System-Wide Audio Stuttering

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  1. Posts : 10
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
       #1

    System-Wide Audio Stuttering


    For the last day (since April 1) I've noticed that there is a system-wide audio stutter. It doesn't matter if it's Youtube on Google Chrome or IE or music played via VLC media player, the song will stutter once for just a second then keep going. All the aforementioned software is in its latest state (except maybe VLC but I have no idea why that would cause a system-wide problem). Java and Flash are both as up to date as they can be.

    I'm running Win 7 64-bit using Malware Bytes and Microsoft Security Essentials for keeping my laptop clean, both are up to date and have found nothing. I found another thread that seemed similar ( music stutters ) which suggested a “DPC Latency Checker” I tried it, and the checker says that my laptop is fine for streaming so it's not that.

    On a whim I also tried a quick defrag and a bit of disk cleanup...just in case; didn't help, but figured I'd throw that in just to sum everything up.

    So...Advice?

    Addendum: The laptop itself is an HP Pavilion dv4, a check through my drivers says that everything audio related is up to date.

    System restore has done nothing, neither has a reinstall of my sound card drivers. A list of all the processes that are normally running can be found lower in the thread for those interested. Disabling all non-Microsoft services has done nothing to fix the problem.
    Last edited by SabWhipp; 09 Apr 2013 at 03:37. Reason: Added information for new readers.
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  2. Posts : 8,135
    Windows 10 64 bit
       #2

    One thing I notice, from your System Spec's. You list Win 7 home 64 bit, but only list 3GB of RAM. With only 3GB of RAM you are not getting anything from the 64 bit version. The main thing with the 64 bit version is the ability to access more than 4GB of RAM. Looking at the memory list on the Crucial Memory site, 4GB is Maximum for this model.

    You may want to upgrade to max. It won't get you in the 64 bit area, but max memory would be one place to start.

    Other potential areas have probably been covered in other posts - this is one of those problems that there is no "one fix". Device drivers for the Video, Sound (use the Acer supplied sound driver, which is the preferred driver). One other trick that helps - sometimes - is to uninstall the sound in the device manager (but NOT the drivers) then restart the PC and when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall the sound. As sound is always on a shared IRQ (Interrupt) with a higher priority device, and subject to interruptions or stuttering, this sometimes puts it on a different IRQ and can have a positive effect.
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  3. Posts : 10
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Thanks for the advice with the ram, I'll upgrade it whenever I get a chance. Laptop came with this OS and this much ram, has been working just fine (well, up until now).

    As for your suggestion, wanna make sure I do this right, under the sound and whatever tab of device manager I have a driver for the laptop's webcam, IDT High Definition Audio CODEC, and Intel(R) Display Audio, so I assume you want me to uninstall that last one?
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  4. Posts : 8,135
    Windows 10 64 bit
       #4

    The IDT HD Audio Codec is the PC sound card. That is the one you want to uninstall. RIGHT click on the entry to highlight it and then LEFT click "Uninstall". DO NOT check the box to uninstall the drivers.

    No guarantee this will fix it, but a first step.
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  5. Posts : 10
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Okay, so good news, it did as you said it would and installed again right after I restarted; however, there has been no change, Youtube and VLC still stutter once per song/video/insert your favorite media here. Thanks for the help so far Fireberd, any more advice?
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  6. Posts : 504
       #6

    What's the CPU usage while it's stuttering? Can you post an elongated screenshot of the processes tab in task manager (showing most/all processes)?
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  7. Posts : 8,135
    Windows 10 64 bit
       #7

    Some other program/application that is running could be causing this. Temporarily stop other programs to see if it makes a difference. Try just the VLC or Windows Media Player with just a song that is already on the PC. Not on line, etc, and see if it does it.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 10
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #8

    nilank said:
    What's the CPU usage while it's stuttering? Can you post an elongated screenshot of the processes tab in task manager (showing most/all processes)?
    CPU seems to hang out between 20% and 50% and doesn't really seem to spike when the song stutters. In response to your question about the task list:



    As an extra thought: It seems Google Chrome has always had multiple entries in the task manager (closing one will cause tabs open in Chrome to crash and stuff like that). I wonder why it's not just consolidated into one tab, seems it'd make more sense.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 20
    windows 7 64 bit
       #9

    hye man, i got the same exact problem, it happened to me acouple of days to, and i tried completely everything, and i still am. but i'll let you know if i ever fix the problem, and it be koo if youd do the same thanks bud -AGEMAN
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 504
       #10

    SabWhipp said:
    nilank said:
    What's the CPU usage while it's stuttering? Can you post an elongated screenshot of the processes tab in task manager (showing most/all processes)?
    CPU seems to hang out between 20% and 50% and doesn't really seem to spike when the song stutters. In response to your question about the task list:



    As an extra thought: It seems Google Chrome has always had multiple entries in the task manager (closing one will cause tabs open in Chrome to crash and stuff like that). I wonder why it's not just consolidated into one tab, seems it'd make more sense.
    20-50% during MP3 playback is too much. Can you post the same screenshot while playing a song?

    Do this:


    1. Right click on the volume icon in the taskbar.
    2. Click "Playback devices".
    3. Now under the "Playback" tab, select the option which has a green checkmark on it.
    4. Now click "Properties" at bottom right.
    5. Now go to "Enhancements" tab.
    6. Check mark "Disable all enhancements".
    7. Click OK.

    Now check the playback.

    And Google chrome has so many processes running so that in case of crash of a single tab or extension, only one process out of the so many crashes, and the whole browser doesn't stop working, only the particular tab will stop working and the rest of the browser works. Sorry for my English. I know I couldn't explain it very well.
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