Audio stuttering problem

[awdrifter]

I'm having this problem with my new comp, when I play a long song (over 4 mins), it sometimes stutters. I updated my DirectX and audio drivers to the newest version, but I'm still having this problem. I searched on Google and found this page (http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Q_21106953.html), it describes my problem exactly, but it requires $10 to view the answer. So if anyone knows how to fix it, please help. I want to save $10 if I can. Thanks.


Here's my system's spec.

AMD X2 4600 (@2.86ghz 249x11.5)

ECS KN1 Lite

On board Realtek ALC655 6 channel audio

Mushikin DDR400 2x1GB (carry over from old setup)

Ultra X-Connect 500W PSU (carry over from old setup)

Biostar 7600GT DDR3 256mb (oc'd to 646/811)

[Bootup05]

Not sure if this would help, but try having a fiddle with audio acceleration, see if that helps.

Sorted quite a couple of my sound issues out conserning stuttering and quiet patches:)

[Modzilla]

I would take the heavy-handed approach and buy a separate sound card. Separate sound cards consume fewer cpu cycles than onboard sound. Whatever you decide, I would ensure that the pci latency of the video card is not more than twice the latency of the sound device. The nvidia driver install probably set the latency of the video card at 248, and the default latency of all other devices, as set in the motherboard bios, is probably 64 or 32. Get a video control app, like rivatuner or coolbits, and set the latency of the video card to 128. Also, as suggested, reduce hardware acceleration for audio devices a notch at a time and see what happens. Ensure that you are using the latest driver for your sound device.

[awdrifter]

Not sure if this would help, but try having a fiddle with audio acceleration, see if that helps.

Sorted quite a couple of my sound issues out conserning stuttering and quiet patches:)

How do I change the audio acceleration? Sorry, I never had to do this before.


I would take the heavy-handed approach and buy a separate sound card. Separate sound cards consume fewer cpu cycles than onboard sound. Whatever you decide, I would ensure that the pci latency of the video card is not more than twice the latency of the sound device. The nvidia driver install probably set the latency of the video card at 248, and the default latency of all other devices, as set in the motherboard bios, is probably 64 or 32. Get a video control app, like rivatuner or coolbits, and set the latency of the video card to 128. Also, as suggested, reduce hardware acceleration for audio devices a notch at a time and see what happens. Ensure that you are using the latest driver for your sound device.

I don't want to get a separate sound card if I don't have to, I think my dual-core cpu should have more than enough power to power the on board card. I have RivaTuner, I will give it a try tonight. But what's the downside of setting the video card latency that low? Will I have to lower my video card's oc?

Thanks for the replies. :toast:

[Modzilla]

To change hardware acceleration, go into control panel/sounds/audio/playback/advanced/performance and you should find a slider for hardware acceleration.

Changing your pci latency will not affect your max video card overclock.

[awdrifter]

Ok, I will give both a try (separately) to see which method works for me. Thanks.

[awdrifter]

Ok, I just got home, how do I change the PCI latency in RivaTuner? I looked around but couldn't find where to change it. I don't want to mess up my video card. Please help, thanks.

[Modzilla]

I don't remember if rivatuner has that option. Check this link to Pci Latency Tool 3.2 for a download and info:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=951

Is that a pci-e video card? If so, it does not have a pci latency setting. You should still check to see what your other device settings are, couldn't hurt. Sorry for the misdirection.

Did you try reducing hardware acceleration for the sound device?

[awdrifter]

I used that tool to change the on board audio's latency to 128, it seems to be working now. Thanks for the help.

[Teratism]

This is the EE (Expert's Exchange) thread solution you were looking at. I can't say it is really helpful being as the thread got abandoned. I think the original poster figured out how to fix it. Besides that I cut the thread in half by removing names, dates and the like so each "answer" is separated by a row of Coupon Cut Here lines.
If any of it helps, all thanks goes towards expert's exchange and the like. Looks like all is fixed and sorry for my late response, I will leave this up if it recurs and you can try the other "solutions". If this should be edited and taken down please contact me.

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Everest will give you a listing of IRQs used and what is using them: http://www.lavalys.com/index.php?page=product&view=1&subpage=5
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Looking at Everest Pro, it has many features to help one dig away, but I don’t believe it has a feature that’ll identify processes that are starting/stopping on the fly. Hypothetically, I image a tool that’ll write process start/stop history to a file. Studying such a file should help identify what process started (and perhaps stopped) at the same time as the stutter occurred. Something like that.
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You might be able to fix this by reinstalling the sound card drivers.
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What brand of model laptop is it?
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The sound card is really a chipset on the mobo (without any jumpers to play with). I’ve updated the driver, which I suspect is still deficient in terms of controlling the buffer to which audio is streamed. That is, the driver doesn’t prevent any interruption. I thought that’s what DirectX would do, but perhaps not.
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http://usa.asus.com/products/notebook/m6series/m6000n/m6000n_overview.htm
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Does it help any to look in the Task Manager Processes? Anything running that can be shut down one thing at a time may point to the source(s) if the stutter stops at some point. This is a weaker approach than you are looking for but just a possibility to look at. I suspect a sound board upgrade (adding one) would be an expedient albeit more expensive way to get rid of the effect.
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As it’s a laptop, adding another sound board isn’t an option . Using msconfig I prevented all user processes from starting. Just wmpalyer, explorer and taskmanager running, but stutter still recurs, although quite noticeably less. I’m sure someone has come up against this issue before, particularly gamers as those apps are multimedia intense.
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< When any sound file (or CD or DVD) is played, >
Does this occur when playing from the hdd? If not, it might be an idea to increase the buffer for cd/dvd drive...
Also, make sure the ide-channel the drive is on is set to 'dma if available' in devicemanager...
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The stutter occurs regardless of the file location--HD or CD/DVD. DMA is on for the HDD.
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Is the cpu hitting 100% when it stutters?
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The only thing I can recommend is disable the onboard sound and use something like the USB
soundblaster audigy or extigy
http://www.creative.com/products/welcome.asp?cat=2
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cpu usage is about 4% when stutter occurs--only wmp running
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Some interesting observations... I noticed that the stutter occurs more frequently when connected to wifi than when connected through Cat 5. I disabled all network connections and the stutter seems to have stopped, at least over an hour’s period.

Don’t laugh, but I pointed a DV camera at the processes window in task manager and hit record. After a few stutters occurred, I replayed the tape in very slow motion. When the stutter occurred wmp jumped from 4% to 16% usage. Not much change and no other process moved up in the list which was sorted by CPU usage--probably because task manager momentarily froze while the stutter was present. It was just under a second.

Something related to a network connection seems to interrupt DirectX. Any ideas?
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You may have scheduled events, like every 5 min, that look at your network - the system can freeze momentarily while waiting for a response.
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is your anti virus active? try disabling it
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I believe I’ve solved the mystery! When I disable the wifi card and enable the Ethernet card and connect to a LAN, the stutter hasn’t occurred for an hour. Suspecting interference from the wireless card, irrespective of whether a wifi network is detected, I enabled the wifi card but disabled the WZC service. Stutter still hasn’t occurred. I’ll do more testing this evening.

I doubt if there’s a fix for wireless interference so the workaround might be to stop WZC and restart it when needed, but that’s annoying enough (to me) to want to seek a better solution.
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Does the wifi card share ANY rescources with the soundcard? (like IRQ?) Try changing it...Don't know enough about wifi cards and their drivers/services to be of much help in that department. Does the wifi adapter/service periodically scan for new networks? if so, that might be causing the problem...
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On this laptop IRQ 11 is shared by most devices. It’s ACPI, not PCI, so binding the wifi to another IRQ isn’t an option unless a BIOS supports that, which in this case it doesn’t. WZC (Wireless Zero Configuration) as far as I know frequently scans for hotspots. I’m pretty sure this is interfering with DirectX, because stopping the WZC service seems to obviate the stutter symptom.
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After some more testing it does indeed seem that the WZC service interrupts DirectX, and probably other processes that are as noticeable. Stopping WZC and letting the driver for the wifi card handle the configuration seems to do everything that WZC does anyway, so there isn’t any side affect unless a wifi driver was relying on WZC. Thanks for the ideas.

When the administrator gets around to this post I’d ask him/her to close it.
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make sure that all drive are set to DMA
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Administrative Comment from TheLearnedOne
Date: 12/08/2004 02:47PM PST
Administrative Comment
This question has been classified as abandoned.

[Modzilla]

Im glad you didnt pay $10 for that.

[awdrifter]

Yeah, I'm glad I didn't pay that. I've been listening to some songs last night, changing the latency to 128 seems to did the trick. :toast:

[Teratism]

Glad I could kind of help.... I have been an Expert's Exchange Member for Years before they started charging for stuff. I get it all for free. If you find any others you want to get a look at, contact me. I am happy to do so.

[awdrifter]

Cool, thanks in advance.