the new problem (crackling sneaks into live input)

I'd assume you know about this tool, but just in case, maybe worth a try:

ahh haha gotcha gwok. yeah i really like the lofi sound too...but only when i can turn it off!!! so far so good, folks. playing clean over here...ollie, if you're ever in san francisco, i'd love to buy you a beer or three.

thanks, nofish, i'm glad to have that.

edit - removed post

Since you also reinstalled your OS, did you forget some needed optimizations maybe? Processor scheduling set to prefer background services?

i didn't uninstall my old os, rather i created a partition for a new installation of XP. once i figured out it wasn't a reaper issue, i got rid of the new partition and went back to my old system.

alright. i took out my video card and both delta66s and replaced them in different PCI slots (swapped them around, like, because i only have 3 pci slots). this did nothing - the sound was there immediately upon booting. i am having a feeling that this has something to do with DMA buffer size. whenever i close my audio device (by opening preferences/ audio devices) and then return to reaper, the sound is gone until i click on something, or open a folder, etc.

I had this exact same problem with Reaper/Windows7/TascamUS122 eventually causing me to abandon all hope of recording audio on my PC and switching my whole setup over to my macbook pro.

ime, irq assignment can be unpredictable, meaning that you might pull a card or two, use the machine, put the cards back in the same slots, and the irq assignments might be different than before. i'm not saying that your problem is an irq issue, but it's something to keep in mind. man, you seem to have gotten bombarded with issues all at once. i feel for you. :( :p

thanks brainwreck that's good to know about irq addresses changing like that - i'll pull both deltas and then boot w/ just the geforce then reintroduce them.