hard disk access light coming on. Does this provide any other things to try?
So sorry for the duplicates - I thought the message "Please don't use slang" was telling me my posts weren't accepted (notice the slight change of wording in each post).
I don't know the motherboard you have, so I don't know if this is even an option, but it's something I picked up for pops and crackling on X-Fi cards that's resolved alot of those problems. I don't know if it will work, given that this isn't the same card you have, but anyway... A big help was using the dual-channel memory function. The requirements are: a motherboard that has dual-channel memory support and 2 sticks of RAM with the same amount (IE, 256MB + 256MB). If you meet those requirements, then you'll need to have a stick installed in both channels. If this is available, your motherboard manual should state which slot arrangements will enable the dual-channel functionality.
Thanks - I do indeed have two 512MB chips installed, and I'm pretty sure that my board supports dual-channel mode. I'll just need to research and see if there's anything I need to do to make sure it's being utilized. It just seems strange that my crappy old Compaq P4 with one 512MB chip (and an otherwise identical configuration) didn't seem to have a problem. BTW, I am running dual 10k Raptor HDs - one for apps and one for data storage, same as before, so there's no way disk speed is an issue.
This is outside my expertise, but I did read somewhere (I think it was in the 2CPU forums) that a lot of high-end sound cards have to work outside of PCI specs, which can cause problems. I don't know if this is true, but it might explain why professional and high-end audio cards run into issues that you are.
