Music Playback in Vista Problems
Since installing Vista Ultimate, simple music playback using various programs is hampered by digital stuttering (similar to Max Headroom) from all music players. Vista can't get through a single song without these hiccups.
Occurs in: Media Center; Rhapsody; Winamp, WMP 11; iTunes about every 30 seconds.
My system is Windows Premium Ready; Acer Aspire 9800 (20" notebook) Dual-core T2600; 2GB RAM. Hardly lacks power; drivers not an issue on any of the aforementioned programs.
Anyone have this same problem, or hints at a source of the problem?
Answers
Guess what???
It appears that may not have been the problem at all, because I have a solution ;)
Take a look below;
.................................................................................
1. Go to control panel > sound > speaker > Propteries.
2. Then under enhancements.
3. Select "Disable all enchancements".
4. Enjoy your music without lag or delay!!
................................................................................
HAVE FUN!!
All Replies
Hi Steven,
I'm having the exact same problem!! What's more, there is an annoyingly painful delay between selecting a song and having it play back..
I am also yet to find a solution.
I'm running Ultimate 32 bit edition on an XPS M1210 with a T7200 core 2 duo processor and 2GB of RAM. I have a Geforce 7400 graphics card, so like you, it's not a result of a lack of power...
I'll let you know if I find a solution, but can you do the same for me??
Thanks!!
I came across this article which kind of sheds some light (actually it confirms my suspicions)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/3931679a28.html
It's a DRM related issue. I'm not sure it will be fixable until Microsoft releases a fix...
Very good. Thanks.
I have no doubt that this is the cause of the problem.
Guess what???
It appears that may not have been the problem at all, because I have a solution ;)
Take a look below;
.................................................................................
1. Go to control panel > sound > speaker > Propteries.
2. Then under enhancements.
3. Select "Disable all enchancements".
4. Enjoy your music without lag or delay!!
................................................................................
HAVE FUN!!thank god i found this site, i just brought a new dell desk top computer with vista, and my problem was like someone
said slow switching between songs and also any song i played with about 20sec left at each song it would go jerki.
i done what jazacoop said control panel etc, and yes yes yes yes yes! works fine now. no more stress!
cheers...
Very interesting. This switch did not fix my problem all the way, but definitely had an impact. It has lessened the lag time significantly. It does point a finger at Realtek Drivers, though.
I worked for an hour his morning with Vista support on this problem. They had me run a system file check and install the K-lite Codec Pack -- neither of which had any effect. They did accept the New Zealand technical article, but confirmed that the number of compaints on this problem is still relatively low and not enough to engage a major effort. At this time, they have classified the issue 1029496538 as "unresolved."
Thanks for your investigation and recommendation.
/jazacoop-
Thanks for the tips on the playback issue. I have virtually the same setup as you (XPS M1210, core 2 duo, Geforce 7400, etc.), yet the "Disable Enhancements" fix didn't do the trick for me. Is there anything else you did to fix the issue? Are you also working with the "Sigma Tel HD Audio Codec"?
This iTunes thing is driving me crazy!
Thanks for your help.
I am having similar issues when I try and play audio the CPU jumps to 100% and then after about 10 seconds goes down to 35% and then bounces up and down between 24% and 45%. After trying everything I could find online include the fixes mentioned above, I finally replaced my Audigy 2 Card with an X-FI. Unfortunatley that did nothing to fix the problem. I have an ASUS A8V Deluxe, AMD 64 3500+, Radeon 9700 pro. I was suprised to read Microsoft feels the problem is not big enough yet to require any major effort to resolve the issue. Maybe they better start Googling the problem. Having already replaced my router because of Vista, and spending countless hours dealing with power management issues, I am now going to go back to XP, the issues around Vista and Office 2007 are making me seriously consider switching our entire office to Linux and Open Office.
While the CPU cycle activity and New Zealand tech article had me convinced this was DRM, I believe it is a driver issue. I worked with Microsoft "escalated" tech support this weekend and they have closed the Issue 1029496538 as "resolved." They were adamant that this was a driver issue and not an OS issue or a DRM issue. My audio card is a RealTek High Definition AC97. Microsoft said they have a database already gathering numerous complaints about RealTek cards specifically and all are driver problems
This morning, Acer pointed me to a new page on their support site with Vista drivers for all their notebook systems. The RealTek driver from that support page fixed the problem. http://secure2.tx.acer.com/VistaDownloads/AcerSeries.aspx.
- I have a sony sz notebook that has Sigma Tel HD Audio Codec. I upgaded it from Vista Buisness to Vista Ultimate. Now it says no audio output devices are installed.
The problem is most likely related to DSP effects that you may have turned on, or that have been on by default. There is another thread that discusses similar problems, but seem to be directly related to an application called audiodg.exe. This app, from what I understand, handles DSP effects on behalf of your audio card along with some other things. It does appear, in some cases, to be the root of audio glitching under Vista.
I was actually having a similar problem and audiodg.exe was consuming about 14% of the processor. Audio "glitching" was most noticable when opening other applications or basically anything that required a moderate to high amount of processor time.
After turning off the DSP effects for my audio card, the glitching / stuttering had disappeared and audiodg.exe no longer consumed any processor time.
I beleive the true cause of the problems is not audiodg.exe, however. It simply falls into the hands of audio hardware manufacturers and their drivers.
I am currently using a Creative Labs X-Fi ExtremeMusic sound card, and while some DSP features cause no glitching (X-Fi Crystalizer), others do (X-Fi CMSS-3D). So, it would appear as though it is Vista driver progression and just a matter of time before all the glitches are sorted out.
Here is a link to the other thread: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1310814&SiteID=1&mode=1
Good luck and I hope this has helped.
Hi,
I try jazacoop tip and it's work.
But here more details about what happen.
Before use jazacoop tip I use "Explore" and clip on one video music clip.
And Windows Media Player (I use Vista Ultimate) open and begin play.All work good and "audiodg.exe" use 5% of CPU.
But if I press "Library" "audiodg.exe" reach 20% of CPU.
And clip play bad.
And it's stay like that even if I press "Now Playing"I try also this.
Windows Media Player is close.
I use "Explore" and select one clip.
Windows player open and play the clip.
So I choose with "Explore" other clips"
And all work good and "audiodg.exe" use 5% of CPU.But if I save these music in a file and close Media Player and open it and open this playlist,
well "audiodg.exe" use 20% of CPU.Vista is very buggy.
Now with tip of jazacoop "audiodg.exe" use all time 0 or 1% of CPU.
But I lose enhancements.After some times, I find Vista ask a lot of power.
Better to have Dual Core (One core run Vista, the other run application)
And have minimum 4 MB of RAM.MY machine (Pentium IV 3 GHz, 2 MB) miss power and I find that really a joke.
But not surprised to see Vista ask a Monster machine like a Cray computer.
Guys from Microsoft use all time last better powerful machine to create their stuff.
Well soon I uninstall Vista and put my "old" XP Pro.
It's pity to see Microsoft work for Bank or agencies like RIAA and not for their customer.
It's ironical cause Microsoft make their money because their customer and not cause Bank and RIAA.
Majority of stuff of Vista is for Bank or agencies like RIAA. And majority make our machine like snail now.
But sure Bank and RIAA have last machine with 4 Core CPU, 16 GO RAM, GeForce 8800, etc.
Why spy Customer ? Why not spy rich for change to see all bad things they do for normal people...
Anyway. All time same story. Money is God of this Planet !
Thanks Bill for this &@#?# fake OS !
Happy to see my car not work like Windows.
Else for a long time I would have died!
Thanks jazacoop for you top anyway !
- have you been able to fix this problem. I sent 2 dell computers back and I now have a HP with the same problem??
- What kind of audio card do you have?
What driver is it running? Cheers to Jazacoop. Sent one computer back to company, same music-jumping problem with second computer they sent me, using Vista Ultimate. After many hours of trial and error and consultation with numerous technitions - no progress.
A friend, who works with computers directed me to this site.
Great, Thanks!
J.
- I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM WITH MEDIA PLAYER URGE CAN ANYONE RESOLVE THE PROBLEM LET ME KNOW I GOT THE WINDOWS VISTA HOME BASIC
- This happens for me too, it's absolutely inexcusable. I just received my computer back from Dell. They put a new motherboard in my computer because it was allegedly a bad motherboard. I don't know what's going on, maybe they should educate their technicians of this issue so they won't keep giving out new motherboards.
The Disable Enhancements feature does allow Windows Media Player to work regularly again. But I'm still upset about glitches, hiccups, and scratchy sound. A computer with a Core 2 Duo should be able to play music better than my gigabeat it's absolutely ridiculous.
How hard can it be to write some drivers that freaking work, maybe they should hire me? Stop being lazy and selling people computers that halfway work. I just recently bought a laptop from Dell, I installed a conference call webcam, when I try to preview a video in windows media center, it plays the video but no sound. I also cannot hear music when paying it from my itunes or from windows media center. If you find the fix for it can you let me know please?
I would hate to have to ship my laptop back to Dell especially if it can be fixed.
Thanks,
BA
- The problem with the dell laptops is actually is the wireless network and windows vista. (the stuttering isssue) try turning off wireless and check to see if you get this problem.
- I have a homebuilt Intel Core 2 Duo system, with a Linksys 802.n wireless network. Taking your advice I disconnected my wireless adapter and my stuttering music problem went away. I tried everything else that was suggested and the only thing that elimintated the stuttering was removing the network adapter. Definitely a problem somewhere!
Hi Ben,
Apologies... I haven't monitored this forum in several months. Have you resolved your issue, or is it still causing you problems?
If it is, I'd be interested to know a little more about your hardware specifications (particularly what type of wireless card you have - i.e. is it an Intel PROwireless 1354abg or something else??)
Let me know
Regards
Jaron.
This is not the best solution, but it works:
Connect to your wireless N network
Run the command prompt as admin:
type the following:
netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=no interface="Linksys Wireless"
substituting inside the quotes for your network connection name (typically "Wireless Network Connection"
before you log off - or when you first log on, type the same command except change enabled=no to enabled=yes
It's a cheap fix, but it solves the 45-60 second stutter in Vista with Wireless N networking.
Enjoy.
Software sound has and will always have problems. I know what you are thinking. "That's why I bought an X-FI"! But Vista removed ALL DIRECT SOUND HW interface!! So that card isn't worth a penny in vista. Microsoft declared war on your ears.
The Vista audio architecture disables DirectSound 3D hardware acceleration.
Direct Sound 3D HW Acceleration(all sound cards) - RIP
Status:
These issues cannot be addressed by the Creative audio driver, because the functionality was purposely removed by the operating system. We look forward to game titles moving away from DirectSound and toward OpenAL for fully optimized Creative 3D audio hardware and technology support.· Is there a difference in the Windows Vista and Windows XP implementation of the X-Fi CMSS3D feature?
Yes. The architecture of Vista doesn’t allow a feature like CMSS-3D to operate in hardware for applications that use the Microsoft API’s. If a game for example uses OpenAL, then CMSS-3D will run in hardware but if a Microsoft API is used it operates on the host within Windows Vista’s application level effects architecture.Note that the Windows “Kernel Mixer” (or kMixer) is completely gone.
Pre-mixed Audio - all “MME” and “Direct Sound” applications will ultimately result in pre-mixed PCM audio that is sent to the driver in one and only one format (in terms of sample rate, bit depth and channel count), and that format is governed by a control panel setting that Microsoft would prefer be configured only by the end user. This eliminates any opportunity for hardware to accelerate sample rate conversion or to take full advantage of advanced SRC technologies such as the ones used in the X-Fi product
this is RIP http://www.soundblaster.com/products/x-fi/technology/lastinfo/ssrc.asp
In addition, unlike Windows XP, there is no “Direct” path from DirectSound applications to audio drivers or hardware at all. DirectSound is emulated into a Windows audio “Session”. In addition, given this model any and all bugs that are exclusive to DirectSound games could not possibly be due to Creative audio drivers or any other IHV (Independent Hardware Vendors) audio drivers.
Custom Audio Effect APOs
Vista does support insertion points for custom audio effects.
· Will decoding of Dolby Digital and DTS signals be supported in the future? If not, why not?
These functions are not supported at driver level in Windows Vista.· Will 6.1 speaker mode be available in future drivers? If not, is this because of Creative or Microsoft?
No, as Windows Vista does not support this speaker configuration.The HAL layer is gone and all sound cards are *** in vista now and forever. Vista is a downgrade and XP is better.
The only solution is for Microsoft to seek a collective mental health evaluation or for all programs to output sound in OpenAL.
DirectSound is dead and Microsoft killed it. I miss XP sound, software sound is not acceptable and VISTA sound is pure garbage.Direct sound is now indirect sound and worthless, as in it has no value.
Vista sound is in pure fact a huge downgrade.
Any OpenAL music players yet? The only real fix is for Microsoft to add hardware support or all programmers to ad OpenAL output to all programs.
Dear Jaron,
Well having built my own pc i'm really not that up on them, i've read the emails to yourself and your replys! I installed Windows XP Vista, I had read up on this and thought at the time that I wouldnt have a problem with the sound system, which is built into my pc. My motherboard and wireless mouse are from a company in the States, as I thought it must be the compaptiability between the two. Technika, the company have yet to reply, at initial stages of installation I didnt have any problems with the sounds system or the media player working, but as soon as I upgraged to Windows XP Vista, I have no sound devices of any kind. Believe me I have tried to install and download every device which has been made possible for me!
Is there any way around this problem, other than uninstalling the Vista and sticking to Windows XP??The help would be much apprecitated, and thank you for taking the time out to read this email.
Kind Regards
Jules Mausolf......UK (Based)
I have the same issue with the audio skipping with Vista Home Premium while connected to the internet through my wireless N adapter. I have not come across any other solutions.
I tried the above fix, but my command prompt window did not allow me to turn off the network connection name.
Anyone come across any definate fixes or do I have to buy a different wireless adapter to play my music?
I was having the same problem with my Linksys Wireless USB N adapter. I have since swithced to an internal Wireless N adapter and the problem is gone. Linksys Technical support was no help to me.
Good luck!
Don
jazacoop wrote: Guess what???
It appears that may not have been the problem at all, because I have a solution
Take a look below;
.................................................................................
1. Go to control panel > sound > speaker > Propteries.
2. Then under enhancements.
3. Select "Disable all enchancements".
4. Enjoy your music without lag or delay!!
................................................................................
HAVE FUN!!Here's the solution!
- I was reluctant to join this forum, but I'm glad I did. Great job jazacoop! Thank you.
- I have an Inspiron 1501
-AMD Turion 64 x2
-Windows Vista Home Premium
-1 gb RAM
-ATI Radeon Express 1150
-SigmaTel High Definition Audio
I receive an occasional crackling pop sound every so often when playing audio.
I have tried:
-Unchecked "disable all enhancements"
-Disabling the Wifi.
-Audio Driver is up-to-date
I am going to try:
-New Wifi drivers
Would reinstalling a fresh Windows Vista do anything or is that a waste of time/energy? DellSupport has offered to replace the laptop, but upon seeing this thread I am led to believe that wouldn't help much. That's funny....
Someone has copied and pasted a possible solution I posted on another forum (which I also posted on this forum) and placed it on this forum.....
Anyway... Down to business
This forum has escalated in terms of the issues people are having. So far, 3 main different types of solutions have been offered;
1. My original suggestion - Disable enhancements in the sound properties (worked for some)
2. Try disabling your wireless card and see if that does the trick
3. And the obvious one - try updating to the latest drivers
Well now I've got a fourth one to suggest, and many of you might find it strange, but hear me out...
Try rolling back your wireless driver (use a driver created by Microsoft rather than one produced by third parties). We all know that many of the 3rd party drivers are experiencing compatibility problems, so this solution makes quite a bit of sense. Personally, I've had all kinds of problems with the Intel 3945ABG Pro/Wireless drivers and rolling back to a generic Microsoft driver that shipped with windows has fixed the problem for me (although I don't know whether it will fix the music playback issues - as disabling the enhancements did the trick for me).
But for anyone who found that disabling their wireless adapter stopped the glitching, I strongly urge you to try this.
Like I said, you've got absolutely nothing to lose!!
For those who are unsure how to do this;
1. Right click on Computer (formerly My Computer) and click on properties.
2. Under the tasks section on the left hand side, click on Device Manager
3. Find your wireless adapter and right click on it and select update driver software (you're probably thinking, but shouldn't I select rollback driver, but this will most likely only roll back to a previous version of the 3rd party driver).
4. Select the option that says browse my computer for driver software.
5. Select the option that says "let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"
6. The drivers will then be displayed. At the end, you should notice the driver provider in brackets. If there is one that has Microsoft in brackets, select this one and then click next.
NOTE: If there isn't a Microsoft one, I doubt this will work for you, so cancel out of the driver wizard.
7. The rest should be pretty self explanitory.
Let me know how you guys go (like I said, I can't test this as a solution, as I'm no longer having this problem!!)
Jazz.
By the way, I have setup a temporary e-mail address that you guys can give feedback to (as this forum is all over the place). The address is $%ljmjazzasjunk-msforums@yahoo.com.au%$ (obviously you ignore the $%ljm part as well as the %$ at the end - I did this to stop web crawlers from indexing the e-mail address).
Good luck guys!!
Hi all,
On Vista Business (Pentium 4 HT, 3GHz, 1GB RAM, M-Audio Revolution 5.1), the sound spawned by Media Player 11, Winamp and WinDVD 5 goes downwards, from normal to scratchy on every listening session.
What do I do ??? Because I do not have any option for Disabling Enhancements on speakers or on any other audio-related item, on any property page in Control Panel or elsewhere, under Administrator account or otherwise !!! I really do not think that "install some more RAM" or "upgrade the drivers" are valid answers for me, just to be able to listen normally to some 5MB audio file or an Internet radio ! This is completely unacceptable, as I cannot continuously (be it 3 minutes or 5 hours) listen to music on any of the 2 sources (local and Internet) without reaccessing the file or the Internet stream. I am ready to go back to Windows 2000 as this is the sole OS that did not give me ANY headaches (and I am not a redneck with simple computer operation needs, neither the hardware configuration of my PC has changed since running Win2000). Along with other problems on Vista Business, the experience I have with it since March brought me to the conclusion that this OS is a cheap "alpha" product and a dirty slap in the face of the user.
You're awesome!
I had the same issue of skipping music on my gorgeous week old Dell Dimension E521 and just KNEW that neither Dell support or MS were going to have a fix for this (as I've just found out with a compatibility issue between Office XP and Vista where a network password is required every time Outlook is opened - as can't be saved by Vista gggrrrrrr - that they also couldn't help me with).
Always surprised at how useless Helpdesks and Support teams can be (and I worked on one for a few years!).
These forums are great - more people that aren't that geeky/techie should get on these - only way to get things resolved quickly these days!
T
JAZACOOP.......
I LOVE YOU.. LOL
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS INFO, THE LAG WAS DRIVING ME MAD AND WAS GOING TO THROW THE THING OUT OF THE WINDOW TO BE HONEST. YOU ARE A GOD SEND..
I JUST HOPE THEY SORT ALL THE OTHER PROBS OUT ON VISTA PRETTY SOON.
I HAVE HAD THE DISAPPEARING OF THE DVD/RW AS WELL AS THIS LAG SO IF ANYONE KNOWS OF A CURE, HELP!
THANKS AGAIN
AMANDA XXX
I just wanted to thank you so much. I wanted to cry when I thought about how many hours and days I'd spent uploading music in my Media Player and the thought of restoring my system drove me mad. Don't get me wrong, now if I had to I would. However, God blessed our internet with you. Thank you, Thank you..... Oh, did I tell you thanks. I'm having fun again.
God BlessI have a Shuttle ST20G5 PC with onboard Realtek ALC 880 sound and like many others in this thread my audio playback doesn't work normally.
During the simplest of tasks like opening the start bar, moving a window around the desktop, the sound will stutter/crack/pop/lag intermittently.
I've tried all the latest drivers. So there has to be something inherently wrong with Vista.
- Same issue here but upgrading from Home Premium on Sony laptop FZ160e
Oh , yes , now its working Good for me .
I have a 6400 dell inspiron notebook , and I have a same Problem with copy or delete "calculating time ...." message on vista too .
Is there any solution about it ?
Thanks .
jazacoop wrote: Guess what???
It appears that may not have been the problem at all, because I have a solution
Take a look below;
.................................................................................
1. Go to control panel > sound > speaker > Propteries.
2. Then under enhancements.
3. Select "Disable all enchancements".
4. Enjoy your music without lag or delay!!
................................................................................
HAVE FUN!!I think i have the same problems. I've posted in three different forums and noone seems to have a clue.
I bought my HP dv6500t notebook a few days ago and have been experiencing stuttering/skipping music, i've tried everything in this forum and nothing seems to be fixing it. I even did a system restore and that didn't seem to do anything either. I have the T7300 chip, vista premium, 2 gigs of ram, the geforce 8400gs. Realtek HD audio. I'm hoping i can find an answer soon before i have to return this. damnit, i don't wanna throw down 2000 dollars for a mac if i don't absolutely need to.
Other than that though, the computer is pretty nice.=P
If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know. Thanks.
I'm still trying to gather info about and make a list of machines that respond in a certain way to certain audio signals. There is a thread in this forum titled "Serious Audio Problems", which details the test that I've been using.
My hope is that by generating a comprehensive list and confirming which machines are affected and which not, we might get one of the hardware manufacturers to co-operate with Microsoft and actually sort out the reason for this particular problem. There may be multiple problems, but nailing one would at least be a start.
My test merely involves playing a file of 1kHz tone from the hard drive through the machine's speakers and reporting what is heard. Many people can generate the file themselves, or download the one I've put on a website.
I may as well ask here again for anyone with an interest in this to contact me at ho300 at itsound.demon.co.uk, and I'll send more details. As far as I can tell, only laptops are involved.
The list within the "Serious Audio Problems" is a little out of date, but gives an idea of affected machines.
Have you tried my suggestions I posted on page 2 of these forums??
Quite a few people have had success in eliminating the skipping by using those tips (although unfortunately 1 solution doesn't fit all). It really depends on your hardware configuration and driver manufacturers.
Try them and see how you go (I'll post them again below to make life easier).
In particular, try number 1 (most people have been successful in eliminating the problem with this suggestion). You can find detailed instructions on how to do that in one of my other posts.
Good Luck!!
jazacoop wrote: That's funny....
Someone has copied and pasted a possible solution I posted on another forum (which I also posted on this forum) and placed it on this forum.....
Anyway... Down to business
This forum has escalated in terms of the issues people are having. So far, 3 main different types of solutions have been offered;
1. My original suggestion - Disable enhancements in the sound properties (worked for some)
2. Try disabling your wireless card and see if that does the trick
3. And the obvious one - try updating to the latest drivers
Well now I've got a fourth one to suggest, and many of you might find it strange, but hear me out...
Try rolling back your wireless driver (use a driver created by Microsoft rather than one produced by third parties). We all know that many of the 3rd party drivers are experiencing compatibility problems, so this solution makes quite a bit of sense. Personally, I've had all kinds of problems with the Intel 3945ABG Pro/Wireless drivers and rolling back to a generic Microsoft driver that shipped with windows has fixed the problem for me (although I don't know whether it will fix the music playback issues - as disabling the enhancements did the trick for me).
But for anyone who found that disabling their wireless adapter stopped the glitching, I strongly urge you to try this.
Like I said, you've got absolutely nothing to lose!!
For those who are unsure how to do this;
1. Right click on Computer (formerly My Computer) and click on properties.
2. Under the tasks section on the left hand side, click on Device Manager
3. Find your wireless adapter and right click on it and select update driver software (you're probably thinking, but shouldn't I select rollback driver, but this will most likely only roll back to a previous version of the 3rd party driver).
4. Select the option that says browse my computer for driver software.
5. Select the option that says "let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"
6. The drivers will then be displayed. At the end, you should notice the driver provider in brackets. If there is one that has Microsoft in brackets, select this one and then click next.
NOTE: If there isn't a Microsoft one, I doubt this will work for you, so cancel out of the driver wizard.
7. The rest should be pretty self explanitory.
Let me know how you guys go (like I said, I can't test this as a solution, as I'm no longer having this problem!!)
Jazz.
Jazacoup, Thanks for that, and pulling together and repeating the list of things to try.
I've actually been watching this thread, and have indeed tried all of these, without success.
To repeat my problem, initially I had audio glitching, seemingly random. This became consistent and reproducible when I settled on a test of playing 1kHz audio tone from the hard drive and loudly through the internal laptop speakers. It plays fine if the tone is of high or low frequency, if it's played quietly, if it's played off the CD or through headphones. When the effect happens, the tone plays with obvious gaps and the UI may become unresponsive. The supplier of my machine kindly let me visit his store and while I watched, the manager loaded a file of tone onto 2 HP laptops and one other Acer, giving us a variety of AMD and Intel, single and dual-core and different HD audio chipsets.. All showed the effect.
For the record, and in case it helps anyone else, here are other things tried on my Acer 5102 lowish-end Vista laptop. My original Vista installation was an official upgrade from Media Center Edition XP (MCE). Because of the lack of Vista drivers for my Tascam firewire and USB audio interfaces, I was forced to use the internal audio on the new machine and hit the glitching problem. I bought a Roland usb interface (has drivers) to try some sort of external audio device.
1. Re-installed Vista as a new install rather than as an upgrade to MCE. Then installed the latest Vista drivers from the Acer site. No change.
2. Removed all the Acer 'overlay applications' which relate to power management etc. After this the Roland usb device 'came good', and could be used without glitching. One of the Acer apps provides the volume meter (green bars) at the bottom of the screen. Re-installed this app, the meter returned and the Roland USB device still worked.
3. Tried a couple more installs of Vista with various changes, but no difference.
4. Bought a new hard drive, installed this and re-installed MCE. Same glitching problem.
5. Formatted and installed XP Pro. Same glitching problem.
6 Re-installed MCE, same problem, then installed Fedora as dual boot. MCE plays with gaps, Fedora plays much better but still has one gap approx per minute.
7. Tried isolating HD from body of laptop, hanging from rubber bands. Still had gaps.
8. Started building a list of affected and un-affected machines, and tried some older machines here. Machines up to one with a Celeron 1.13GHz processor played perfectly, all my later machines, from IBM, Acer and Medion played with gaps. All had AC97 audio, only my latest Acer has the HD Audio chipset.
9. Wrote a very simple audio player to test that nothing in Media Player was to blame. No difference.
10. The current even weirder thing is that I installed Process Explorer, which is now a Microsoft diagnostic app, on one of the older XP machines. For some unexplained reason, this required me to install Microsoft Debug Tools For Windows on that machine. Normally it installes without asking for this. On that machine after this installation (but without Process Explorer running), the audio gaps disappeared and audio played fine. After a period of about a week, with the machine in constant use, the gaps started to re-appear. To test what happened to Process Explorer, I then uninstalled the Debug tools. Process Explorer still worked. To my amazement, the gaps once again disappeared. I'm posting, asking about this, on another list.
For the record, I'm a retired broadcast engineer, involved in PC-based audio since the very early '90s, and involved in installation, testing and support of audio playout systems with major broadcasters since 1995. Internal audio of laptops is not hugely important in this market, but nevertheless there is a feeling that it should actually work.
- I have a Dell Inspiron B130 laptop I purchased in May 2006 with Windows XP Home Edition installed. Everything was fine while running XP. After doing a clean install of Vista, I noticed the stuttering in both the sound and also my mouse would stutter too after about 2 weeks. I do have SigmaTel High-Def audio. I did try what was suggsted but it manages to resurface again. Both my audio drivers and BIOS are up-to-date along with the wireless card drivers since I've heard that they may have something to do with the stuttering. Any suggestions?
This isn't the right forum for me as I have Windows XP BUT
It may explain a problem I have with DVD Playback as my Gigabyte Mobo has inbuilt Realtek AC97
I had thought the problem was with InterActual Player, CyberLink DVD 7.0 Deluxe decoder, DirectX, Visual Studio .NET 2 Framework or my Radeon 7000 AGP driver.
I hear a few notes of music and then DVD Player hangs and freezes, I can use Task Manager to kill non responsive PowerDVD or WMP 11 but InterActual Player hang freezes mouse and keyboard.
It may also be a glitch with the InterActual Player manager stub in CyberLink and the InterActive Player on the DVD (downloading the InterActual Player didn't solve problem)
- I tried all your suggestions to no avail(all 3). I don't think i can roll back the drivers since i have the new N card(4695 A/G/N?) built into the laptop. =/
I've had this same problem starting about a week ago, I'm running Vista Ultimate x64 w/ AMD Turionx2 2.0Ghz, 2GBs of RAM, and RealTec audio on an HP dv6000. I hvae this problem when using WMP11, iTunes, Zune, amd WinAMP. So far the only way for me to get rid of the skipping is to...
1.) Wait a while for WindowsInstaller.exe to calm down
2.) Have my laptop plugged in or power management on the "High Performance" setting.
Disabling sound enhancements has made no difference in the skipping, the only thing that seems to work is this.
- The stutter I experience happens once a minute, every minute, like clockwork, for 3-5 seconds.
Yes, If I disconnect from the the network, the stutter goes away for playing mp3s on my hard drive, so there's something somehow network related.
But how is that a satisfactory solution if you want to listen to streaming audio?
Nothing shows up in Task Manager or Performance Monitor as suddenly jumping up in system resource usage.
How can this be tracked down? It's ridiculous. I'm using a recently purchased HP Pavilion a6130.
ross - Ross I have posted a possible solution for people who are experiencing lag as a result of their network adapter. Have you attempted it? If not, give it a try and see if it fixes the problem. If it doesn't, then let me know and we'll see what else we can do.
- I just read through this entire forum and I've noticed that it seems all the people who have audio problems that NONE of the solutions fix are using onboard RealTec audio.
I'm using onboard RealTec audio as well and I can't fix this ridiculous stutter problem, I have a feeling it's driver problems.
Let me sum it up.
I use a audio driver that came with my mobo, it was intended for windows xp, it:
- Plays audio with stutters and such.
- Doesn't recognize my microphone being used.
Then I installed the Vista drive for RealTec and it:
- Doesn't play any audio at all, and now my sound is named "High Definition Audio Device" or "Digital Output Device"
- I can only play 2 channels of audio.
- I can use my microphone now (been having some fun with speech recognition)
- The meter on volume control SAYS it's making sound, but obviously nothing is heard.
This is really driving me quite insane and I'm starting to believe it can't be fixed until RealTec makes a driver that's ACTUALLY a Vista driver. Falru,
You haven't given us enough info. You've described the problem, but what kind of Realtek onboard device do you have?? I find it hard to believe that their Vista driver won't play sound at all, which suggests that you may be installing the wrong driver.
Check the documentation on your system and ensure that you are installing the correct driver and software package. Also see if there is a generic driver made by Microsoft that works (it's worth a shot).
Good Luck!!
Realtek do ahve a vista comapitble driver just google it its usualy int he first few options. though give yourself llike 20 mins to downlaod it as realtek's servers are slower that anythign else on the internet.
however i too have stutters with an onboard realtek soundcard... but if i disbale enchancements i can pretty much kiss ahving dolby 5.1 good by and it also doesn't work anyway... my stutters tho are only caused when i opena dn close large memory consuming programs.. so i'm probably just gonan ahve to upgrade memory.
I too had scratchy music sounds until i changed and fiddled with the enchancements and equalizer optiosn takes a while but got it to work eventually.
go back onto the Realtek site and redownalod it but make sure its the ciorrect version for your motherbaord and soundcard. I had the exact same problem as you with sound card drivers at first. In your sound settings it should allow you to selet your speakers and configure them... if its anythign like vista 64 bit it usualyl takes about 10 years to disoover what speakers ur using and then allows u to test them and adjust if needed. and obviously increase ur volume like to 100% on both computer and speakers themselves.
Can i just point out i hate vista 64 bit. it took me 6 hours to get it to discover my philips dolby 5.1 surround sound systema nd then another 3 hours to configure it.. when on xp pro it would install it alla nd set it up automaticall.y yeh vista is still in its infantcy but that was ridiculous.- I have ALC660 6-CH Onboard Audio. I've checked ASUS's website (it's a ASUS mobo) and they have no vista drivers for this audio, so I tried RealTek's site and they only have 1 driver for Windows Vista driver so I tried that one and that's the one that gave me issues.
I just found this on a website:
"A major problem with many systems with SATA Controllers is that sound, specifically when playing MP3s, will skip when using the new drivers supplied with Vista RC1.
Solution: "Downgrade" the driver for your SATA Controller, the Via VT8237 in this instance, for a fairly recent XP driver. Sound skips are now a thing of the past.
Note: This problem has been fixed with build 5728 so there is no need to change the Via VT 8237 driver from the installed MS Vista driver."
I am using a VIA VT8237 so this may be my problem, I'll try this and get back later with results. - exactly same problem here ! it is so annoying... :-( it happens on all mutimedia player, no matter what you play, the sound is always hicupped every 10-20 secs..
audiao card is on the main-board Asus P5K -- Realtek ALC883, already installed the latest driver from Realtek. no luck,
anyone can help ? thks very much ! You know what,
This win Vista is a piece of ( censured), I wont put at garbige my 500$ audio system , just because microsoft have something with Direct3D Sound. Tomorow on first hour I will ask my deler, to return my mony for Windows license. Is simple, because it doesn't work, I won't buy it!!!!
Thanx again Microsoft you piece of ( censured)!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just recently bought a Toshiba Satellite P105 and schlepped the thing across the globe to bring to my spouse only to see that cd's and dvd's both skipped. Drug the thing back to US but now too late to return to vender. So I called Toshiba support thinking I have a bad drive (play back worked fine from stored media). Their response was to wait for a fix from Microsoft in a few months. Well, glad I spent all that money...
Just tried the Jazacoop (simple) fix, and also the other suggestion of making sure that unit is plugged in to power source and Voila! I watched a dvd and listened to a cd - both without any hiccups! I'm still going to get the 4Gb ram upgrade and keep an eye here for any other tips.
It's a shame to spend this much money on something with such an annoying defect...
Thank you to all who have posted to this forum - most enlightening!
bb1134 wrote: This is not the best solution, but it works:
Connect to your wireless N network
Run the command prompt as admin:
type the following:
netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=no interface="Linksys Wireless"
substituting inside the quotes for your network connection name (typically "Wireless Network Connection"
before you log off - or when you first log on, type the same command except change enabled=no to enabled=yes
It's a cheap fix, but it solves the 45-60 second stutter in Vista with Wireless N networking.
Enjoy.
i tried all the other suggestions to help fix the audio slowdown/crackling issues in vista whenever i would use winamp/windows media player/etc, and this is the only thing that works consistently.
i'm unsure why one needs to reenable the autoconfig? will vista not automatically reconnect to your wireless AP on your next bootup if you don't?
thanks for this!- Dell E521 with the problem. Thanks JAZACOOP, it is now fixed!!
- Yea this thing drives me crazy also, i have vista ultimate 32bit, and onboard hd audio CMI9880 c-media, c-media didn't made any new drivers since last august ( but hey they suck), anyway this stutter only occurs, when i listen to the music and dl/up a torrent at the same time ( or if i have massive disk reading, defraging and listening to the music and just dl not a torrent) wmp11 and winamp, i've also tryed foobar2000 with the same resaults, i've just checked if i get this stutter when i listen to online radio (no problems). Its strange realy, i've disabled all srs wow efx in wmp11 and for instance if i enable it get massive cpu overflow (and the process audiodg.exe hits around 50%), sound dissapears etc., i don't have any wireless network card installed, i've disabled all proceses that use that so i realy don't have any options in device manager as Jazacoop mentioned.
MS common fix this $hit, its getting rediciolous!!!!!!!! - Here's the solution which worked for me:
Start regedit and find Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AudioSrv
Find DependOnService and simply remove the value MMCSS from the list.
Leave AudioEndpointBuilder and RpcSs there. Now reboot and try if it worked. - OK ALREADY! Doesn't anyone, microsoft inclusive, know how to remedy this problem? No problem w/Rhapsody until Windows Media Player was updated to ver.11. Seems the problem lay in the hands of windows/microwsoft and they should offer a solution. Is this another attempt to make their software proprietory, or in a way the only software that will work?
Never mind, I'm not as stupid as all that, OF COURSE IT IS. ANY CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS? LET ME KNOW CAUSE I WANT TO JOIN AND ITS A CINCH TO WIN! - As an alternative to disabling your network card altogether, this suggestion from sikodelika in another thread worked for me on a Dell Vostro 1400 with a Dell Wireless 1505 WLAN 802.11n Mini-Card:
1 - Go to Control Panel -> Device Manager
2 - Click on Networks Adapters
3 - Double click on the wireless card
4 - Go to the advanced tab.
5 - Select from the list "Disable Bands"
6 - Select the "a" band from the list on the right side.
This way you can still be on the internet and listen to music at the same time. I would try this along with jazacoop's suggestions above if you are having these problems. The other suggestion from jazacoop which helped me get rid of the noise was:
1. Go to control panel > sound > speaker > Propteries.
2. Then under enhancements.
3. Select "Disable all enchancements".
It seems like the real problem is bad design of the audio system in Vista. It can easily get overloaded and not update the audio in time, and so you get gaps (pops) or delays in the output. I think that all of these suggestions reduce the processing load so that the problem just happens less frequently. I still get occasional glitches but it is so much better with these two changes.
I think we'll have to wait for an update to vista and/or updates to the wireless and audio cards to fix this problem for real. Hopefully Microsoft is listening. - So... I've tried every kind of solution I found online, and my laptop still has the stuttering problem.
I have a Dell Inspiron 6000, SigmaTel C-Major Audio Driver (ver. 5.10.0.4255) formerly installed with Windows XP Home, and I upgraded recently to Windows Vista Ultimate.
I have tried using another SigmaTel Audio Driver (the High-Def driver) but it would not install for me. I looked in my Control Panel-->Sound-->Speakers, Properties, and I don't even have an option to "Disable all enhancements."
The network adapter, I've disabled it, sound still stuttered. Disabling the a band I haven't been able to do because I don't have that exact option. I have a "Wireless Mode" in the list, and I tried the 802.11b/802.11g but sound still stuttered. I tried to update the driver, but it says I have the latest one. I'm not able to roll back either, as I don't have a driver from Microsoft for it.
The stuttering happens almost every 2 seconds or so, for everything. Even when I test in the Speakers options, the test sound skips once or so. The sound skips in any sound my laptop makes (video, audio, Windows sounds, etc).
Anything else I should try...? I'm going insane with this problem!!!! Dear colo421 ..
In my case (Dell 1505n in Dell E1705) the problem is related to the wireless card. Disabling it "fixes" the problem. As this is no permanent solution colo421 suggestions did the trick as well. Thus for me the solution was to disable band "a" in the "Disable Bands" settings of the wireless card.
Thank you. Your help is much appreciated.
Best Regards,
Mat
Hi Guys,
Thanks for all the brilliant suggestions in solving this really really annoying problem.
But...............................
I'm still getting glitches in playback, not as bad as before but still there.
Has any rememdy or update been published to rid this annoyance?
Cheers............................Juz.
" Every little helps. "
colo421 wrote: As an alternative to disabling your network card altogether, this suggestion from sikodelika in another thread worked for me on a Dell Vostro 1400 with a Dell Wireless 1505 WLAN 802.11n Mini-Card:
1 - Go to Control Panel -> Device Manager
2 - Click on Networks Adapters
3 - Double click on the wireless card
4 - Go to the advanced tab.
5 - Select from the list "Disable Bands"
6 - Select the "a" band from the list on the right side.
I've got a Dell Inspiron 1420 with Windows Vista Home Premium, a Dell Wireless-N 1505 network card and a Sigmatel audio card.
Turning off my network card worked, but obviously that was not ideal.
The above solution worked 100% for me.I have a Dell Inspiron B130 with Windows Vista Home Premium and SigmaTel High Definition Audio, just like Jakub314159. But I have an Intel Pro Wireless 2915ABG wireless card. Has anyone found any solution to the studdering with this type of configuration?
Thanks!
Though most posts in this thread involve laptops and many of them attempt to isolate the problem in wireless network adapters, let me assure you the same problem can show up in a desktop with wired-ethernet-only. (Admittedly, it's a Realtek onboard gigabit LAN, and Realtek has been fingered by a number of you for its drivers, at least its audio drivers.)
On a brand new core2-quad P35 chipset machine with 4GB ddrII, with a completely clean install of Vista 32 business, I have been suffering intermittent global stuttering. It affects not only audio (of any sort, through any player, whether or not dsp-enhanced) but also video (you can see it in screen saver motion, for instance) and even cursor or mouse movement (hit and hold the spacebar in a text editor and watch the stuttering fun begin!). It's intermittent but not random; that is, it can disappear for a while after I apply one of my stab-in-the-dark fixes (read on) but can come back and then generally remains until I re-apply a fix. It's been like this since about day 1. Well, maybe day 2 or 3.
I've seen so many variants of this problem posted in so many forums, with so many theories, that I could spend the next three months doing nothing but troubleshooting it, assuming I had the budget and time to try endless substitute components or re-builds from scratch, but there's no assurance any or all of that would actually fix it. I do have the Intel Storage Matrix AHCI drivers pre-installed, and Intel itself vaguely alludes to possible 'degraded performance in Vista' with regard to those drivers--is this what they're talking about? They don't say. I do have an Nvidia 8800gts, and Nvidia forums are full of complaints about unacceptable issues with their video drivers, but again it's vague, no smoking gun for global stuttering. I have tried THREE different audio configurations--the onboard realtek hi-def; an x-fi elite; and a c-media based Omega Claro card. I have the problem with all of them. Discovering how musical the c-media card is was a happy accidental side effect of this miserable odyssey, but it really just makes it more frustrating, since I now want to listen to music more than ever but can't find a permanent solution to this vexing problem.
One of the weirdest symptoms is that the stuttering can re-appear (if it has been gone for a few days) just by connecting an external SATA drive, even if the drive is not turned on! Equally weird: simply going into the BIOS and just looking, changing nothing, exiting without saving, can cause it to reappear upon re-boot!
And to ice this cake of weirdness, here are some things that can make it go away (sometimes, at least for a while): removing the external SATA drive and rebooting; removing and re-seating the cards on the motherboard; and clearing the BIOS (jumper or pull out the battery) and then re-entering all the same settings as were there already.
The symptoms are driving me nuts, as audio is one of my main uses for a computer, but it's the HUH? quality of these various actions that can seem to make the problem disappear or re-appear that are really threatening my sanity. If anybody can sift a better clue out of these ashes of frustration than I can, I wish you would post it.
Not sure if I am on the right thread or if any one can help.
I have a new MEDION media centre using vista version 6.0.6000.16484 with a Realtek hdaudio card using driver 1.0.0.60 10/5/07 version 6015413.
Have configured sytem to recognise speakers ( surround 7 speaker ) and when testing each speaker get a faint test sound out of each speaker selected so its rcognising the pspeaker?
But despite setting all speaker , tolbar and media settings to max volume I cannot get any sound ( other than very faint) out of the speakers.
I have switched off 'enhancements' as mention earlier in this thread
- no change
System is saying card etc is all working
and tried installing latest driver from Medion site & system says that driver is up to date .
but it makes no diference
HELP!!
thanks
Have you tried connecting a set of normal stereo speakers and testing them?? Also try headphones if you haven't already.
I'm interested to know whether the problem is specific to a surround sound setup or across the board.
Yes tried various size speakers and all the same
I thought it might be speakers too large but tried smaller ordinary ones and no diference. - even a small handfree car phone speaker - no joy
If I plug same leads into TV then through the TV speakers sound is fine but I believe that is because the TV has its own amp and the signal is being ampliefied further by the TV before the speaker ( although it confused me for a while I think its a red herrin )
Spoke to tech desk at Medion - they stated sound card was capable of outputting to surround sound sysytem but could not tell me what the ouput should be - I thought I could measure the jack plug output to see if the sound card was underperforming
(each speaker is being feed by separate jack on the sound card rear output.)
Have not tried the head phones off the front jack point - will try that and let you know .
thanks
Hi Flamered,
I suspect that your problem may not at all be software related, but hardware related. Based on what you have described, I suspect that your sound card might be faulty. Replacing it may fix the problem.
If not, then I have nothing at this stage!!!!!
Jazz.
I've read this thread and I have an audio problem that might be related, but I haven't seen it .
Hardware: MSI K8T Neo-FSR mobo, 64 bit AMD athlon 3400 - 2,2Ghz, 1.5gig ram, realtek 1gig Enet, 300gig hdd
If I use media player to listen to my mp3's, all is well
If I use media center, the same mp3's sound choppy. Also the media center music that plays at start, is choppy.
Any idea's?
- Thanks so much... I went almost mad about it...new machine and the sound is such a ***...
dman1357 wrote: So... I've tried every kind of solution I found online, and my laptop still has the stuttering problem.
I have a Dell Inspiron 6000, SigmaTel C-Major Audio Driver (ver. 5.10.0.4255) formerly installed with Windows XP Home, and I upgraded recently to Windows Vista Ultimate.
I have tried using another SigmaTel Audio Driver (the High-Def driver) but it would not install for me. I looked in my Control Panel-->Sound-->Speakers, Properties, and I don't even have an option to "Disable all enhancements."
The network adapter, I've disabled it, sound still stuttered. Disabling the a band I haven't been able to do because I don't have that exact option. I have a "Wireless Mode" in the list, and I tried the 802.11b/802.11g but sound still stuttered. I tried to update the driver, but it says I have the latest one. I'm not able to roll back either, as I don't have a driver from Microsoft for it.
The stuttering happens almost every 2 seconds or so, for everything. Even when I test in the Speakers options, the test sound skips once or so. The sound skips in any sound my laptop makes (video, audio, Windows sounds, etc).
Anything else I should try...? I'm going insane with this problem!!!!
Sorry to sound rude.. but can anyone help me out?
Also, I'd like to point out that my sound worked perfectly ONCE, but I had to restart my computer the next day, and the perfect sound disappeared. It stayed as long as I never had to turn it off (so I hibernated and such). And I have no idea how it happened, and now I don't know what to do.
Can anyone please help me out? I'm pretty sure it's not because of CPU usage or physical memory space...- Dman,
If you are prepared for investing effort into this, I would suggest that you download and run SysInternals Proceess Monitor and Process Explorer. These tools are not for the faint-hearted, but if, as you imply, the glitches are regular, you may well find that some process corresponds with the probem. jazacoop wrote: Guess what???
It appears that may not have been the problem at all, because I have a solution
Take a look below;
.................................................................................
1. Go to control panel > sound > speaker > Propteries.
2. Then under enhancements.
3. Select "Disable all enchancements".
4. Enjoy your music without lag or delay!!
................................................................................
HAVE FUN!!
Thank god for you.I have the exact same problem with SigmaTel HD Audio on my Sony SZ680 notebook. I've tried many tricks described in this and other threads such as:
1. Disable all enchancements
2. Update audio drivers
3. Edit registry (find DependOnService and remove the value MMCSS)
I have also installed Service Pack Beta on my notebook... but all these tricks haven't solved crackling sound problem.
(It is quite clear that this problem is somehow connected with network activity. I don't use wifi, maybe I need to change my network adapter's properties? Or try something else?
Any suggestions?
Please, help!Thanks, Jazacoop. Your solution#2 works for me.
I just want to increase the success count of solution#2.
My computer is HP s7320N(Realtek ALC 880 chipset) + Netgear Wireless-N USB adapter(WN121T)
After wireless disabled, the audio glitch (stuttering) is gone.
Let MS find new wireless driver and install the driver (it seems a newer version from Netgear),I'm not sure if new driver has fixed the problem. At least, the glicth is not repro "so far".
Dear Jazacoop
I purchased a Dell Vista Ultimate Notebook. My Media Player has played up since I purchased my Notebook, but had no idea, what I did to cause the problem, Thank you for your tip, it saved me hours of a possible reformat/rebuild and frustration.
The solution is such a very simple (backdoor) to the problem, why hasnt Microsoft addressed the issue, of how to fix, I tell you the truth things like this can MAJOR impact on any new OS sales. People attribute things like this to a bug rather than a setting.
Cheers
and thanks again
Jeffery Fitz.
Today is the first time i have put a CD into my drive and clicked the play button, the only problem was that it said there was an error and could not play the song!!
So i decided to rip the file to my hard drive worked fine!
I just can't figure out why it allows me to copy, but not play the song for the CD.
Add7ct7on
Hi Dman,
I believe I have a solution for your problem. You said you upgraded your OS from XP to Vista, and I noticed that your driver you're using is actually out of date. You've probably had trouble finding an updated driver that works on your system, so first, I'm going to help you update it, then I'll tell you how to fix your audio problem! (I'm reasonably confident this will work, because your configuration is relatively similiar to mine, with the exception that your driver is out of date).
Go onto the Dell support website's driver download section and when asked to select your machine select XPS notebooks and select the Dell XPS M1210. Then select Windows Vista 32 bit as your OS (the Inspiron 6000 doesn't have a Vista drivers section). If you look in the audio section, you should find a Sigmatel STAC 92XX driver (ver 6.10.0.5343). Download and install that updated driver. Then reboot.
Now, right click on the sound icon in your taskbar, and select playback devices. Click on the speakers/headphones icon, then select properties down the bottom. Now select the enhancements tab across the top. Tick the box that says disable enhancements and click apply.
Hopefully your problem will then be gone!!
Please do let me know how this goes (I'm confident it will fix your problem - but of course I have no definative reason, other than an instinctual intuition that this will work).
Good Luck!!
Jazz
jazacoop
Thanks for the solution,it really worked for me.
Thanks a Million Times
Regards
Praveev
- Thanks for replying Jazz.
I have actually tried that.. but after unzipping the driver and running the setup, I get this:
"This is not the correct audio driver for this system. The installer will not exit."
So I tried deleting my current sound driver after that, and I still got the same message.. - Thanks Bill,
I'll definitely look into that, thanks for the tip.
But I'm wondering, if it is a process problem, why it would be happening. I have 1.25 GB of RAM, the CPU Usage could be 10% or less, and the sound is still weird. The Physical Memory, I've seen it at 40% and the sound was still messed up.
But yea, I'll try those out and come back here.. Same problem here, it's not limited to Vista, also happens on XP/2003 both 32/64 bit. I'm 99% sure it's to do with the Intel AHCI/Matrix storage driver. It'd be interesting to know what your motherboard brand/model is. Mine is Gigabyte DS2R and I've seen reports of this issue on other forums as well. I'm using the integrated Intel graphics and every component is Intel except Audio Realtek and Network Broadcom. The issue goes away by disabling AHCI/RAID but you lose hot-swap of SATA drives and NCQ.
The primary indicator for this issue is that if any of the SATA ports has a drive that is plugged in but not powered up (and not powered down by the AHCI driver programmatically) then you get this global stutter/studder/hickups/choppy. In audio it sounds like tiny repeats. How bad it is seems to depend on what drive brand is plugged in etc so on some combinations it's very tiny and doesn't happen that often, on other drives it's more constant and easy to detect.
I'd suggest you report at:
http://supportmail.intel.com/scripts-emf/welcome.aspx?id=
Chipsets/Chipset software/Matrix storage Technology
btw. My AHCI BIOS/OROM version that is shown on boot with AHCI/RAID enabled is iSRC 1.07 08042006, what's yours?
nada_clue wrote: Though most posts in this thread involve laptops and many of them attempt to isolate the problem in wireless network adapters, let me assure you the same problem can show up in a desktop with wired-ethernet-only. (Admittedly, it's a Realtek onboard gigabit LAN, and Realtek has been fingered by a number of you for its drivers, at least its audio drivers.)
On a brand new core2-quad P35 chipset machine with 4GB ddrII, with a completely clean install of Vista 32 business, I have been suffering intermittent global stuttering. It affects not only audio (of any sort, through any player, whether or not dsp-enhanced) but also video (you can see it in screen saver motion, for instance) and even cursor or mouse movement (hit and hold the spacebar in a text editor and watch the stuttering fun begin!). It's intermittent but not random; that is, it can disappear for a while after I apply one of my stab-in-the-dark fixes (read on) but can come back and then generally remains until I re-apply a fix. It's been like this since about day 1. Well, maybe day 2 or 3.
I've seen so many variants of this problem posted in so many forums, with so many theories, that I could spend the next three months doing nothing but troubleshooting it, assuming I had the budget and time to try endless substitute components or re-builds from scratch, but there's no assurance any or all of that would actually fix it. I do have the Intel Storage Matrix AHCI drivers pre-installed, and Intel itself vaguely alludes to possible 'degraded performance in Vista' with regard to those drivers--is this what they're talking about? They don't say. I do have an Nvidia 8800gts, and Nvidia forums are full of complaints about unacceptable issues with their video drivers, but again it's vague, no smoking gun for global stuttering. I have tried THREE different audio configurations--the onboard realtek hi-def; an x-fi elite; and a c-media based Omega Claro card. I have the problem with all of them. Discovering how musical the c-media card is was a happy accidental side effect of this miserable odyssey, but it really just makes it more frustrating, since I now want to listen to music more than ever but can't find a permanent solution to this vexing problem.
One of the weirdest symptoms is that the stuttering can re-appear (if it has been gone for a few days) just by connecting an external SATA drive, even if the drive is not turned on! Equally weird: simply going into the BIOS and just looking, changing nothing, exiting without saving, can cause it to reappear upon re-boot!
And to ice this cake of weirdness, here are some things that can make it go away (sometimes, at least for a while): removing the external SATA drive and rebooting; removing and re-seating the cards on the motherboard; and clearing the BIOS (jumper or pull out the battery) and then re-entering all the same settings as were there already.
The symptoms are driving me nuts, as audio is one of my main uses for a computer, but it's the HUH? quality of these various actions that can seem to make the problem disappear or re-appear that are really threatening my sanity. If anybody can sift a better clue out of these ashes of frustration than I can, I wish you would post it.
Ive spent all night trying to beat the audio problem on an Acer Aspire 5720. Tried all the fixes here and would have settled for the ACPI fix if the machine didnt suddely switch off now and again.
I beleive I have fixed it now by installing the Acer ePower Management, part of the eMpowering software
On the dells it might be worth another look at the dell power/lan control utilities. I havent struggled like that since the Nforce2 chipset clashes in xp...
- So, I found out something VERY interesting.
I still have the sound problem, however, I found out recently after playing a DVD that my sound works perfectly when playing a DVD. I don't even have to have the DVD actually playing, I just need it in my DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive. When that DVD is in my drive, every sound works perfectly: songs, other videos on my laptop, standard Vista sounds.
BUT, when that DVD comes out, the sound goes back to normal and skips.
Now... can anyone explain this electrical phenomenon to me? I really don't understand how this could be it. I've tested this like 5 times, and it's only if I have the DVD in that I have perfect sound. Hi Dman,
Well isn't that just silly that it won't let you update the driver??? My advice would be to call Dell and see if they can suggest why it wouldn't recognise the driver. I've had similiar problems with the NVIDIA Geforce Go 7400 driver. When I download it from the NVidia website, it tells me the driver is not compatible, yet when I download it off Dell's website it works. I'm thinking the driver has been modified slightly for Dell systems??? Maybe there is some sort of way into tricking the computer into installing it anyway (I know it's possible in XP - but to be honest, I've never really experimented with this is Vista).
Once you update the driver, I believe you'll be able to eliminate the problem. The fact you can play music fine when you have a DVD in the drive strongly suggests the issue is purely software related.
For the record, I don't believe the problem that WildDuck has been investigating is the same as your problem. In my opinion, you should focus on finding a way to update your driver. There must be some way!! As I said, have a chat to Dell and see what they say. You might think they're not all that useful, but to let you in on a little secret, it was a Dell technician who discovered the solution of disabling the audio enhancements to eliminate the skipping. I just posted it on here because I knew nobody seemed to know about it.
All the best, and keep me informed as to how you go!!
Jazz.
Hi,
I've had this problem for months now. I actually had a Asus P5N32 SLI Deluxe which had these audio playback problems. I tried everything and even bought a PCI sound card. Convinced it was a faulty mobo I replaced it with a P6N Diamond with onboard X-Fi sound. Still the same.
P6N Diamond (nvidia 680i chipset)
8800GTS
2G PC8500 Ram
Intel Q6600 Quad Core CPU
Vista Ultimate.
Microsoft must be aware of the problems people are having with Audio Playback and considering Microsoft claim Vista to be the perfect OS for Digital Media Playback they should have sorted this by now. I dual boot with XP now and the same hardware is faultless under XP.
Come on Microsoft pull your finger out.
THANK YOU JAZACOP.
MUSIC PLAYBACK PROBLEM SOLVED.
I JUST GOT OFF A CHAT WITH A DELL REP AND PROBLEM WASN'T RESOLED.
SO I FOUND MYSELF HERE.
I DID WHAT YOU SUGGESTED AND IT WORKED!!!!!
THANK YOU
Sorry to be SO late even checking back at this forum, much less getting back to you. Holiday, legal obligations, plus which the problem abated (only to make way for others):
I can certainly confirm that at some point I DID notice a clear correlation between the stuttering and whether I had either an unpowered SATA drive connected, or even just an internal sata-cable-to-eSata-bracket installed with nothing attached! Eventually I figured out that unplugging and/or removing ALL those things would fairly reliably stop the stuttering, at least for a while. (As long as I also shut the machine down and cleared the CMOS and then painstaking re-configured the bios; and even at that the problem did re-appear at least once, maybe twice.)
I can't be sure that was the whole reason, or that Intel's Storage Matrix bears all the responsibility, because I was also applying, in desperation, several Vista hotfixes around the same time I was noticing the correlation.
Anyway, in the wake of all that, I am now able to keep an sata-to-Esata cable plugged directly into the MOBO (with the bare end just hanging in the air--where this machine sits, I don't need the side panel). I can also then plug it into my external hard drive enclosure, unpowered, and then power that on, all without causing the stuttering. Who knows, I might at this point be able to keep the external drive mostly always attached, whether powered on or not--but I'd rather not risk the experiment. And I have never put the internal cable/eSata bracket apparatus back in--I don't want to risk that, either.
My AHCI BIOS/OROM version is the same as yours (iSRC 1.07 08042006). The board is, like yours, a gigabyte -- model GA-P35-DS3R, version 1, with Bios F4. The Intel Storage Matrix driver (preinstalled from floppy ahead of Vista, and unremoveable, so far as I know) is version 7.6.0.1011. The Intel page with the waffle-speak about Vista 'issues' is here: http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-025783.htm
Although the stuttering problem is gone, this model board has caused various USB and power-management problems (in both Vista and XP) for numerous users whose posts I've since seen at multiple forums. I had managed to avoid those kinds of problems for the first few months, but a bad driver and/or component services for a USB component (logitech webcam) seems to have triggered some of them a couple weeks ago when I tried to uninstall it--it was actually messing up Excel & Thunderbird (hard to believe, but true), which was what prompted me to get rid of it, but then it would not uninstall cleanly, and after that I'm having some of the same USB/power management problems I've seen reported. Whether the Intel storage driver plays any part in this, I don't know.
I never bought this board for RAID anyway, and what with these and even lower-level problems (for instance, the BIOS clock couldn't even keep time, it would lose 3-4 minutes/week), I've given up on it. I'm dumping it for the non-raid version which Vista ought to be able to run in AHCI mode without the Intel Storage stuff. So they claim, anyway. I hope they're right, I would rather not lose the hot-swap SATA function, it beats USB drives for backup.
Thanks for the Intel trouble-report link, I will take your suggestion to post there.
This is a repeat of the post immediately above, I hit 'reply' when I meant to hit 'quote', here's the re-post, slightly edited, in context:
I can certainly confirm that at some point I DID notice a clear correlation between the stuttering and whether I had either an unpowered SATA drive connected, or even just an internal sata-cable-to-eSata-bracket installed with nothing attached! That latter situation goes a bit beyond your 'primary indicator'. Eventually I figured out that unplugging and/or removing ALL those things would fairly reliably stop the stuttering, at least for a while. (As long as I also shut the machine down and cleared the CMOS and then painstakingly re-configured the bios; and even at that the problem did re-appear at least once, maybe twice.)
I can't be sure that the sata/drive/cable/bracket syndrome was the whole reason, or that Intel's Storage Matrix bears all the responsibility, because I was also applying, in desperation, several Vista hotfixes ('stability', 'usb performance', and more) around the same time I was noticing the correlation and disconnecting the unused sata stuff.
Anyway, in the wake of all that, I am now able to keep an sata-to-Esata cable plugged directly into the MOBO (with the bare end just hanging in the air--where this machine sits, I don't need the side panel). I can also then plug it into my external hard drive enclosure, unpowered, and then power that on, all without causing the stuttering. Who knows, I might at this point be able to keep the external drive mostly always attached, whether powered on or not--but I'd rather not risk the experiment. And I have never put the internal cable/eSata bracket apparatus back in--I don't want to risk that, either.
My AHCI BIOS/OROM version is the same as yours (iSRC 1.07 08042006). The board is, like yours, a gigabyte -- model GA-P35-DS3R, version 1, with Bios F4. The Intel Storage Matrix driver (preinstalled from floppy ahead of Vista, and unremoveable, so far as I know) is version 7.6.0.1011. The Intel page with the waffle-speak about Vista 'issues' is here: http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-025783.htm
Although the stuttering problem is gone, this model board has caused various USB and power-management problems (in both Vista and XP) for numerous users whose posts I've since seen at multiple forums. I had managed to avoid those kinds of problems for the first few months, but a bad driver and/or component services for a USB component (logitech webcam) seems to have triggered some of them a couple weeks ago when I tried to uninstall it--it was actually messing up Excel & Thunderbird (hard to believe, but true), which was what prompted me to get rid of it, but then it would not uninstall cleanly, and after that I'm having some of the same USB/power management problems I've seen reported. Whether the Intel storage driver plays any part in this, I don't know.
I never bought this board for RAID anyway, and what with these and even lower-level problems (for instance, the BIOS clock couldn't even keep time, it would lose 3-4 minutes/week), I've given up on it. I'm dumping it for the non-raid version which Vista ought to be able to run in AHCI mode without the Intel Storage stuff. So they claim, anyway. I hope they're right, I would rather not lose the hot-swap SATA function, it beats USB drives for backup.
I know I wandered a bit off-topic in the last 2 paragraphs, but I included it because many of these posters with problems re USB/power management also reported onboard audio problems, and it seemed to me that a healthy percentage of them were using the board without the Intel Storage Matrix.
Thanks for the Intel trouble-report link, I will take your suggestion to post there.
androidi wrote: Same problem here, it's not limited to Vista, also happens on XP/2003 both 32/64 bit. I'm 99% sure it's to do with the Intel AHCI/Matrix storage driver. It'd be interesting to know what your motherboard brand/model is. Mine is Gigabyte DS2R and I've seen reports of this issue on other forums as well. I'm using the integrated Intel graphics and every component is Intel except Audio Realtek and Network Broadcom. The issue goes away by disabling AHCI/RAID but you lose hot-swap of SATA drives and NCQ.
The primary indicator for this issue is that if any of the SATA ports has a drive that is plugged in but not powered up (and not powered down by the AHCI driver programmatically) then you get this global stutter/studder/hickups/choppy. In audio it sounds like tiny repeats. How bad it is seems to depend on what drive brand is plugged in etc so on some combinations it's very tiny and doesn't happen that often, on other drives it's more constant and easy to detect.
I'd suggest you report at:
http://supportmail.intel.com/scripts-emf/welcome.aspx?id=
Chipsets/Chipset software/Matrix storage Technology
btw. My AHCI BIOS/OROM version that is shown on boot with AHCI/RAID enabled is iSRC 1.07 08042006, what's yours?
nada_clue wrote: Though most posts in this thread involve laptops and many of them attempt to isolate the problem in wireless network adapters, let me assure you the same problem can show up in a desktop with wired-ethernet-only. (Admittedly, it's a Realtek onboard gigabit LAN, and Realtek has been fingered by a number of you for its drivers, at least its audio drivers.)
On a brand new core2-quad P35 chipset machine with 4GB ddrII, with a completely clean install of Vista 32 business, I have been suffering intermittent global stuttering. It affects not only audio (of any sort, through any player, whether or not dsp-enhanced) but also video (you can see it in screen saver motion, for instance) and even cursor or mouse movement (hit and hold the spacebar in a text editor and watch the stuttering fun begin!). It's intermittent but not random; that is, it can disappear for a while after I apply one of my stab-in-the-dark fixes (read on) but can come back and then generally remains until I re-apply a fix. It's been like this since about day 1. Well, maybe day 2 or 3.
I've seen so many variants of this problem posted in so many forums, with so many theories, that I could spend the next three months doing nothing but troubleshooting it, assuming I had the budget and time to try endless substitute components or re-builds from scratch, but there's no assurance any or all of that would actually fix it. I do have the Intel Storage Matrix AHCI drivers pre-installed, and Intel itself vaguely alludes to possible 'degraded performance in Vista' with regard to those drivers--is this what they're talking about? They don't say. I do have an Nvidia 8800gts, and Nvidia forums are full of complaints about unacceptable issues with their video drivers, but again it's vague, no smoking gun for global stuttering. I have tried THREE different audio configurations--the onboard realtek hi-def; an x-fi elite; and a c-media based Omega Claro card. I have the problem with all of them. Discovering how musical the c-media card is was a happy accidental side effect of this miserable odyssey, but it really just makes it more frustrating, since I now want to listen to music more than ever but can't find a permanent solution to this vexing problem.
One of the weirdest symptoms is that the stuttering can re-appear (if it has been gone for a few days) just by connecting an external SATA drive, even if the drive is not turned on! Equally weird: simply going into the BIOS and just looking, changing nothing, exiting without saving, can cause it to reappear upon re-boot!
And to ice this cake of weirdness, here are some things that can make it go away (sometimes, at least for a while): removing the external SATA drive and rebooting; removing and re-seating the cards on the motherboard; and clearing the BIOS (jumper or pull out the battery) and then re-entering all the same settings as were there already.
The symptoms are driving me nuts, as audio is one of my main uses for a computer, but it's the HUH? quality of these various actions that can seem to make the problem disappear or re-appear that are really threatening my sanity. If anybody can sift a better clue out of these ashes of frustration than I can, I wish you would post it.
Ok, I have an ACER Aspire 5720 and Vista Ultimate 32 bit.
1.5ghz, nvidia 8400, 1gb RAM
Now I have a problem where the computer seems to want to “buffer” at various times when playing media. It is completely random. And when that happens the most obvious effect is a “rough” audio. This happens when I play an mp3 on winamp, a video on media player, or on youtube. The format and software player are 110% irrelevant here. But it's basically impossible to properly go through a simple mp3!!
Also, I don’t think it’s a problem with my realtek audio drivers, cause if I uninstall these and use the Microsoft drivers I get the exact same problem. Though I have enhancements disabled, they are irrelevant cause there are none under MS drivers (in fact I can’t even plug in speakers under MS drivers). So I don’t think this is an audio problem, but the problem most obviously affects audio!! And I do have the latest drivers according to ACER’s site.
I also tried disabling wireless drivers as some have said this does something, but it didn’t. I didn’t try rolling back wireless drivers but if disabling them does nothing why would rolling them back?
Does anyone have any other suggestions to my problem! This is a new laptop (originally came with Vista home premium but I upgraded) and it is really depressing me!
For a while it even looked like the problem vanished. But then came back.
col32n wrote: Ive spent all night trying to beat the audio problem on an Acer Aspire 5720. Tried all the fixes here and would have settled for the ACPI fix if the machine didnt suddely switch off now and again.
I beleive I have fixed it now by installing the Acer ePower Management, part of the eMpowering software
On the dells it might be worth another look at the dell power/lan control utilities. I havent struggled like that since the Nforce2 chipset clashes in xp...
I've got an Acer Aspire 5720. PLEASE tell me what you did to fix audio problems! Please!! What ACPI fix??
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_5720.html
under Empowering Technology and Utilities
Install E-Framework and then ePowermanager
col32n wrote: http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_5720.html
under Empowering Technology and Utilities
Install E-Framework and then ePowermanager
Installing E-Framework and ePowermanager fixes audio problems? Doesn't ePowermanager have to do with the battery?
Yea as it suggests it takes control of features like hibernation etc. I first tried the eAudio util but it made no difference, the skipping was resolved with ePowermanager. I had serios mouse hanging and music skipping whilst moving around the desktop particulaly when moving around in vista / browsing my computer and windows explorer. When moving the mouse over folders and vista trying to gather information about the contents, it was definatly hard disk controller related. The ePowermanager obviosly handled the power distribution or IRQ assignment better. I'm no wizard thats just the best way for me to describe it.
I also flashed the bios to latest but this was before I installed ePowermanager etc and it didnt resolve anything.
starwars2099 I guess the burning question here is did this fix the problem for you too ?? I'm sure there are others who would like to know.
Col
Dear Jazacoop:
Where are you? I want to buy you dinner!!! You have no idea how long I have spent on this issue, and with HP "experts" for hours. then all they wanted me to do was to save my files and do a complete reintall of the system. I refused.
Being a professional musician, I NEED sound and to be able to work with sound files. The instant I used your fix, the problem was solved. But I read an earlier post saying that they had a problem once they signed up for a online group, and now I remember that the last thing I did before having the sound problem was to sign up for AIM and Microsoft Live. Somehow, that must have changed my settings. I'm not sure, but it is some coincidnece!
Thanks so much for your post. If you are anywhere near me, which is Long Island, NY, I'm serious about dinner!
Gary
- Hi Folks,
it seem that i have the same or a simliar problem at my ACER TRAVELMATE 5720G 301G16 with Windows Vista Home Premium.
When i play music via Media Player and move the cursor (via the internal synaptics touchpad) the sound totally stutter. Even when i press a key on the keyboard while playing sound files using the keyboard to move within a game it stutter followed by the video-picture.
The pre-installed drivers seems to be newer then these from the acer download website (Touchpad & Audio compared by their version number). Installing the newest realtek high definition audio driver (R1.82 from realtek's homepage) also doesnt help. Sound is still stuttering while pressing any key or moving the mouse (via touchpad). Additional the three audio plugs in the front panel doesnt work at all!
So far i didnt have the time to test all your suggestions. But installing an acer program like "ePower...." (mentioned above) on top of all doesnt sounds normal to me. Is this the only and all about solution?
I'll try it, but i think there must be a more precious way. All said above sounds more like a workaround.
What do you think? Do you have the same feelings about that? Do you have other solutions? And is there no one from acer who knows more about this special case?
Thanks in advance & i appreciate your help.
Andreas from outside this world :-) Well here’s my story. I installed the power management utility and turned out that it wasn’t using 100% of the CPU, even when plugged in!! So I adjusted it and clicked apply. And finally my sound plays perfectly! No more buffering!
Took 3 weeks to solve this problem, installing and uninstalling all sorts of ***, but now it’s finally solved! Thanks col32n for the suggestion as it brought the problem to light!
Another way to do it is to go to advanced power settings and set both minimum AND maximum CPU usage at 100%.
Off topic about the Acer Aspire 5720: Does it have blue tooth support? I can download drivers for it but I can’t seem to install the drivers. No setup file nothing, and device manager doesn’t show missing hardware. And if I try to install Bluetooth utilities it says it doesn’t detect Bluetooth. So what is up with all that? Bluetooth here is yay or nay?
By the way sucks that ACER does not update drivers for their laptops!! That's why I prefer desktops, you can always get new drivers.
Dear Gary,
Your thanks and appreciation are ample for me! I'm glad I could help. Whilst dinner would be nice, I live nowhere near Long Island NY. I'm in Melbourne Australia, so unless you're planning a trip down under, or I somehow end up in Long Island, I'll settle for your verbal gratitude.
The issue is most certainly a result of an incompatibility between Windows and certain hardware configurations (particularly the drivers that allow them to interact with the PC). From what I can gather, the hardware vendors blame Microsoft and Microsoft blames the hardware vendors for poorly written drivers, and us consumers get stuck in the middle. Personally, I blame Microsoft, as I think the underlying problem lies in the OS itself. Ultimately, my solution was just a workaround. Hopefully the issue will be resolved at some stage.
All the best with your musical endeavoUrs (yes, I spelt it the Australian way
)Jazz.
YAY mr starwars, we can say it worked for you
I dont understand about your 100% cpu issues ??? I made no adjustments at all, just installed the software.
turned out that it wasn’t using 100% of the CPU ????
Another way to do it is to go to advanced power settings and set both minimum AND maximum CPU usage at 100% ?????
Have I missed something ?
Anyway - glad it worked
Col
There was no bluetooth on the 5720 I worked on. Might have had a switch for it but no hardware.
If you look on the settings there’s a bar where you can adjust CPU usage when the battery is running and also when plugged in. I simply upped that bar a notch to 100%, clicked apply, and became a happy guy.
I was considering so many things including returning the laptop, calling Acer, and adding more RAM.
Now it's all done.
These two steps together worked perfectly for me!!
I have an HP Pavilion Entertainment PC with Vista 32 bit, an AMD TL-58 1.90 GHz and 2GB memory. Realtek Sound and some G wireless card. and the crackling was so bad I was about to send my laptop back for a replacement, but as many have said that just ends up being a big waste of time.
After doing the First step by jazacoop:
1. Go to control panel > sound > speaker > Propteries.
2. Then under enhancements.
3. Select "Disable all enchancements".
This made the crackling reduce to just once every minuite for like 2 or 3 seconds, not bad.After reading on for further solutions, disabling my network card was going to be the next step, but then I came across this alternate solution, rather than having a disabled wireless card, by colo421:
1 - Go to Control Panel -> Device Manager
2 - Click on Networks Adapters
3 - Double click on the wireless card
4 - Go to the advanced tab.
5 - Select from the list "Disable Bands"
6 - Select the "a" band from the list on the right side.After clicking apply on this last step I heard one final crackle and now no more crackling at all! and best of all can still use the internet while listening to music!
Hopfully these two steps work out for the rest of you who still had issues after step one.
Thanks jazacoop and colo421Thanks BlackStormBT! Looks like your solution fixed the same problem that I was having! I changed the Wireless Mode setting of my wireless card from 802.11a/b/g to just 802.11g and it fixed the problem. Very strange on how the wireless card has anything to do with the audio...
I have a panasonic toughbook CF-73. Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided to install Vista Business on it. It has an intel proset 2100 internal wireless card. I was experiencing the sound glitch "digital skipping" durring CD playback, as well as DVD movie playback, as well as streaming audio through my USB modem. I disabled the wireless card and it now plays flawlessly. I don't use the wireless that often so it doesn't bother me to enable when I need it and disable when I don't.
"Thank You JAZACOOP"
- hey vaioroxio,i bought an acer lappy 4520 only 15 days old,and the audio scratching or glitching prob was there while playing music,i m having both xp pro sp2 nd vista home prem.Acer gave me new speakers as a replacemnet but tat dint
solve da prob.Installing epower managemnt and shifiting the cpu usuage slider 2 100 % reduced the glitches but dint completely eliminated it,still lukin 4 a fullproof soln,did u find ne,plz lemme kno,i m new to this forum.thank u - hey starwars,i bought an acer lappy 4520 only 15 days old,and the audio scratching or glitching prob was there while playing music,i m having both xp pro sp2 nd vista home prem.Acer gave me new speakers as a replacemnet but tat dint
solve da prob.Installing epower managemnt and shifiting the cpu usuage slider 2 100 % reduced the glitches but dint completely eliminated it,still lukin 4 a fullproof soln,did u find ne,plz lemme kno,i m new to this forum.thank John,
You poor things, I went through all this too. I'll tell you up front it is WINDOWS VISTA's problem!!! And there is NO solution. I finally bought a Window XP Pro on the internet and installed it on my Acer Aspire T180 and killed Vista for good. Felt so good!! Anyways here is how and why I know this:
First I bought a brand new Gateway with Vista, and had the skipping problem when playing music. So I returned it and got another one, same one with good old Vista and same thing, skipping! So I called tech support and they had me do the thing with the sound device checking and unchecking stuff. Also I updated the audio driver several times. Sooooo many hours on the phone with techs....so I returned it thinking it must be a Gateway problem. Got an Acer Aspire T180 with Vista. Got it home and the music had background interference but nothing major so I kept it. Well a few months later upon playing some songs in Windows Media Player, there appeared some little red x's in front of all the songs and now says I can't play any of these (that I had been playing for months now). Well I called techs and they had no answers. I used System Restore and that didn't work so I restored the computer to factory fresh. Well that made the little red x's (is a vista thing) go away but now the STUDDERING AND SKIPPING IS BACK!~~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!! So I updated Vista, like 50 updates, updated the audio driver. and the skipping is still there!!!! So after talking to Acer techs for hours, and several of them, one guy suggested that I change the buffer times on WMP. That did change the timing of the skipping but it was still there. So we hung up and he was definitely challenged by the whole thing. So the only thing I could think of was to get XP back!! (which I wanted in the first place but was not available). So I installed it on my Acer and wiped out stupid Vista. And now.............NO MORE SKIPPING!!!!! So that's my story. The problem is VISTA... It's the worst~~~!!!
Hope this helps.........
I'm happy happy happy with good old XP.
- thanks john,4 ur support but i have xp pro sp 2 also installed and sound crackling occurs there 2.Mine lappy is acer aspire 4520,the speakers r very loud,sometimes crackling occurs,sometimes not,justn can't get wats happening twhen i use da lappy in battery prob occurs,sometimes it occurs in power,is this ne hardware prob or soft prob and plz suggest a workaround john.Will b very grateful 2 u.thanks in advance.
Updated - 29-09-2008 - 4shared.com sucks and I will not use them again!! I am now using my private server www.MohawkSystems.com The file will stay there permanently. Sorry again for the dead links.
Updated - 08-04-2008 - 4shared.com likes to delete accounts for no reason so I created another and uploaded the file again. Here it goes.
I hope this solves everyones problem as i am shure that everyone that has ever bought a dell notebook with a sigmatel sound card has this problem because of the new sound system in Vista. I am not a programmer or a device driver writer although I am a VB.net programmer and a security officer by trade. Anyway I scoured the internet and found updated IDT drivers. These guys bought out sigmatel so i found their stuff and thru trial and error one dll stapi32.dll seems to be causing the stuttering problem. so i replaced it with the one from the IDT build 6.10.5713.0 and rebooted and damn. My wife could not be happier. This was the only thing keeping me from going to Vista. if anyone needs any help I would be happy to help. Please dont spam. Contact me. at Takiyon{AT}MohawkSystems[[[[dot]]]]com
Anyway here is the driver that I came up with. I only tried it with my wifes Dell E1705 and only with 32-bit vista. Please spread this around people need this solution. I just hope that i have it. because Sigmatel.. achem... Sorry, IDT Does not... Let me know if it works for everyone.
Everyone can grab the driver here:
SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio Driver 6.10.0.5614-Takiyon
Enjoy
Takiyon,
Please see last post.ok so im running windows vista home premium on an acer aspire 5720 with wmp 11
so i try to sync my music onto my mp3 player which has never caused any problems before and it wont connect with wmp so i just drag and drop my songs onto my mp3 now my computer wont play music thats stored on it but will play music on the internet so it cant be my speakers or sound card so i tryed deleting all my music and re-riping it/ downloading it but it still dont work
heres the error message
Windows Media Player cannot access the file. The file might be in use, you might not have access to the computer where the file is stored, or your proxy settings might not be correct.
now i deffinatly have acess to the file as its on my laptop and im the only user, the file isnt in use the only thing open is wmp and i havnt changed my proxy settings since i set up my laptop 4 months ago
also my i tunes and realplayer dont work along with quiktime but my veoh player for movies does it seems to only be music.
anyone got any ideas? please help! would reinstalling wmp 11 help?
thanks for any help given
Ian x x
Just wanted everyone know the solution for my scenario - maybe it helps someone else:
Inspiron 8600 with Sigmatel C Major Audio and a Intel Pro/Wireless 2100 3A Mini PCI Adapter
Solution: Deactivating the WLAN (Pro/Wireless) hardware. Now it plays just fine. This isn't a very good solution but I can deal with that and will try to find another.
For me, the cause of the glitches is the seaching of the WLAN card for networks if it isn't connected to any (as for some it helped to deactivate an unused band in dual band WLAN cards) - as far as I can say this problem does not appear if I am connected to a network (but currently I'm using a lan cable).
As a side node, Vista SP1 did not resolve the problem.
I also have a solution for these symptons. Here goes:
I have an MSI P35 Platinum motherboard with an ICH9R southbridge. I’m using the RAID features on the ICH9R in a RAID0 configuration. I also have an eSATA enclosure with an old (relatively speaking) 120GB SATA drive in it. I have read plently of forum posts suggesting switching the SATA controller from AHCI mode to IDE to solve these kind of issues… but as I was using RAID that wasn’t an option.
Thanks to this TechNet forum post I finally discovered that it was my eSATA drive causing all the problems… I had it powered down most of the time, but still connected. Something doesn’t like that (driver?) and causes the stuttering. Switch the power to the drive on, and suddenly everthing is OK!
starwars2099 wrote: Well here’s my story. I installed the power management utility and turned out that it wasn’t using 100% of the CPU, even when plugged in!! So I adjusted it and clicked apply. And finally my sound plays perfectly! No more buffering!
Took 3 weeks to solve this problem, installing and uninstalling all sorts of ***, but now it’s finally solved! Thanks col32n for the suggestion as it brought the problem to light!
Another way to do it is to go to advanced power settings and set both minimum AND maximum CPU usage at 100%.
Off topic about the Acer Aspire 5720: Does it have blue tooth support? I can download drivers for it but I can’t seem to install the drivers. No setup file nothing, and device manager doesn’t show missing hardware. And if I try to install Bluetooth utilities it says it doesn’t detect Bluetooth. So what is up with all that? Bluetooth here is yay or nay?
By the way sucks that ACER does not update drivers for their laptops!! That's why I prefer desktops, you can always get new drivers.
I noticed that setting the power plan to "Power Saver" or "Balanced" solved the problem with the sound. I have an Acer 7720G and I don't have the ePower software installed. I refuse to give up and run the rubbish Acer software on my laptop again. I also want full performance so I don't want to have to change power schemes...- Has anyone considered it could be overloaded, slow hard disk drives? no-one seems to have mentioned the power of their HDD's.
Try reducing the amount of disk usage and try again as well as the other solutions? I don't think that is an issue because it used to happen on a fresh install with nothing on the drive. I love my E1705 and I got the best drive they offered at the time from dell. But I tell you what I do notice that when i run music. If I change the processor affinity to just CPU01 then problem is gone. This is odd, perhaps microsoft redesigned the load balancing and windows media got left in the dark. I am surprised they don't have a new update or something. My new drivers help depending on what i am doing. but still no solution. This really think this is a WM problem not a driver issue like we all thought.
- I just started having a mp3 sound glitch on windows media player, searched around the microsoft site and they say to switch of the enhancements in the view menu, all I did was to switch off the SRS WOW effects and nave no more glitching.
Takiyon wrote: Sorry About the previous link. This One Works
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope this solves everyones problem as i am shure that everyone that has ever bought a dell notebook with a sigmatel sound card has this problem because of the new sound system in Vista. I am not a programmer or a device driver writer although I am a VB.net programmer and a security officer by trade. Anyway I scoured the internet and found updated IDT drivers. These guys bought out sigmatel so i found their stuff and thru trial and error one dll stapi32.dll seems to be causing the stuttering problem. so i replaced it with the one from the IDT build 6.10.5713.0 and rebooted and damn. My wife could not be happier. This was the only thing keeping me from going to Vista. if anyone needs any help I would be happy to help. Please dont spam. Contact me. at Takiyon{AT}MohawkSystems[[[[dot]]]]com But remember i am not resposible for crashes or data loss.
Anyway here is the driver that I came up with. I only tried it with my wifes Dell E1705 and only with 32-bit vista. Please spread this around people need this solution. I just hope that i have it. because Sigmatel.. achem... Sorry, IDT Does not...
Everyone can grab the driver here:
SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio Driver 6.10.0.5614-Takiyon
Enjoy
Takiyon,
The link to download the drivers doesn't work anymore.
Hi,
PLEASE HELP!!
I have the same exact computer AND issues as Steven Berger described initially. (Acer Aspire 9800 {9805WKHi} (20.1" notebook) Dual-core T2600; 2GB RAM. Installed Vista Home Premium from XP Media Center.
I have disabled the enhancements and updated the realtek drivers, nothing stops this annoying sound stuttering. On top of all of this, I spent 4 hours on the phone with level 2 microsoft tech support and they did everything that i did. What's the deal here?? Acer won't respond to emails.
Thanks!!
- ok heres the issue im having when i open a webpage and reload some webpage's the audio cuts for abit not much
im on dial-up and i have never had this issue on this pc or others i know he's on dial-up thats
the thing im not playing files off the net just off the ( HDD ) hard disk drive its ether music video's,mp3,wma does
not matter and i have contacted creative and they gave this reply not sure this will help but i
got alot more options in windows sound Properties then if u click adavnced tab there under Default
Format look and see how many options u ha ve before u do these steps to know if the card installed
right heres were u goto check this out
start ( type in start search ) sound ( there should a result that comes up called sound ) click it and then click on speakers click on Properties click on adavnced tab under Default Format ( look and see how many options u have to choose from )
now then on to the other part clean install of the sound like i said i did do this on my own i give Credit to Creative Support for helping to find a way to clean install the sound card now this did not fix the sound cuting out when open and reloading some page like this site and techwebsupport.com
( hope u here dont mind me give that forum site as a site that cause the audio to cutout ) if not im sorry for that
but here is what creative told me to do and il post more that come's its a long post so im sorry for that to
Here are a few suggestions that you can try:
I would need you to follow the steps below to troubleshoot the issue on
your sound card:
1. Uninstall the installed drivers and application on your system for
the sound card. You can refer to this link:
"Uninstalling Sound Blaster Drivers and Applications"
http://us.creative.com/support/kb/article.asp?l=3&sid=1712
2. Go to Device Manager, and uninstall the sound card. You may refer to
this article in getting to the Device Manager. Please refer to this
link:
"General Device Manager Information"
http://us.creative.com/support/kb/article.asp?l=2&sid=2404
3. Take the card out of the computer then restart the PC without it. Let
Windows load without the card. After that, shut the PC down.
4. Reinstall the card back to the PCI slot. Same or different slot will
do. Make sure it is a slot away from the video card. Restart the
computer.
5. If during the restart, Add New Hardware comes up, cancel it. Do not
install the card using the wizard.
6. You may download the latest drivers for your sound card from the link
below:
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Pack 1.04.0079
Filename: XFXA_PCDRV_LB_1_04_0079.exe
http://support.creative.com/downloads/download.aspx?nDownloadId=10525
Again, I apologize for the complications that you have experienced and
hope that I have given you enough information to resolve your issue.
If you have tried all the above and are still experiencing issue, please
reply to this communication citing each of the troubleshooting steps
that you have taken and what the result were.
Thank you again for contacting us, hope to serve you better in future.
Best Regards,
Sashi
Technical Support
Creative Labs Americas Just to clarify... I have been doing a little tinkering and what I have found is that If I changed the Affinity of the Windows Audio Service. No Stuttering and no using 100% of the CPU when queing up the next track. Why has microsoft not fixed this? I have been trying to make a little program to manually set the cpu for that particualar service. I have been unsuccessful. If anyone is a software developer the code is below and let me know what you can make out. What we want is a simple program that runs once and changes the audiosrv to the second processor. the code below is for vb.net 2008. yes i know the code is broken per se.. but it is proof of concept as to what I want to do. I believe this will solve everyone's problems because microsoft so far has not fixed it. And Just to clarify it is NOT a wireless isssue, DRM or anything other than Sigmatels crappy driver, and microsoft's ineffiecient use of processor scheduling for audio services. If anyone claims to be solving the problem by anything other than driver based or windows services based solutions then you are not having the same core problem most of us are having. Anyway the code is below and I look forward to anyones input on the matter.
Public
Class Boot Public Shared Sub main() Dim Services() As System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController = System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController.GetServices Dim CurrentProcess As Diagnostics.Process For Each Service As System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController In Services Select Case Service.ServiceName Case Is = "audiosrv"CurrentProcess.ProcessorAffinity =
New IntPtr(2) Case Is = "stacsv"CurrentProcess.ProcessorAffinity =
New IntPtr(2)
End Select Next For Each CurrentProcess As Diagnostics.Process In CurrentProcesses Try If CurrentProcess.MainModule.ModuleName.ToLower = "svchost.exe" Then For Each Modules As Diagnostics.ProcessModule In CurrentProcess.Modules Next End If Catch End Try NextEnd Sub
End Class
- this is not a solution this is a workaround. Why would you want to stop using any enhancements. especially if you have the Sound Blaster Audigy Advance MB software. Not blaming you but this is unacceptable. I hope microsoft and sigmatel are reading this because they have alot of pissed vista users.
- i tried disabling all enhancements like you suggested but it didn't help.
this is such a weird problem, but i know it's a problem with vista, because i just got a new imac and i'm running osx 10.5.5 on one half and vista home premium on the other. the exact same mp3s copied to each respective separate partition play fine on the apple half and stutter, pop, skip, and are just unlistenable on the windows half. Here is the best explanation of the problem I have found to date:
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2007/08/27/1833290.aspx
Some points to consider:
-
This problem has existed since Vista was released, and there is no visible (to average user) effort to address it on the part of Microsoft.
-
If they have a solution they have not made it widely available or communicated its existence.
-
Failure of an OS to accurately render music under normal circumstances is failure of an OS
-
Niether of the other two OS's available to consumers is currently experiencing this problem.
-
It is entirely inappropriate to knowingly allow thousands of users to spend hours (I have logged twenty to date on this particular problem, and sixty on the other major Vista deficits) trying to figure out what the problem is when you already know and want to avoid bad PR
-
Running advertisments where people are told they are using Mojave and surprising them with the fact that it is Vista is in effect lying to everyone, because clearly they were not shown how it is impossible to watch a Hulu movie without the audio stuttering every minute, they were not shown how they would loose control of their sound card, they were never shown how hard (and buggy) it would be to manipulate their own files in explore, and they were never shown that perhaps the next competitor was delivering all the basic requirements and (true to their advertisement) was just plain cool.
-
NEVER MAKE THIS MISTAKE AGAIN!
-
Thanks to those of you who agree that this is totally unacceptable of MS to allow this issue to go UNRESOLVED. I've been a PC user since the begining and to be unable to use the "latest and greatest Windows" is very sad Vista can't play music normally on my computer. BTW, way to go with the trickery & f-ery you pulled on your latest commercial telling people Vista was Windows Mojave. SPEND YOUR TIME AND MONEY FIXING THE SOUND PROBLEM WITH THE $250 OS I BOUGHT FROM YOU THAT I CAN'T F-ING USE. Guess I will have to go Mac for music production...
jeez,
Ron
- Well, I've read all 9 pages of this thread and I believe I've figured out my particular problem with the help of some of the posts. I have a Toshiba L355D laptop with onboard Realtek audio. When playing any mp3 in WMP or Winamp I would get a single random crackle or pop every minute or so. Sometimes it would go a whole song without doing it...sometimes it would do it several times throughout an mp3. No stuttering or stopped playback, just a small noise seemingly randomly. I tried every setting possible that I read here and elsewhere on the net. None worked. What worked was changing my "power profile" from "balanced" to "high performance". Since this seems to be working on my system, I'm deducing that for some reason Vista is not allocating power correctly, so when running audio the cpu is running out of power and slightly glitching. Setting the power setting to the highest setting must allocate enough power to the audio task so that it doesn't glitch. This also might explain why the one guy on maybe page 3? of this thread said that changing his power supply fixed the problem for him. It seems that many people with Acer systems in the last few threads have also fixed the problem by adjusting their power settings. Hope this helps someone.
Microsoft sucks
Peace out I have all the same skipping issues and the dell inspiron 6000 and upgraded to vista ultimate. I've tried every sigmatel driver I could find just in case there was a chance one would work. It's driving me insane.
dman, you are the best. I just put in a dvd and my soud was instantly fixed, it wasn't even a movie just a blank dvd. Does the drive turn its power off when not in use?
- I don't know people are just stating it's Vista. I have a Gateway MX3701 laptop using XP Pro, with a Sigma Tel HD integrated sound Card and my sound was working perfectly up until a couple months ago. Tried everything suggested so far from all forums etc. I can find. Updated, re-installed all drivers nothing, updated all drives possible still nothing. Seems like something somewhere, windows update etc has done something. was installed or updated that is causing this issue, but have not yet found the culprit. I'm about ready to remove everything and anything that can be re-installed easily and see what happens.
I also have a PC with the same exact sound card in it which is a Gateway also running XP Home and no problems at all with sound. Trying to figure out what the difference is with that compared to my laptop.
So anyone that has a solution, post please, it doesn't seem to be only Vista. Although a hint for some Vista owners, if your running Windows Media Encoder or an encoder from Camstreams on a Vista machine, it screws up your sound badly. Sound will work for a while then all of a sudden lag, skip, crackle everything, until you reboot. Run the same on XP and no problems at all.
Seems that the issue happens when something is clicked on, moved etc. Clicking in Browser (Firefox, IE7), Right clicking in Windows Media player at the top and just moving around in the menu makes it skip tremendously. CPU doesn't seem to be an issue, nor Ram because I ended most processes that I can and it still happens. Not sure what to do next. Maybe someone can come up with something. - I have the same problem with music playback jumping and slowing down. I have tried everything suggested on this forum and the only thing that works is to unplug my USB wireless card. It works like a charm! I am using a PC with the adapter just for convenience since I use wireless with my other notebook computers. The problem is this is just a temporary fix. I would like to listen to music and browse...to much to ask?
For people with sound blaster cards.
This is a plug-in for winamp to side step the vista audio system and output sound in OpenAL instead of direct sound.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/winampopenalout/
This will enable the hardware acceleration you payed for and give you the higher quality sound removed from vista for DRM.
Let me know if this clears up any of the glitching as system stutter from other sources could remain. after installing you can find it under prefrences in output under plugins.
Other sources? "Vista continuously spends CPU time monitoring itself, trying to figure out if you're doing something that it thinks you shouldn't. If it does, it limits functionality" and in extreme cases restarts subsystems.
If you play a blueray movie you bought in vista and it will not play or plays in low resolution, low quality. That's a vista "feature". Kind of an Orwellian feature if you ask me(Less is more) and using system resources to make a movie you payed for look like ____, spun as a feature.
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/02/drm_in_windows_1.html- well i got the same problem i have a xps m1330 with vista i just have a week with it and i dont like it any more they said to download the update for sigmatel c major driver in the manufactors web pages that means dell i did it but i didnt work and support dont do nothing about i lost a whole day of work for that and nothing i even reinstall everything
- I've had this problem since I performed a clean install of Vista Ultimate. Playing music through Media Center or MediaPlayer always resulted in stuttering audio without fail. Every track, every time; regardless of the audio being local or on a network share, MP3 or WAV. I caught on to the point about the WLAN - I have a LinkSys WUSB300N 802.11n adapter. I'd tried pretty much everything else, so I smacked Windows Update clicked the box to install the updated "Marvell Wireless-N" driver and crossed my fingers. Voila. Everything is perfect. 100% fixed.
- Yep-I had the same thing with the WUSB300N and its default drivers. Whenever the blue LINK/ACT light blinked, was when the sound would stutter. I'd like to note that apparently the *new* drivers provided by Linksys get rid of this problem. That is, the drivers that Linksys provided on the disk that came with the WUSB300N (version 1.0.1.2, with a date of 3/16/2007) do *not* work properly with Vista. However if you go to the Linksys website and download the latest drivers (version 1.0.3.2, with a date of 9/11/2007), that appears to get rid of the problem.
I had the same problem on Windows Vista. Disabling the wireless a band in the WLAN device settings worked around the problem for my case.
Now I have installed Windows 7 RTM with the exact same hardware and the problem is back. Unfortunately disabling the a band or even the WLAN device altogether did not correct the issue.
Anybody seeing the same issue?- I have the problem since yesterday Aug 25 2009. It appear to have started after MS issued a patch. I saw the popup. I have an HP 6130 Quad with Realtek sound card. Operating system is Windows Home Premium. If anyone has suggestions how to get rid of the problem. Much appreciated.
