Sound Card Static

Hey, I just built a computer with an MSI 848P Neo mainboard. It has a Realtek AC'97 Integrated audio sound card on it, and i've been having problems with it since I booted up for the first time. The sound is fine until I get into my favorite 3D game - Counter Strike. The sound is there for about 2 seconds and then it turns to static. When there is a loud noise, theres loud static, low noise, low static. And if I close it I can't get that 2 seconds of sound until I reboot again. But after I get in that game there is no more sound anywhere outside of the game unless I reboot. I've tried two sets of drivers, one from the CD that came with the mainboard, and one from the Realtek website. I tried reading up on it, but I gave up because most people said to change the DMA, which I don't have that option in Device Manager .

My computer specs are:
Intel Celeron 2.4 GHz
512 DDR memory
Nvidia Ti4200 128mb 8xAGP
MSI 848P Neo mainboard
Realtek AC'97 integrated audio

Think you could help please?
Thanks a lot.

Have you tried checking the game manufacturer for an update of the game since that is reportedly the only thing that gives you trouble? Games require a high level of interaction with video and audio devices and thus are extremely prone to sound/video compatability problems. Compounding this are the plethora of new sound and video cards (or built in motherboard equivalents) which come out every month. Game developers often can't anticipate everything, but they will often release patches which resolve these issues after the fact.

You've started on the right track, updating the drivers, as medialint suggested look for updates for the game (patches), and make sure you have all O/S and in particular DirectX updates.

As for changing the DMA, if the sound is onboard, you will be able to change the DMA channel in the BIOS.

R13.