Extremely Confusing Audio Problem

Rico Spanish · 24 Dec 2015

Mmmmkay folks, this one has me stumped. I'll lay down some background information here for you.

I got this Sager laptop built off of a Clevo W150HN used after my previous laptop was stolen out of my car one night. I use this laptop for fairly demanding audio and music purposes. It's loaded up with 16 Gb of RAM and a quad core Intel i7-2630QM running Windows 7 Ultimate x64. There's plenty of power to boot for applications.

The problem lies in playing media files. Regardless if I'm using the built in audio card or ASIO drivers along side a myriad of external audio cards, most of my media files will, for lack of a better term, "buffer", when i try and play them back. Audio files will skip and glitch every five seconds or so. Videos will skip and lost v-sync and audio sync every few minutes or so. It does this in every media player I've found. Itunes, VLC, foobar2000, it doesn't matter. Even inside my DAW's, like FL12 or Ableton Live 9. When I'm loading in drum samples or anything audio related, they'll buffer and glitch when selecting them. It's incredibly annoying.

Now, after a boot and the files been played once through, it will stop glitching. Like, it built a cache on the file or something. That baffles me even more...

I've tried updating drivers, increasing the paging file size, ran DPC latency checker to find any underlying latency issues, checking any programs or services that might be hogging any sort of resource that might be causing this. Hell, I've even reinstalled windows and this problem still exists.

I'm sort of at my wits end with this problem. Anyone have any suggestions?

ICIT2LOL · 25 Dec 2015

Hello and welcome Rico mate I might be well out of whack here but I would run a memtest because it seems you have done just about everything to keep the wolves at bay capacity wise.
If you do run the test please make sure it is run for at least 8 passes (overnight is good unless the rrors come up sooner) and only the memtest that we recommend in the tutorial - the Windows feature is pretty pathetic.
RAM - Test with Memtest86+ I have attached a couple of pics so you can see what the test will look like:)

event3horizon · 25 Dec 2015

see if you can see your cpu temps when the stuttering starts and go into your BIOS and see what you can tweak there. Turn off crap like 'turboboost' or any other things that can screw with CPU.

Roderunner · 25 Dec 2015

I suggest installing Download Media Player Classic Home Cinema 1.7.10 - FileHippo.com it never fails on my pc.

ICIT2LOL · 25 Dec 2015

Still reckon the RAM is worth a look because the OP has already tied some of the software changes and it is what I would do if only to eliminate it.

Rico Spanish · 25 Dec 2015

I'll be running the memtest later today and posting results.
I'd like to try and get to the root problem of the odd handling of these media files not just for enjoyment, but to be a lot more productive with my work, which is why I'm not just looking for an alternative media player

ICIT2LOL · 25 Dec 2015

Ok Rico I was just thinking that whatever software you might try it still has to use the RAM it's a no brainer to me.

The other really basic thing you could try if you want is this
Using HW Info
PART A:
You can test the volts on the PSU with HW Info HWiNFO, HWiNFO32/64 - Download < download the right bit version and close the right hand window select Sensors and scroll down to the power section where you will see what the volts are doing see my pic. In my pic the section (Nuvoton) with VBATT is a dead give away you are in the section for the rail voltages. There are other section titles and one that pops up often is ITE
Now the voltage on the different rails have to be within 5% =+/- of what is required or the machine will not work properly if at all.
ATX Minimum Specs:

3.3v Rail (ORANGE) (Min: 3.14v Max: 3.47v)

5v Rail (RED) (Min: 4.75v Max: 5.25v)

12v Rail (YELLOW) (Min: 11.4v Max: 12.6v)

(GREY CABLE PIN 8 - 5v = Power Good signal)

0v “Rail” (ALL BLACK cables, case, and board fixing screws)
See this for the rail voltage info
Power Supply 101: A Reference Of Specifications - Power Supplies (Section 2.)
The original right hand window shows the machine running and is handy for that but for looking at the components in some detail close it and use the main left hand side panel
FOR OTHER COMPONENTS
PART B:
Open each small square with + in it on the section the components are in and then click on the individual component/s (it will highlight in blue) - in the right hand side will appear all sorts of details including brands speeds and other essential info that particular device. See pic for example.

event3horizon · 25 Dec 2015

what are your processor settings in the bios