Dragon Wizard

When I play any video/audio on my computer it makes this annoying popping sound that is simply unbearable. It just recently started doing this out of nowhere.

On itunes and winamp it will play this sound for about 30 seconds, play the songs normally for another 30 seconds, then go back. It will have the sound going for a little while then suddenly stop every time I watch a video on windows media player. It is even making this noise occasionally on youtube videos.

I have tried switching speakers, however the problem persists.

This is on a Dell Dimension 4700 with XP SP3. I tried downloading their sound card drivers for this computer off of dell.com, and that failed to fix the problem either.

Please help.

tecknomage

Using the on-board sound card?

What you experience is a well known problem with sound cards. It's caused by clashes between video card access and sound card access. Specifically the property called PCI Latency. Happens when the Latency for the video is close to, or equals, the Latency for the sound.

In the pre-PCI days, this property could be adjusted for each PCI slot in BIOS. Unfortunately, today, if this option is available at all, you can only adjust the Latency for all PCI slots. Which is no help.

You can try the PCI Latency Tool

CAUTIONS:

This tool installes shortcuts in [Start], Programs (as normal), DO NOT MOVE or change in any way.

See the Help BEFORE using. You must set (change) Latency 1st, then Save, and set to reset on boot.

Also, not all PCI/AGP cards allow software setting of Latency, those that CANNOT will have a Latency = 0 on the list. Latency is set in multiples of 8, 8 = minimum (8, 16, 24, 32, etc.) to a max (see help).

What you want to do is put your audio card Latency very low. At home, my on-board RealTek defaulted to Latency = 8, my GeForce 7300 = 56. When I was using an Audigy, both sound & video Latency = 56, and caused much popping.

Dragon Wizard

The sound card, SoundMAX Integrated Duel Audio, shows as a latency of 0 on the latency tool......

I assume this means I can't change it, in this case.......what do I do now?

Also my video card doesn't appear to be on the list, which is also a GeForce 7300.

Meaning this is most likely the problem I have.

rafaelkarisma

I seem to have a similar problem with sound clicking/popping/stuttering/lagging/skipping (whatever you want to call it) when playing videos, mp3's and with all the audio. The sound stutters even when the windows jingle playing at startup.

Things I have tried:

1) change the PCI slot for the sound card
2) disable the internal soundcard from bios
3) update the soundcard drivers
4) chaged the soundcard itself
5) memchecked the memory and changed the other combs position
6) rolled back to the driver that came with the card
7) installed K-Lite codec pack and AC´97 drivers
8) killed processes
9) changed the PCI latency for the sound card

NOTHING OF THESE AFFECTS ON THIS!

The PCI Latecy tool 3 didnt work on my system - it just froze it and i had to reboot. I found another program that does the same trick called DoubleDawg. I tried it, and it seems to be working by changing the sound card latency but it does not take the problem away.

The program is found here: http://www.mark-knutson.com/t3/_index.html

My system is the following:
Intel Core 2 Quad CPU 2,4GHz
3,25GB of RAM 444Mhz
Asus P5K Mobo
Delock 7.1 Sound card bundle
WIN XP SP 2

I´m beginning to be out of ideas! The reason i first began to use a PCI sound card instead of the mother boards was that i could get it working.

Please, if you still have some ideas i would gladly try them and if I come up with something i´ll post it here.

rafaelkarisma

Some update to this:

I installed Windows SP3 - didn't help. After that i figured out how to install the Realtek drivers to my Mobos internal soundcard. I got the internal soundcard working but the god damned stuttering still occurs. So it seems that the problem is not PCI slot related or sound card related nor it is not bacause of the drivers.

rafaelkarisma

I seem to have fixed the problem! I found a hint of the solution on another board that said:

GO: My Computer>Properties>Harware tab>Device Manager>expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers">uninstall Primary and Secondary IDE Channels by right-clicking on them. reboot. WIndows will then find the new hardware with automatic updates. reboot again, and you're done.

It did not help me, but i noticed that the problem might be IDE-related. My Mobos manufacturers website had old drivers for the IDE controller and i managed to find newer one from elsewhere (JMicron site). I installed both the RAID driver and the IDE driver. The choppy sound is gone!

If someone is using the same Mobo as me (Asus P5K) i recommend to download the driver from here: ftp://driver.jmicron.com.tw/jmb36x/Win2k_xp_Vista

Dragon Wizard

This fixed the problem!

A million thanks!

That was driving me insane.

Dragon Wizard

Although not nearly as worse, the static has just returned....

Dragon Wizard

No luck as of yet fixing the problem, again it's still not as bad as before but is rather annoying.

Could this possibly be a RAM problem? Too many things running causing it to not be able to play the music properly? The static does seem to lessen when I'm running less things.

rafaelkarisma

What kind of harddrive set (and connectors) you are running and what is the model of your Mobo? Are all of your IDE channels set to Ultra DMA?

Dragon Wizard

I have no idea, everything is the default of a Dell Dimension 4700 except for a geforce 7300 vid card in it.

rafaelkarisma

Have you tried to install the new Nvidia graphics driver? I heard that someone has had the same sound distorting problem after installing a Nvidia video card to a Dell Dimension 3000.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_175.19_whql.html

You should also check the new version of the AC97 drivers here:
http://search.dell.com/searchcom_red...f-655fce10879b

if this doesent help, you could try to install the Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility here:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=104426

One more thing. My problem was solved by installing the updated IDE controller driver. I found such a driver for Dell D 4400 but not for 4700.
Anyway, the link for it is here:
http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/Oth...r-Driver.shtml

Dragon Wizard

Installed all of them and rebooted the computer.

No change.... :(

Dragon Wizard

Doing this yet again fixes the problem for now......

I'm sure it will be back though.

Surely whatever is causing this has to do with those.

Dragon Wizard

It did come back, however I believe I have just permanently fixed the problem using a 'registered' version of Driver Magician.

rafaelkarisma

Yea, good for you man! It seems that this problem can be caused by many different things. I believe that in your case, the reason for the stuttering audio was that the IDE controller driver was automatically installed wrong by Windows. In my case, it was also the IDE driver, but the fix was a bit different.

Dragon Wizard

Yep, a day later and still no static.

.......finally.

Jemoto

Guys,

Happy you got a fix. I think I may have the same, or a similar, problem.

For a while I have been annoyed with this crackling sound from my loudspeakers, as if you jiggle a broken cord. The strange thing is that it happens in intervals of exactly 1 minute and lasts for maybe 3-4 seconds.

I changed the setting on the computer clock, but the crackling sound continued according to original schedule, as if to some external clock, with exactly 1 minute in between.

My sound card is Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio.

Does this sound related?

Jemoto

Jemoto

rafaelkarisma, I have the same mobo as you, but don't have raid installed; which of the drivers listed is the IDE one?

Thx

Jemoto

rafaelkarisma

Download this: ftp://driver.jmicron.com.tw/jmb36x/W....17.38WHQL.zip -> unpack -> start setup.exe
-> setup asks you which one the drivers you like to install, pick "standard IDE driver" -> reboot -> (hopefully) enjoy!