Windows 7 Audio pops, skips, stops

[Hypnotiq]

Hello,
I have had nothing but problems with Windows 7 audio. I have read through these forums looking for fixes but nothing that I have found listed here has worked so far. I have a Dell XPS 420 Intel Core2 Quad CPU 2.33 GHz. I have tried disabling enhancements under "Sound" in the control panel. I have also gone to the advanced settings and unchecked the button "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device".
I updated the firmwear for the DVD player (A Philips DVD RW "DH-16a6s"). That did not help much.
I still get popping and skipping before completely losing audio after about 5-10 minutes of playing. This happens on burned CD's or regular CD's. I had a DVD freeze on me for about 30 seconds but it did end up resuming and playing just fine.

Thank you for any advice you might give. I have put a few specs in my description but Dell's specs sheets are quite inadequate so if you need more please tell me where to find them and I'll gladly provide them.

 

[JoshuaC]

I came here to post the same question. My issue stems from Winamp, youtube, games, wmp, and pretty much anything that makes sound on the computer. I have tried different speakers and reinstalled the drivers from vendor's site. I am using the onboard sound from my ASUS M3A.
The problem seems to have started last night.
Maybe it is the motherboard?
I have been looking for a reason to replace it.
Oh and I think the sound is a Realtek ALC883.

 

[Aphelion]

I came here to post the same question. My issue stems from Winamp, youtube, games, wmp, and pretty much anything that makes sound on the computer. I have tried different speakers and reinstalled the drivers from vendor's site. I am using the onboard sound from my ASUS M3A.
The problem seems to have started last night.
Maybe it is the motherboard?
I have been looking for a reason to replace it.
Oh and I think the sound is a Realtek ALC883.

The only time I get the garbled audio is after the PC sleeps. I usually go into Device Manager and Disable/Enable the "Realtek HD Audio Device", which clears up the problem.

Ap

 

[Hypnotiq]

Mine will garble/skip even when the computer has been freshly rebooted (before it has entered sleep mode).

 

[wing]

Same problem

My Dell XPS 420 had no sound problems until I clean installed Windows 7 Pro. Then I started getting short blips of the sound buzzing/distorting when playing back music using iTunes, YouTube and any application with sound. It appears to be that something is hogging the CPU for 1-2 seconds causing this distortion. I installed a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS with the latest Windows 7 drivers, disabled the built in audio and the problem still exists, though the distortion is slightly different. This happens when no other applications, other than iTunes, is running. Occurs about every 3 minutes. Very annoying.

Sure seems to be related to Windows 7 as the problem did not exist before the upgrade.

 

[kerph32]

Same problem here - it's acting as if the computer doesn't have enough free resources, but like you guys, this happens even with nothing else open... not to mention that an i7 with 4GB RAM shouldn't have any issues playing audio...

 

[Aphelion]

Same problem here - it's acting as if the computer doesn't have enough free resources, but like you guys, this happens even with nothing else open... not to mention that an i7 with 4GB RAM shouldn't have any issues playing audio...

Everyone,

Why not go through a troubleshooting routine.

First, what kind of audio device... Realtek, VIA SIS.. etc.

Next, In device manager, disable both wireless (if you have it) and your Ethernet Network Adapter, then reboot the machine.

See if audio improves, then we'll go from there.

Ap

 

[kerph32]

I'm using the onboard audio from my Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3L MB, with Realtek drivers. There's no wireless, but I will try the ethernet suggestion when I return home. Thanks for the reply-

 

[CassieFWinTeam]

Do you have the most up-to-date driver for your sound card? Have a read through these tips for fixing sound problems in Windows 7: Tips for fixing common sound problems. And, try running the Playing Audio Troubleshooter: Open the Playing Audio troubleshooter.

Any luck?

Cassandra
Microsoft Windows Outreach

 

[Aphelion]

Do you have the most up-to-date driver for your sound card? Have a read through these tips for fixing sound problems in Windows 7: Tips for fixing common sound problems. And, try running the Playing Audio Troubleshooter: Open the Playing Audio troubleshooter.

Any luck?

Cassandra
Microsoft Windows Outreach

There's been a huge variety of audio problems with Windows 7.

The most commons fixes/improvements (so far) have been:

-Using older drivers... (in the case of Realtek, version 2.22 or 2.23)

-Updating to the most recent audio drivers.
-Updating Network adapter drivers.
-Updating Graphics card drivers.
-Updating motherboard BIOS
-Updating motherboard inf files.

-Conflicting background processes, usually secondary programs or services.
(ie: "powermizer" installed with nVidia mobile graphics drivers.)

-Setting Power Options processor management to Min/Max 100%.

Etc...Etc...


We've been using this tool to find possible driver problems.

DPC Latency Checker

In my case spikes in the yellow and red zones were fixed by a mainboard BIOS update.

Ap

 

[kerph32]

Thanks Aphelion - found my problem using DPC- my Network Adapter is causing bad latency (16,000ms+ !)

So I updated the drivers, no help... then thought about what was using my Network Adapter the most, and uTorrent came to mind (I have ~75 torrents seeding). I exited uTorrent, and voila, problem gone. Latency Checker shows all green, and audio is playing perfectly.

So, some Googling later and I come across this thread

Post #34 lists two Preferences in uTorrent to change, which I've now changed. So far so good, although the problem usually only appeared after an extended amount of time running uTorrent, so time will tell if this is a permanent fix.

Hope this helps someone-

Mike

 

[kerph32]

Well.. changing my settings in uTorrent didn't help - the problem comes back after an extended period of time. A periodic restart of uTorrent fixes the problem, but obviously isn't ideal.

 

[Aphelion]

Well.. changing my settings in uTorrent didn't help - the problem comes back after an extended period of time. A periodic restart of uTorrent fixes the problem, but obviously isn't ideal.

A BIOS update and audio driver update are what I'd be looking into next. Are you running the Realtek 2.48 driver?

As I posted before, a BIOS update made a noticable difference in the manner my Gigabyte motherboard handled hardware devices, DPC latency was reduced across the board.

Ap

 

[kerph32]

Hmm.. I'm running 6.0.1.6.83 TinyGrab

Something's not right, if you're asking about 2.48... ?

 

[ddferrari]

I came here to post the same question. My issue stems from Winamp, youtube, games, wmp, and pretty much anything that makes sound on the computer. I have tried different speakers and reinstalled the drivers from vendor's site. I am using the onboard sound from my ASUS M3A.
The problem seems to have started last night.
Maybe it is the motherboard?
I have been looking for a reason to replace it.
Oh and I think the sound is a Realtek ALC883.

The only time I get the garbled audio is after the PC sleeps. I usually go into Device Manager and Disable/Enable the "Realtek HD Audio Device", which clears up the problem.

Thank you! This simple fix finally solved my problem- which was highly annoying.

 

[fireberd]

Many times, when there is a problem after standby/sleep, a driver is the problem. Get the latest RealTek driver from the RealTek site and see if that helps. May not even be the sound driver, but some other driver.

Realtek