Audio Stutter on fresh install of Windows 7

[wo0kie]

I just registered to let you guys know I was running into the same issues recently after getting a new nVidia card (250gts).

One thing that seems to have helped is disabled the Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service in the Services panel. Currently testing audio right now, but the song that skipped before no longer skipped through a single play whereas before it would skip four or five times for a half second or so.

I also disabled the scanning of .mp3, .flac and the Winamp folder in the avast! File System Shield (Real Time Scanning).

Still testing, but it seems to be going well so far.

Hope this helps a little.

 

[wo0kie]

The stuttering occurs when the following peaks fall back to their initial levels. It still occurs too. Waiting on a solution, although I'm 100% convinced it's nVidia causing the problem.

 

[Aphelion]

I just registered to let you guys know I was running into the same issues recently after getting a new nVidia card (250gts).

One thing that seems to have helped is disabled the Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service in the Services panel. Currently testing audio right now, but the song that skipped before no longer skipped through a single play whereas before it would skip four or five times for a half second or so.

Yep, the nVidia services and background processes can be real hogs.

From hanging out here the past few months many of the stuttering, dropouts & lagging audio can be traced to either background processes/services or conflicts with wireless/Ethernet hardware. Which proves Win-7's audio subsystem is a bit on the shaky side, too much extra weight and it seems to fall over easily.

I have two pro audio cards that install their own drivers, they seem somewhat immune to problems compared to a driver that integrates itself into the Windows audio system. There's an extra software layer (or two) that allows third party devices to install their own plugins (Enhancements).

The problem is, third party pro cards don't do surround even though one of them is 8 in/out. They just sound good for recording/playback.

Is there a MS feedback forum where one could report these audio issues?

 

[Aphelion]

The stuttering occurs when the following peaks fall back to their initial levels. It still occurs too. Waiting on a solution, although I'm 100% convinced it's nVidia causing the problem.

Take a look at this thread...

http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-audio/73543-dpc-latency.html

Ap

 

[wo0kie]

The stuttering occurs when the following peaks fall back to their initial levels. It still occurs too. Waiting on a solution, although I'm 100% convinced it's nVidia causing the problem.

Take a look at this thread...

http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-audio/73543-dpc-latency.html

Ap

Excellent resource. I'll have to try that out after I finish debugging. I'm attempting something else at the moment and it seems promising, so I'll give it a shot before I fully envelop myself in that thread haha. I disabled PowerMizer, which can modify the clocks of the nVidia card (thus causing my problem so it seems). Relevant threads can be found below.

Disable PowerMizer **Tested**
Powermizer Switch - get the most out of your video card

I downloaded the app in the second one, disabled PowerMizer and have not heard a single stutter/crackle/artifact yet coming from my 24bit FLACS and MP3s. Hopefully this will help some of you out. If this fails, I'll fall back to that thread Aphelion. Thank you so much for the support by the way and quick response.

PS: I'm using an HT Omega Striker 7.1 PCI card if it makes any difference.

Also looks like my DPC latency is good! Test while streaming audio from Winamp (FLAC/MP3)

And as proof that the PowerMizer disabling really works:

Disclaimer: I take no responsibilty for what may happen to your system by disabling PowerMizer. I will warn you that it may increase temperatures on your graphics cards a bit although nothing drastic. Mine only went up a degree Celsius. Use at your own risk.

 

[Aphelion]

The stuttering occurs when the following peaks fall back to their initial levels. It still occurs too. Waiting on a solution, although I'm 100% convinced it's nVidia causing the problem.

Take a look at this thread...

http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-audio/73543-dpc-latency.html

Ap

Excellent resource. I'll have to try that out after I finish debugging. I'm attempting something else at the moment and it seems promising, so I'll give it a shot before I fully envelop myself in that thread haha. I disabled PowerMizer, which can modify the clocks of the nVidia card (thus causing my problem so it seems). Relevant threads can be found below.

Great work, and your DPC latency is excellent.

Yep, Powermizer is another nVidea problem maker, I wonder if they could program these add-ons to be a little more system friendly. The Powermizer is to save their butts as most nVidia cards run hot, the least they could do is make it efficient.

Ap

 

[wo0kie]

Take a look at this thread...

http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-audio/73543-dpc-latency.html

Ap

Excellent resource. I'll have to try that out after I finish debugging. I'm attempting something else at the moment and it seems promising, so I'll give it a shot before I fully envelop myself in that thread haha. I disabled PowerMizer, which can modify the clocks of the nVidia card (thus causing my problem so it seems). Relevant threads can be found below.

Great work, and your DPC latency is excellent.

Yep, Powermizer is another nVidea problem maker, I wonder if they could program these add-ons to be a little more system friendly. The Powermizer is to save their butts as most nVidia cards run hot, the least they could do is make it efficient.

Ap

Yeah, you would think they'd include it with their graphics drivers as a possible option to enable/disable it. My card is idling at 41 degrees Celsius though, so not much of a difference in regards to temperature when turned on or off. Like I said, hope this helps some people who are experiencing the same problems

 

[UserZero]

The Powermizer is to save their butts as most nVidia cards run hot, the least they could do is make it efficient.

Ap

Hello Ap,

I've been reading through these audio issue threads with interest. I have a related problem and I'm looking for some clues on the best way to solve it.

I have a fairly new Win7 x64 system, designed for audio work. The only problem with it was a loud video card and ADK agreed to send me a replacement with a quieter fan. The original card is an ASUS nVidia GTS 250; the replacement is an EVGA, same model.

Here's the issue. As long as the original (loud) ASUS video card is installed, all of my audio apps run fine. But as soon as I install the quieter EVGA card I immediately get audio clicks, pops, etc., on apps using both WDM and ASIO audio drivers, plus I get immediate DROPOUTs on SONAR 8.5.3 during playback of anything with a sampling synth (read: CPU > 15%) and scrolling 'stutter' in text applications.

One of the ADK Tech guys spent much of today remotely going through the system configuration with a fine tooth comb, tweaking everything they normally tweak, ensuring that drivers are all the latest, etc. No luck. As soon as I swapped cards back to the older ASUS board, everything's now back to normal - audio is all fine.

One odd thing I noticed is that whenever I swap cards, the Device Manager "finds" a "new device" and installs a driver for it (even though I never UNinstalled the previous one). Seems odd that this should happen since they're both nVidia GTS 250s, but I wonder if the driver being installed for the EVGA is causing some conflict.

We've decided that I'll probably have to send the EVGA back, but I'd hate to give up the quieter card, only to find out that there was some stone I left unturned. If any of this is ringing a bell, I'd appreciate any thoughts you might have on this.

thanks,

U0

 

[Aphelion]

The Powermizer is to save their butts as most nVidia cards run hot, the least they could do is make it efficient.

Ap

Hello Ap,

I've been reading through these audio issue threads with interest. I have a related problem and I'm looking for some clues on the best way to solve it.

I have a fairly new Win7 x64 system, designed for audio work. The only problem with it was a loud video card and ADK agreed to send me a replacement with a quieter fan. The original card is an ASUS nVidia GTS 250; the replacement is an EVGA, same model.

Here's the issue. As long as the original (loud) ASUS video card is installed, all of my audio apps run fine. But as soon as I install the quieter EVGA card I immediately get audio clicks, pops, etc., on apps using both WDM and ASIO audio drivers, plus I get immediate DROPOUTs on SONAR 8.5.3 during playback of anything with a sampling synth (read: CPU > 15%) and scrolling 'stutter' in text applications.

U0

First, one thing you can do is purchase a different fan for the card that doesn't cause problems, usually cards have a standard fan mounting that' one of two or three different types.

It's difficult to say.. even though they use the same graphics chipset they don't use the same electronics or method of nor the same plug & play BIOS that tells each card what resources to use. So, it could be an actual address or IRQ conflict in which case you would have to somehow change your audio configuration.

The second possibility is that the card causing problems is loading up one or more background processes (or services) that's causing the problem.

You can check the driver version each card is using in Device Manager.

After loading the card that's giving you problems look through "services" and see what's running that mentions nVidia.. same with processes, start Task Manager, show all processes, see what begins with nv.

Troubleshooting may be time consuming, but it's not difficult, it's either a hardware conflict, or a software conflict (this include processes sucking up CPU cycles).

It's not always the obvious device causing the problem.

Hypothetically... a graphics card may interact (hardware or software) with a wireless networking device which in turn causes CPU spikes, that in turn causes the audio to stutter, yet neither the wireless nor graphics card has a direct conflict with the audio card.

Almost all of these type of conflicts can be overcome. then again.there's the fan option on the card that works!

Ap

 

[UserZero]

Almost all of these type of conflicts can be overcome. then again.there's the fan option on the card that works!

Ap

Thanks Ap, I'll bring up possibly swapping fan assemblies or getting a Zalman for the noisy one. Pretty sure that's what's on the quiet one. Since I'll most likely be installing the glitchy card at least once more I'll definitely compare services, etc.

thanks for the suggestions!

cheers,

U0

 

[Aphelion]

Almost all of these type of conflicts can be overcome. then again.there's the fan option on the card that works!

Ap

Thanks Ap, I'll bring up possibly swapping fan assemblies or getting a Zalman for the noisy one. Pretty sure that's what's on the quiet one. Since I'll most likely be installing the glitchy card at least once more I'll definitely compare services, etc.

thanks for the suggestions!

cheers,

U0

That's a monster graphics processor isn't it.. they pull a lot of watts, I wonder if the glitchy one is taxing the power supply, although... from the looks of your system I imagine you've got that covered. When I do audio machines, I go for the least intrusive graphics as possible, general cooler and quieter.

From looking at your specs and both graphics cards... it sounds like more of a hardware conflict. Some devices just aren't compatible.

If it is software It will either be an nVidia service or nVidea process tying up the bus. Since it seems to be system wide (graphics scrolling) it's possible the card is in conflict with another card in your system, are you using a third party Firewire card? Anything else?

Ap

 

[UserZero]

That's a monster graphics processor isn't it.. they pull a lot of watts, I wonder if the glitchy one is taxing the power supply, although... from the looks of your system I imagine you've got that covered.

700W Coolermaster p/s. There's not much else in this system using power other than the mobo, so hopefully that's not the problem.

When I do audio machines, I go for the least intrusive graphics as possible, general cooler and quieter.

I configured this (and the last one I got from ADK, which has always worked perfectly) to be both an audio workstation and a reasonably workable game machine. The specs on the last couple generations of video cards make that harder and harder simply because GPUs are getting so power-hungry and, therefore, loud. Gaming seems to be moving out of the PC realm anyway. I fault ADK for this a little bit - I ordered extra sound treatment for a quiet system, so the clear indication was that if the video card was too loud, it wouldn't be appropriate. Not sure why the GTS was in their configurator (or the GTX 260 I originally ordered, but which was too long for the Antec case I selected), since it's prohibitively loud with the stock fan - at least the ASUS one is.

From looking at your specs and both graphics cards... it sounds like more of a hardware conflict. Some devices just aren't compatible.

That's what ADK's tech guy hinted at. Quote: "...it's likely the bios on the card demanding more C state changes for the GPU which is causing the drop outs. There really is not a way to fix that either unfortunately".

... are you using a third party Firewire card? Anything else?

Nope. Firewire is on-board. No sound card. We even disabled CPU overclocking with no change.

thanks again!

U0

 

[CommonTater]

Almost all of these type of conflicts can be overcome. then again.there's the fan option on the card that works!

Ap

Thanks Ap, I'll bring up possibly swapping fan assemblies or getting a Zalman for the noisy one. Pretty sure that's what's on the quiet one. Since I'll most likely be installing the glitchy card at least once more I'll definitely compare services, etc.

thanks for the suggestions!

cheers,

U0

If you check the NVIDIA website you will likely find they've got some driver issues under Win7 right now... Their latest version drivers are crap. I went back about 3 versions with my own GEForce 8400 card and it's a LOT better.

Also under startup in MSCONFIG disable the NVidia startup programs and in Services disable the NVIDIA driver helper service...

Also if your BIOS has a chipset setting for PCI latency, try setting it fairly low... What this does is set time limits on the amount of time a card can hold the bus. If it finishes early no problem... if it's slow, the latency timer will force it to release the buss.