Hi, I have recently run into some problems with my PC's sound output and I've ran down everything at my tech level to no avail (uninstalled/reinstalled drivers, basically) so I was hoping maybe someone here could help (I was referred here by a friend) The Issue: Essentially out of the blue, my sound output via my speakers just started cutting out. it would only happen every few minutes at first and it would cut for about half a second. Then it deteriorated, and its not at the point where no sound is the default and maybe every 10 seconds the sound will cut IN for about a second. I believe the audio processing is not being interrupted, as the meter in the sound menu from the control panel bounces continuously. I first encountered this problem last spring, with my integrated audio. My PC was pushing 2 years old so I figured maybe the onboard was dying so i bought a sound card, needed the optical output anyway. When i installed the new card, the problem went away. However, now after about 2 months of trouble free use, the same problem has returned on the different sound hardware. My computers specs are: -Antec NSK4480 Black/ Silver 0.8mm cold-rolled steel construction ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 380W Power Supply -EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card -GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard -Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 4GB (2 x 2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996529 -Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor BX80570E8400 -Windows 7 Enterprise I would greatly appreciate any direction. Thanks!!
Does your problem happens in games or only when you play music on your computer? What do you use to play music? Do you use Internet Radio? Does it happen in videos? Check you system latency (free tool): http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml Your graph much only have green bars. What is your dedicated sound card that you got? Is the the onboard sound card disabled? Did you mute all inputs of your sound card (Mic, line-In, etc..)? Did you try different speakers (maybe your computer speakers amplifier is dying)?
I knew I forgot some things. dedicated sound card is PPA 1431v 6 Channels 16-bit PCI Interface Sound Card I do use internet radio, and that is one place where it has happened, but it also has happened on videos being run off of my hdd. Cant check the system latency at the moment as I am on a different computer. I know I have the right sound card enabled, but I don't know that I have specifically disabled anything, nor have I muted any inputs. I will try these things. And I did try different speakers to no avail. Plus the current speakers I am using are brand new with a brand new receiver. So I really hope that isn't dying, but the speakers have no problem playing sound from my TV through the same receiver.
So you replaced your onboard sound card with another onboard sound card, that.. heh is actually much crappier. Usually people get dedicated sound cards, when they replace their onboard card. Anyway, I'll be surprised that you have 2 sound card chip that broke... something else must be wrong. To say the truth, I have no idea... I just hope that the latency report is green bars with occasional red or orange bars. Because, THAT I know how to fix. But I won't give up on you.. so we will go together on this. - Maybe try the broken onboard sound card again, maybe now it works, lol! A better ideas: - what is your anti-virus? how many do you have? do you have any firewall software installed, or any other security software installed? And what are they? - Did you install any codecs, or codecs packs? Did you install DivX web browser plug-in? - What do you use to play your videos, and internet radio? - Do you have the latest motherboard, and video card drivers?
Thanks for your willingness to help me out goodbytes. I did my latency test and i think that somewhere there is the problem... here are the results: and yeah I know i picked a crappy dedicated card but i needed something with an optical out and didnt have much of a budget. But like you said i dont think i could be that unlucky to have 2 chip fails. I use VLC for all videos and Firefox for internet radio and I do believe all of my drivers are up to date. What do i need to do about the latency problems?
ok that graph is freaking hilarious! I never saw it so bad. And, I saw MANY latency problems. LOL! Ok, 4 possible things that causes the latency: - Motherboard drivers - SATA controller - GPU - Sound card ~80% of the time Motherboard + SATA controller (some chipset manufacture include both together) driver update solves the problem, the rest 20% is with a GPU and Sound card. Ok so this is what I suggest. I assume that your HDD is connected to the Intel SATA controller, - Head over to Intel website, and get the latest Motherboard (I think SATA drivers is also included with the mothebroard drivers), and download the latest drivers. - Get CCleaner (free): http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner - Install CCleaner - Uninstall your motherboard drivers and SATA controller. If it's not under "Program and Features" (aka Add/Remove programs in XP and older Windows), go to Device Manager and do it there (be sure to check the box to delete the drivers, if you have it) - Open CCleaner, and perform a system and registry clean up. - Restart your computer - Let Windows do its driver search (if it does) - Now install the drivers that you downloaded. Repeat the same with the rest of the list until the problem is solved. If you have any TV-Tuner, wireless card, bluetooth on USB or PCI or PCI-E, remove it from your computer. Be sure in your BIOS that you disable devices you don't use. If you have 2 Ethernet ports, disable the one that you don't use. If you have several SATA controllers (which probably you do), disable the ones that you don't use. I think yours you have the Intel and Gigabyte one. Be sure that your HDD is on AHCI as well (if it's not, like it's on IDE, then you will need to re-install Windows, else it won't work anymore (you'll get a BSOD at startup))
OK I get all of that except the AHCI part. Where do I go to check/make sure its not IDE? Last thing I want to do is to need to reinstall windows at this point.
Check in your BIOS. If yours is like mine, it's under Integrated Peripheral. Look for ICH SATA Control Mode. And the other SATA controllers (anything that you see *SATA) set to be disabled. I know, but it has to do with data management of an OS. They are workarounds, but I don't like them at all. So, if it's not set to AHCI, let's leave it as a last resort, so don't touch.
I mighty be able to help you here as I had similar problems but on a smaller scale. I used VLC for videos and after a few weeks I would get choppy sound even when playing DVDs. This is with a new build and all was well initially. This was in XP SP3 but I was also running Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit. Now all videos in Ubuntu worked fine with VLC and Media Player but not in XP. This lasted for a month. What had changed? My voltage settings! I was having some RAM problems and had adjusted the CPU voltage and some others in the BIOS. Once I had replaced the RAM with AMD specific modules I again reset the voltages to default and everything now works perfect again in XP with VLC, Media Player and Quicktime media player. Fix: It may be your voltages or even your power supply - and don't overclock for now. A temporary fix for me was to install quicktime player from apple and the videos played perfectly (HD mp4 vids). Hope this helps.
Super daft question.... Have you checked the external connection to the speakers? Testing the same speakers (3.5mm) or optical/coax/hdmi cable with other devices? If you wriggle the cable around does that effect the output in anyway? Just a thought! Cheers, SouperAndy
Thanks for the responses. @GoodBytes, I updated all of my drivers and still no luck. My HDD is running on IDE btw...could that really be the source of the problem? I hope not. The new development: My onboard audio is fine again. Maybe the updating fixed that, and just not the cheap card I have? Either way, I bought a new, better reviewed card and am hoping that will be the final fix. I figured if its not the problem i can just RMA it to Newegg. @DarrenH, I haven't ever really done overclocking or other BIOS adjustments, so everything is set to default. @SouperAndy, I did try this, to no avail wriggling the cable has no effect as well.
I think its time to update your Power Supply. Have you tried another PSU in your system? It may be showing signs of leakage/age.
