Short Freezes and Audio Dropouts every few mins

[soundbuoy]

Hi I have recently been suffering from some very frustrating problems with my audio output. Every couple of minutes the laptop will (very briefly) freeze up and the sound will cut out for maybe half a second. The freezing is only noticeable in games really. After this the laptop makes a whirring noise.

I've run several CPU and fan tests and HD error tests and they all have come out ok.

DPC latency checker is coming out with some massive spikes occasionally but these dont seem to coincide with the audio drop-out (all though they have sometimes). Turning of wireless doesn't help (it reduces the smaller spikes but not the off the chart ones ive been seeing recently).

Anti virus shows up nothing either.

I have updated all my video and soundcard drivers with no joy, I'm not really sure where to go from here but it sounds pretty un-healthy and i'm a bit worried .

Its a Asus Laptop 4 gig Ram Intel 2 Core Duo 2.2Ghz

Souncard = emu 0404
Video = Nvidia G102M

 

[richc46]

Try clean boot, it may be a conflict
If it works with clean boot, follow instructions
How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

Download and make a full scan with malwarebytes. Update before scan

 

[soundbuoy]

Hi, ok thanks I will try that and see if it sorts it out.

I forgot to mention that when I dont use my USB soundcard but have the inbuilt soundcard running I get a similar problem with audio glitching. With the exception that the sound is not dropping out but making a buzzing "stuttering" noise every few mins, (like its repeating a very small segment of the sound).

 

[richc46]

OK one step at a time. The clean boot may confirm a conflict.

 

[soundbuoy]

Hmm finding it hard to find out with this as its not doing it with clean boot but its not doing it with regular boot at the moment either, malwarebytes showed up clean.

 

[richc46]

Wait until the problem begins again.

 

[Holy Moses]

I am willing to bet you are having DPC latency issues.

http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-audio/123219-sound-issues-driving-me-crazy.html#post1065400

You can download this tiny app and test to see if you are suffering from this issue if you like

DPC Latency Checker

This is happening all over, to many people recently, myself as well. I have been researching for nearly 2 weeks now, and have found no definite unilateral fix for everyone. Everyone's symptoms and supposed fixes are all different. Not to sound pessimistic, but the only common factor I have found is that everyone is running Windows 7 in some form.

I hope this is not your problem.

Good luck.

 

[Aphelion]

I had these problems early on and traced it down a problem -after- the machine had been in hibernate or sleep mode. Three things that made a difference (Realtek, on board audio).

1. A BIOS update
2. A recent driver
3. A fix from Microsoft (It was in the optional updates)

There's also a problem/conflict with many systems that relates to the Network driver, both wired and wireless. So, make sure you've updated your Network Adapter drivers. And, go to your motherboard's website and download the latest system drivers (.inf files that describe the onboard hardware).

Because of the possible Network adapter conflict, any type of file sharing programs, bit-torrent...etc will eventually lead to static. Last... programs like Microsoft Defender and some other less than efficient Virus programs that scan in real time also cause interruptions.

My stopping unnecessary background programs and services I managed to get DPC latency down to this level.


Ap

 

[soundbuoy]

has anyone discovered a solution to this, I am still suffering from this problem and have found no fix. My wireless adaptor causes latency spikes but it isnt the cause of the brief system hangs as these occur with the wireless adpator disabled and the spikes are off the scale (as opposed to the 4000 micro sec ones that can be seen caused by the wireless adaptor.)

 

[soundbuoy]

just to clarify, these are the kind of spikes I am getting with my wireless adpator enabled.

These dont cause any audible or visible hangs in the system. However these spikes occur with or without wireless disabled and cause the entire system to hang for up to a second.

 

[soundbuoy]

Ok I have discovered that it was my Nvidea soundcard causing all the trouble. It s a known (but no admitted by nvidea) conflict between the PowerMizer feature, disabling it with this prog -> Tweak Nvidia GPU's - PowerMizer and more - Multi-GPU support! has fixed the large spike issues.

 

[col]

Old thread but since this is #3 in google results for win7 audio dropouts:

I had glitchy stuttering audio and dropouts constantly, finally figured out by using DPC Latency Checker and process of elimination that it was the USB driver for my external HDD causing the dropouts. Switched the HDD to a different USB port and voila! No more dropouts.