Windows 7 audio stutters

[Sinbad]

Right, so I get fairly frequent occurrences (windows 7 64 pro) when the audio kindof stutters for about half a second. Like it's in a loop of about 1/10th of a second, repeated 5-10 times. Happens while gaming, or while playing music (doesn't matter what player I use).
Research led me to crappy realtek onboard audio drivers, so I installed a xonar and disabled the onboard audio.
Xonar exhibits the same symptoms.
Gigabyte GA-55 UD3P motherboard.
Sapphire HD5770 with latest catalyst drivers.
I also have a 4 port generic USB PCI card installed.


Have changed power profiles to disable power saving on the CPU and PCI buses, no difference.
Upgraded onboard Realtek GBE driver to the latest, no difference.


Anyone have any other ideas? This is annoying, to say the least...

[LeonG]

Hi,
In the BIOS setup try disabling all 'Spread Spectrum' settings.
If that doesn't work then re-enable them. Also make sure you are not overclocking.

If the soundcard supports the Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) standard then you could try just uninstalling all the audio drivers and software that came with it and let Windows 7 install its own generic 'High Definition Audio Device' driver. Disable All Enhancements under the Sounds tab and try different Sampling rates.
Thats all I can think of.

[Saajid]

If you already played around with different drivers, then I think your sound card is faulty. I had a similar issue on my Dell XPS 15z laptop. It took a combination of replacing the sound card and getting the latest drivers to fix.

Edit: OK just re-read your post, and saw that you already tried replacing the sound card with Xonar one. Which Xonar one did you use? USB or PCI?

[Sinbad]

Thanks, will check the spread spectrum stuff.

No overclocking at all. And no, I don't think the card supports that UAA stuff unfortunately? It's not a sound card driver issue, considering both the onboard Realtek and the Xonar exhibit the same issue.

Sampling rates, no differences. No enhancements enabled either.

Xonar PCI

[Sinbad]

No spread spectrum stuff in the bios at all...

[Pada]

Are you perhaps using the Basic/Classic Windows 7 colour scheme or one with few visual effects?

When I switched from the Standard Windows 7 colour scheme to the Basic/Classic one, my audio suddenly stuttered (just made a click noise) with my Asus Xonar U3 sound card every few seconds.
My onboard audio didn't have this symptoms.

I fixed it again by switching back the colour scheme to Standard.

Disabling Spread Spectrum is usually just for overclockers. Disabling it would increase the interference peaks, since it is not spreading out the interference over a whole range of frequencies any more.

I would suggest that you also run Process Explorer (download it from Microsoft/SysInternals for free) and see if the Kernel/Interrupts are showing spikes on the CPU usage graphs.
If it is an Interrupt that is spiking at the same time as the audio that stutters, then it is a hardware/driver issue and I would recommend that you unplug all your external devices (incl mouse & keyboard) to test.

[Sinbad]

Are you perhaps using the Basic/Classic Windows 7 colour scheme or one with few visual effects?

When I switched from the Standard Windows 7 colour scheme to the Basic/Classic one, my audio suddenly stuttered (just made a click noise) with my Asus Xonar U3 sound card every few seconds.
My onboard audio didn't have this symptoms.

I fixed it again by switching back the colour scheme to Standard.

Disabling Spread Spectrum is usually just for overclockers. Disabling it would increase the interference peaks, since it is not spreading out the interference over a whole range of frequencies any more.

I would suggest that you also run Process Explorer (download it from Microsoft/SysInternals for free) and see if the Kernel/Interrupts are showing spikes on the CPU usage graphs.
If it is an Interrupt that is spiking at the same time as the audio that stutters, then it is a hardware/driver issue and I would recommend that you unplug all your external devices (incl mouse & keyboard) to test.

Useful post - thanks!

My display scheme is pretty much default - it has most of the frippery turned on. There's no extraneous sounds at all, just the sound that is actually supposed to be playing that stutters/buzzes.
I'll try the process explorer thing tonight

[LeonG]

Check out all the power options in your BIOS and set everything for maximum performance.

Create a new Power Plan in Windows and do the same. Set this Power Plan as your default. Check out every setting under 'Advanced Power Settings'
Also check out this tool: http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

[Sinbad]

All the power stuff is set, as is the power plan. Will look at the tool tonight - thanks

[metrohub]

uhm , if you have a nvida gpu , then link it up with the hdmi cable. because the nvidia cards have buillt in digital soundcards, you wouldnt get any problems , and just get the latest nvidia drivers. sound is amazing clear ;-)