TS completely crashes computer when i connect

[arto]

hi there,

my problem is: TS opens perfectly fine, (and yep i've got the latest version) but when i connect to a server it completely crashes the computer. and i'm not just talking about like an OS crash, the monitor goes into suspended mode like there is no video signal coming to it, the last millisecond of audio coming through the speakers repeats itself and it becomes completely unresponsive, bar hitting the power button.

specs are as follow:

TS 2 2.0.32.60
win xp pro sp2
gigabyte GA-7N400-L mobo (has ac97 chip on board)
2x512 meg stick of pc2700 kingston RAM
80 gig seagate 7200rpm
liteon cd rw/dvd r
athlonxp 2500
albatron 6600gt AGP

this is really frustrating as my wow guild uses teamspeak, and seeing as i cant get it working it greatly reduces my effectiveness.

one error is logged in my event log as well:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: System Error
Event Category: (102)
Event ID: 1003
Date: 8/30/2005
Time: 6:15:41 PM
User: N/A
Computer: HELL
Description:
Error code 1000008e, parameter1 c0000092, parameter2 f208b946, parameter3 f7c4ae1c, parameter4 00000000.


Data:
0000: 53 79 73 74 65 6d 20 45 System E
0008: 72 72 6f 72 20 20 45 72 rror Er
0010: 72 6f 72 20 63 6f 64 65 ror code
0018: 20 31 30 30 30 30 30 38 1000008
0020: 65 20 20 50 61 72 61 6d e Param
0028: 65 74 65 72 73 20 63 30 eters c0
0030: 30 30 30 30 39 32 2c 20 000092,
0038: 66 32 30 38 62 39 34 36 f208b946
0040: 2c 20 66 37 63 34 61 65 , f7c4ae
0048: 31 63 2c 20 30 30 30 30 1c, 0000
0050: 30 30 30 30 0000

as useful as that is.

thanks in advance to anyone who has any clue about this, and ask any questions you need to (and fyi i am a network engineer at SME ISP so dont hesitate to ask me to do/provide technical shtuff)

cheers

- sam

[Brain]

Your hardware is nothing out of the ordinary so I don't expect any trouble from there. I'd put my money on the AC'97 onboard sound as this has been a plentiful source of problems in the past. Since AC'97 comes in different versions and with different drivers for almost each and every motherboard manufacturer it is impossible to exactly figure out what is wrong.
Experience shows that using a newer (or older) sound driver did the trick. Sometimes installing the latest chipset driver for VIA and NVidia chipsets helped too. Sometimes nothing except buying a real sound card (make sure it doesn't have a C-Media chip) helped.

I recommend you first try the latest AC'97 and chipset drivers for your mainboard. If that doesn't help you could try a spare sound card from one of your friends or co-workers (don't forget to tell Teamspeak to use the new sound card).

[arto]

ok i'll hunt around for some new drivers when i get home tonight.

just out of curiousity ( i havent installed a sound card in a pc that has onboard sound before as i've never had problems with it ) if i installed a *real* soundcard, do i have to disable the onboard one in the BIOS or something similar? or just chage the default audio adapter thingy setting in windows.

[Brain]

No, you don't have to disable the onboard sound. If your games don't have a problem with the onboard sound you could even use that to your advantage. Attach the onboard sound output to your stereo (and leave default sound card on onboard AC'97) and connect a headset to the sound card and tell Teamspeak to use it. That way you have separated game sounds and voice communication. It's a great advantage I wouldn't want to miss anymore.

[arto]

hmm sounds interesting. may i ask why it is an advantage to have a seperate card for voice?

also would a sound blaster live 5.1 be any good? i'm on a budget and thats relatively cheap

thanks again

-sam

[Brain]

The advantage is that you have game sound and voice communication separated. If you have your game sound on speakers and voice comm on your headset it is much easier to understand what people say.

Sound Blaster Live 5.1 would be just perfect. I used a Sound Blaster Live for 6 years before it croaked.