Streaming Flash audio static and choppy?

okieuser · 01 Jan 2014

Recently if I click on Flash-type music players on Web pages, playback is interrupted by static and crackles. I've Googled this: tried disabling hardware acceleration and also changing sound card CP from "Studio" to "CD" output. No luck. Same in both Google Chrome and MSIE. Media on my drive plays fine. Before I go down the road of rolling back my version of Flash player, are there more common-sense suggestions?

Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium 8GB RAM SP1
Chrome 31.0.1650.63 / IE 11.0.9600
Flash Player 11,9,900,170
M-Audio Delta 1010LT

fireberd · 01 Jan 2014

What happens if you use the regular PC audio rather than the MAudio unit?

(I have a recording studio, using Sonar X3).

okieuser · 01 Jan 2014

Fireberd, I tried and the only Realtek (PC) output available is digital. The "Speakers" output indicates nothing connected. Yes I can re-wire the setup to get around this, but before I do, I wonder what it is I'll be diagnosing/testing with this change?

fireberd · 02 Jan 2014

Well, I just wanted you to try the PC audio to determine if the problem was with the MAudio unit or something else in the PC.

I have an MAudio Fastrack Ultra 8R and a Roland Octa-Capture but I don't use them for PC sound, strictly for recording.

okieuser · 02 Jan 2014

Oh, a way to isolate the source of the problem. I was thinking that since all other audio playback is normal, that the problem had to be somewhere in the browser/Flash player/Windows OS signal chain.

Hmmm let me see if the same problem happens when the sound is routed through the onboard audio after I plug in the old pre-M-Audio speakers. Will be tonight when I get home.

fireberd · 02 Jan 2014

The problem may very well be in the flash player or associated software. But, to eliminate any potential issue with using the MAudio, a test with the regular PC audio will help.

okieuser · 02 Jan 2014

Fireberd, good test. Now I'm stumped.

Routing the "problem Flash" music through lousy Realtek onboard audio produced clean results. Within a minute of going back to the M-Audio card, it was cutting out. Unfortunately the M-Audio CP is basically only set up for controlling levels, pan, mute & solo, etc. Changing the "sample settings" on the hardware tab had no effect.

fireberd · 03 Jan 2014

Noise, static, pops, clicks, etc can be caused by many things. Drivers are one. If you don't have the latest driver, get it.

That MAudio card is a relatively old PCI type card. If the motherboard you are using is a newer board (what is the Dell Model Number), many newer motherboards do not have a full PCI card slot but only a "bridged" slot to the PCIe bus and there can be issues with these.

However, two things to try. First, reseat the MAudio Card. With the PC powered off, open the case and remove the card then reinstall it. Second if the reseat does not help, go to the Device Manager and "uninstall" the MAudio Sound card - RIGHT click on the entry for the MAudio to highlight it and then LEFT click "Uninstall". DO NOT uninstall the drivers. Restart the PC and when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall the MAudio.

okieuser · 03 Jan 2014

I definitely have the latest M-Audio driver. The maker is unlikely to issue any updates to the driver, because of the card's age. I'll try the other stuff, but it may take a day or two. I'll update you when I have results!

okieuser · 14 Mar 2014

A tardy response, but my troubleshooting on this was mixed with other tasks.

For anyone doing music work on a PC--even just listening--you might look into the matter of latency if you're having this type of problem. Here are links to two free tools that I've used.

Resplendence Software - LatencyMon: suitability checker for real-time audio and other tasks
and
www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

Turns out my problem was both BitDefender and Google Chrome taking much larger bites of the system resources than I expected.