Windows 7: Cracky Audio When Multi-Tasking

Been running Windows 7 for 2 weeks or so now but didn't actually get into using is till a week ago, had to do some hardware upgrades.



My original sound (on board) was incompatible. Bought a $20 Diamond 5.1 XtremeSound card. No problems installing. Ran fine, sounded great.

Sound works fine, games, movies are good, iTunes, WMP.

Only issues im getting is during multitasking. Usually Firefox. When I'm browsing around, searching, anything really while playing music on iTunes the sound get very choppy and cracky and even worse on Youtube. Seems to be an issue with Firefox.

I've uninstalled k-lite and reinsalled it several times.. and checked the drivers on my sound card. Even configured ac3 filter and hooked up new cables. Same problem though.

Any ideas ?

Your system cannot handle the load. You'd be better off on XP with that configuration.

I agree, more memory and more system power is needed to run Windows 7.

I'm still on Socket A with similar processor power but advanced AGP Graphic card.
Try and get hold of a matching Geil 1GB stick of ram off ebay.

Flash/youtube is now accelerated automatically by my graphic card GPU!
It is supported by ati driver 10.1 and above which takes the load off old system CPU's!

You need to upgrade/buy a 4000 series ATi AGP card though!
Pref a 4670(Powercolor £60.00 in uk till recently), 4650(HDMI out) are less powerfull for certain things. Depends how long you want to stick with your older system on Windows 7.

Did you add any old drivers on instead of letting Windows 7 update download them? The old drivers like smbus, pci bus etc cause stuttering - so go thru them in Device manager>A driver and see if any will update online.
I found a couple that updated when prompted.

Did you install any xtra Codec packs??
Try reinstalling the envy24PT sound drivers.
They have them for Vista 32/64bit so might work on Windows 7!
http://www.viaarena.com/forums/searc...searchid=38907
Did you download the latest Directx updates?

The ONLY program I get sound stuttering/crackle on now is Crysis, which plays on 'Medium' settings on Windows 7.(No probs on XP!)
Prob due to fact I use a AMD3000+ Barton when minimum AMD3200+ is recommended!
But then millions of others (even with modern up-to-date powerful systems) have problems with Crysis sound on Vista/Windows 7!

Load issues sound right.. yet it just seems to be firefox itself.
starting to think it had something to do with the flash player. Im using AC3Filter, and Windows 7 Codec Pack 2.5.0. Uninstalled anything with k-lite.

But like I said sounds are all fine with movies and games. I ran VLC playing an avi file while Itunes was playing at the same time.. and other then a random audio mess of both files playing at once.. there was no distortion, cracking, or cut outs.

Ive ran Itunes and played around with ac3, boosting the bass, switching to 2.0 to 5.1 (stereo) and all sounds good. Turn the sound up louder and lower.. all good.

It's just inside of firefox where im seeing the issues.

Small update..

Ran a bluray movie in vlc. No issues at all. ..tells me its not my system or hardware.
And seems to be a common issue for vista about a year back.

Any ideas how to fix Flash Player 10?


And isnt the min req. for windows 7 something along the lines of:

1Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, DX9, 128VRAM ?
and im running, 3.06ghz, 1.5Gb ram, DX11, 512MB(767MB Total/shared)VRAM

any other ideas other than .."its your system"?

First thing I would think of is disable all Firefox add-ons!

Uninstall flash/reinstall with admin rights.(turn off any anti-virus progs whilst installing this stuff - just in case!) Test

Back up all your firefox stuff with Mozbackup (look it up on net it saves everything even your add-ons for reinstall) Make sure it does NOT save your 'backup' in the Firefox folder. Make a new folder somewhere else to save to!
Completely uninstall/delete all firefox stuff and its folder. Restart computer.

Run 'CCleaner' from Piriform - just trust it and don't sweat about cleaning the registry - it's never killed any PC's I have used it on. I don't even 'back-up' before deleting anymore!
Reinstall/download Firefox + flash again(anti-virus off) Test UTUBE etc
If OK, reinstall your original firefox bookmarks, History etc with Mozbackup.

Pull yer graphic card and reseat it.
Check fan/heatsink for dust

When did you last blow out the cobwebs? Check CPU fan and clear dust from heatsink if any.
When did you last apply arctic silver? to CPU?

Pull 512 stick of ram see if issue goes due to slight difference in ram timing.

Could be malware/trojan/virus interfering!

Make sure you install this
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...7-5ab8109cb4f5

thanks for the tips, gave me a few ideas.

as far as reinstalling flash with admin rights, seems kind hard to do, going to the site only links you to a download manager, which then installs it from there.

didnt think about addons. or reinstalling firefox. not to worried about passwords or addons, lost everything in the upgrade anyways.

and ya i got crapcleaner and tuneup 2010 on a flash drive somewhere, error scan cant hurt to much.

the cob webs were wiped out before the new installation of win 7. vacuum/straw blowing. (never thought of that.. blowing dust out with a straw. quite useful but messy)

was thinking the ram might of been causing some glitches.. yet if it was more of a hardware type error im sure id be getting issues elsewhere.

going to try to find a full installer version of flash, only antivirus im using is malwarebytes. doubt thats interfering much. then ill whip out firefox and admin install.

ill post back on how it all goes.
thanks for the help again.

Google "DPC latency checker", get the utility, do a test... probably a DPC latency problem...

zzz2496