IDT High Def Audio CODEC Driver

[LazyLion]

I have been having issues with a computer at home that uses this driver. I think it is an Intel driver. Now somebody else e-mails me with issues as well...

I'm having a strange problem and I wanted to see if your vast expertise could help with it. It's very unusual and I've never had this happen before. I first noticed the problem when someone had sent me a voice clip over msn, so naturally I thought that the issue was my audio. When I open the speaker adjustment icon in the system tray, the sound is constantly jumping up and down very rapidly and emitting a clicking sound. Say that if the volume setting is at 28, it jumps from 28 to 30 and then back to 28 over and over again. It's annoying to say the least.

So, I reinstalled the sound card driver (IDT High Def Audio CODEC) and restarted the computer. Nothing changed, had the same problem.

I just discovered that it won't even let me open my "volume mixer" anymore in the sound tray, where I can slide the volume setting up and down with the mouse.

The features on the touch part of the laptop work when controlling the volume, but when I mute it, the mute button on the laptop used to turn red indicating that it was muted. It no longer does that.

I'm still playing around with it, and now the touch sensors on the keyboard have completely stopped working...but it stopped clicking. I figured out that the clicking noise was the sound of the volume changing.

My problem on my computer at home is that the CPU is spiking up to 100% and causing the computer to freeze. It comes and goes. But when it is doing it the computer is almost unusable. If I open the Task Manager and click on the performance tab I can see the spiking... but I can't isolate the process. I suspected one of the sound drivers by googling for "cpu spiking". That seemed to be the most common cause.

 

[Roquefort]

Are you sure this is a hardware/driver caused error?

I had a similar problem but it happened with all my movies. Turns out it was a virus that got past AVG 8 (free).

Maybe your anti-virus is'nt up to date. Also the CPU spiking may be caused by spyware, but if the spikes are happening at the same time as the volume changes then it is most likely the virus/hardware/driver problem.

Have you emailed the manufacturer of your sound card? They may have recieved simlar complaints and released a fix.

 

[|tera|]

Concerning the Laptop problem.

Most laptops have got hotkey drivers, for instance my Toshiba uses an Asus Hotkey driver for my FN + combination buttons to function, volume, brighness etc.

You can tell the person to uninstall the sound driver with www.revouninstaller.com in advanced mode and make sure that when it shows the remaining files and registry items, that it is selected and deleted before clicking next.

After that, he needs to go to his manufacturer's website and look for his Key drivers, find it in Revo as well and uninstall in the same way. After that, he needs to install the Key driver, then the sound driver (just works for me this way for some reason).

If that doesn't sort the problem, it could very well be a fact that he has a failing/failed sound chip and or audio port on his laptop (especially if he has speakers connected). Trying the sound without external speakers and testing it is an option as well, if he's not using externals, then it's a bit harder to pinpoint the problem.

Your CPU spiking could very well be a problem in your Music Player, for instance Winamp has a Experimental CPU Usage Control (which is in testing phase) that is not enabled by default, but sometimes people enable it (like I have) and forget about it and wonder afterwards why the sound is choppy etc.

Another thing with playing music etc. I find on my own laptop that I don't have enough RAM (1Gb) Vista Home Premium, so if I'm browsing the net or copying files, my sound chops at times as well, but this happens in both Winamp and Media Player, so it's definitely a performance issue.

I agree with the virus comment as well, that could very well be a problem on the system.

To test your CPU, close all programs and open Calculator: Put it in Scientific Mode.

Enter in calculator 9 random numbers and then press the N! button. This is a fraction (think so) test and it will allow you to see if your CPU can be used to it's maximum potential. You can see that of course in the Task Manager. Just wait a minute or so for the fraction calculation to conduct and it will ask you after a while if it can stop with the calculation, because it could take a very long time, just click stop or continue.

That's about all I can think of now

 

[LazyLion]

Thanks guys, I'll try and run a scan using several anti-virus programs before I try anything else.

 

[LazyLion]

OK, I can't find a nice program that can do a decent scan (DOS or Bootable)... sooooo...

I took a blank hard disk and installed a completely fresh copy of Windows XP. Everything runs fine now... no pauses or freeze-ups or CPU spiking.... BUT... the hard drive light flashes every second.

What would cause the Hard drive light to flash every second on a completely clean install of Windows XP SP2 (have not installed anything, not even drivers, no internet yet).

 

[FnuckNut]

Use a program called "Process Explorer" from sysinternals if you want to troubleshoot/isolate process threads causing CPU hogging.

 

[LazyLion]

OK, Installed Windows XP to a blank hard disk, then used that to scan all the other drives. Didn't pick up any kind of virus. The computer is running fine now, although the hard disk light still flashes every second or so (might be the SATA something checking the something or other).

I have not re-installed the sound drivers yet... but I did find that the drive I originally had my OS on is reporting errors.

So it looks like it was not a major hardware problem thankfully, although if this drive fails it will be the fourth one this year.