Sound pops during high CPU usage?

Hi all,

This problem occurs on both of my desktop and laptop. The only similarity of these two is the OS so I am kinda sure this is a problem caused only in Windows 7 RC.

When I was using Windows XP the system and game and sound run fine. However, after I switched the OS of both machines to Windows 7 RC, I realized that the sound pops very often and also drops game performance (Ex. WoW). This problem never occured in Win XP.

I am pretty sure there is nothing to do with my sound card driver too because this problem doesn't only happen when I am using the onboard sound card but also Logitech USB Headset.

Sound seems fine under normal usage, but it pops A LOT when I play games. The music and effects pop very often and drop the game performance a lot which causes the game almost unplayable. FPS drops when sound pops. So I am here assuming this problem occurs only when CPU usage remains high.


Any suggestion is appreciated. Thank you.

bump

Hey 7Novice

For starters fill in your system specs, it'll make troubleshooting a bit easier.

Are you overclocking either of the two?

What power mode are you using? (ie 'balanced', 'power saver', or 'high performance')

I have seen this behavior on an overclocked machine when running any type of 'throttle down' modes such as balanced or powersaver. Switching it to high performance immediately got rid of the sound pops.

The fact that you say this occurs more during games suggests that you are probably running one of these 2 modes and when things become CPU intense, it begins to as I call it, "choke" when throttling back up.

7novice said:

When I was using Windows XP the system and game and sound run fine. However, after I switched the OS of both machines to Windows 7 RC, I realized that the sound pops very often and also drops game performance (Ex. WoW). This problem never occured in Win XP.

Those are flaws introduced since Windows Vista (and now in Windows 7) since Microsoft changed many things about audio processing.

The only way I've found to combat these flaws is to a) stick with XP or b) use faster hardware. Windows Vista and Windows 7 require faster hardware to give same performance level as XP.

Granted, popping sound could also be caused by other things such as a faulty device driver. But the fact remains that, regardless of driver, Windows 7 will still put a greater burden on the hardware. So don't be surprised if performance is not up to par with what you're used to on Windows XP.

I've been having similar problems on a Win 7 32 bit machine. The audio started sounding fuzzy/buzzy. The problem would happen intermittently, usually when a sound, like an Outlook alarm, or an audio track like an MP3 or YouTube video, was starting. My sound driver is the current version and reinstalling it didn't help. I thought it might be a short in the speaker until I noticed a CPU spike at the moment when the problem would happen. I tried the advice in this article (disabling all audio enhancements) and it fixed the problem. I hope this helps others.