View Full Version : S-s-s-s-s-stutter?
Bub, Andrew
09-10-2003, 02:32 PM
I posted about this before and all the solutions didn't work. I thought I'd try again:
Specs -
XP
P4 1.9
SB Live current drivers
120 gig HD 53 gigs free
768MB RAM
Defragged last night, all drivers current, situation normal.
But, starting in May, whenever the HD is doing anything else... downloading something, loading something, etc., the sound stutters something awful. This really hurts games like GTA VC and Rise of Nations (unless I play without sound) and is annoying in games like BF1942 when you;re faced with a long load sceen and stuttery music. If I'm downloading something, or sending something to the printer, etc., the MP3 player stutters.
Any thoughts on what the problem might be?
Please don't answer unless you're reasonably sure you know what's going on (or if you have questions). I don't want a lot of time-consuming "maybe it's this" advice to try. No time, I've just got no time these days.....
TomChick
09-10-2003, 02:51 PM
I don't want a lot of time-consuming "maybe it's this" advice to try.
Way to shut down potentially helpful input...
-Tom
P.S. Maybe it's your sound card drivers.
Chris
09-10-2003, 03:31 PM
Unfortunately the art of computer troubleshooting is almost always maybe it's this, maybe it's that. Try to reinstall the latest soundcard drivers and see if that fixes things to start.
Any thoughts on what the problem might be?
Please don't answer unless you're reasonably sure you know what's going on (or if you have questions). I don't want a lot of time-consuming "maybe it's this" advice to try. No time, I've just got no time these days.....
Did you reinstall Windows around May?
john black
09-10-2003, 04:12 PM
Maybe the soundcard is sharing an interrupt with something else? Also maybe the I/O addresses are being shared that are assigned to the soundcard? Maybe you need to update your drivers (oops someone else already said that one). Maybe you should try re-seating the soundcard?
TomChick
09-10-2003, 04:18 PM
You guys didn't follow Bub's instructions. You're supposed to just tell him exactly what the problem is.
I was going to say 'Maybe it's that your computer has achieved sentience and it just doesn't like you', but this would require time-consuming troubleshooting like applying Turing tests, trying to engage it in philosophical discussions, and adapting self-improvement measures to see if you can get on your computer's good side.
-Tom
DennyA
09-10-2003, 04:18 PM
Yep, I'd guess that it could be that the sound card is sharing an interrupt with the IDE controller.
Maybe try deleting the drivers, moving the card to a different slot, and then installing the latest driver.
Xaroc
09-10-2003, 04:46 PM
Maybe try ripping the sound card out and stomping it into little bits. Oh and uninstall the drivers as well.
-- Xaroc
Bub, Andrew
09-10-2003, 05:28 PM
Chick might be on to something... my computer is looking at me with this strange red light. "I-I-I-I c-c-can't let you d-d-d-o that D-d-d-ave." Who is Dave?
Heh, I was hoping this was a "oh yeah, I know that problem!" sort of deal. Wishful thinking.
Ok, I can't find the original thread where we went through this but here's what you guys suggested and what I did:
I've already tried different audio drivers and uninstalled, reinstalled, and tried them again. I've already moved the card to three different slots. The audio just stutters when the HD is in operation. Like right now, I'm installing a game and I had to mute the audio because the installation music is stuttering.
Now, it isn't the CD-ROM like I originally thought, because it does this even when I'm playing a game using a -nocd patch. Side note: the computer slows and gets unresponsive whenever it's writing to the disc. Like when a movie trailer is downloaded and writes to the folder, when I back up to the other HD, or when I'm installing a game. The cursor blinks slower, the typing slows down, etc., Is the HD failing? Is the sound card failing? Also, and this seems important, the music and audio doesn't stutter all the time... just when the HD is obviously "working".
Denny & John Black: Can a I/O conflict crop up all of sudden if nothing has changed? I swear, this PC didn't do any of this until May.
Loyd... I installed XP a year ago. I might have done a massive Windows Update in May or April though.....
I was actually thinking about maybe backing up, wiping, and reinstalling XP and all drivers but was hoping it wouldn't come to that.
Go to the device manager, see if there are any IRQ or DMA conflicts.
TomChick
09-10-2003, 05:56 PM
Maybe you should take your computer to Jupiter and see what it does.
-Tom
Machfive
09-10-2003, 05:56 PM
Could be the hard drive. Hit the manufacturer's sites and run their diagnostics.
Sluggish, choppy performance is a genuine precursor to spontaneous platter combustion.
Jon R.
09-10-2003, 05:57 PM
Harddrive in PIO mode by any chance?
Bub, Andrew
09-10-2003, 06:27 PM
No conflicts in Device Manager
I have no idea what PIO mode is....
I had an HD fail on me a year ago (if it's that... jeez!) so far just the stutter. No other weirdness. I'll back up more frequently. Say, if it might be the HD couldn't I test the problem by installing GTA3 VC on the other HD? See if it stutters on that platter?
Maybe you should take your computer to Jupiter and see what it does.
My God, it's full of cables.
No flagged conflicts?
I'm asking you if you have manually looked at all the IRQs that are being used and double checked that devices aren't sharing an IRQ. Its perfectly OK for them to share an PCI IRQ, but occasionaly, it can lead to performance problems.
Oh, and my car is making a funny noise. Can someone tell me what the problem is?
Jon R.
09-10-2003, 06:49 PM
No conflicts in Device Manager
I have no idea what PIO mode is....
PIO mode is "make drive run like shit" mode. XP has this nifty thing where it defaults the drive to PIO mode if it comes up with errors too often, and this tends to catch people by surprise. Go into the Device Manager, open up IDE/ATAPI controllers. It should tell you if they're stuck in it or not.
Gladguy
09-10-2003, 07:29 PM
What mobo do you have? Any chance it's got onboard sound?
All the cool kids know that Soundblaster cards are teh suck.
Jason McMaster
09-10-2003, 07:56 PM
what chipset is your motherboard? Via chipsets are notoriously retarded with soundblasters. Mine did the same thing until I got my new processor and board.
Just a thought Andrew, hope it helps.
Bullhajj
09-10-2003, 08:03 PM
Oh, and my car is making a funny noise. Can someone tell me what the problem is?
Yeah, my back is making funny noises when I squat. Can anyone tell me what the problem is and exactly how to fix it?
Loyd... I installed XP a year ago. I might have done a massive Windows Update in May or April though.....
I was actually thinking about maybe backing up, wiping, and reinstalling XP and all drivers but was hoping it wouldn't come to that.
Give the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard a whirl.
Gunmetal
09-10-2003, 08:12 PM
That's not your back! You're sitting on a baby, you monster!
Bullhajj
09-10-2003, 08:22 PM
That's not your back! You're sitting on a baby, you monster!
Yeah, but how do you fix it? Exactly. And don't waste my time, either!
Brad Grenz
09-10-2003, 10:49 PM
Look out your window, can you see a giant fetus or an ape wielding a bone?
Look out your window, can you see a giant fetus or an ape wielding a bone?
How does that affect my car? You're wasting my time! I'm going to take my business elsewhere, cuz I'm not getting my money's worth.
Toddy
09-11-2003, 01:46 AM
Man, this PIO-UDMA thing with XP is a miserable fucking nightmare. After reading the above responses, I thought I'd check on the PIO thing to see if it might be responsible for the really long loading and file tranfer times I've been getting the past few months. Sure enough, my drives were locked on PIO.
And I couldn't fix it. I uninstalled the IDE Channels in device manager, let XP reinstall the drives, and they still came up PIO. So then I flashed my MB BIOS. Uninstalled the drives. Let XP find them again. Same goddamn thing. Finally, I realized that maybe I needed to update the SiS IDE driver. Of course, I didn't have the MB manual handy and didn't know the chipset, and the SiS auto-detect program seems incompatible with my Nvidia driver. System went boom and I had to reinstall my graphics drivers. Twice, because I'm a moron and decided to try the detecting program again. Twenty minutes of deep breathing exercises later, I did some digging in my closet, found the MB manual, got the right IDE driver file, installed it, and no more PIO. And it only took me 90 minutes!
What sort of shaved monkeys do they fucking have programming this crap at Microsoft? Sweet fucking Christ, would it be so difficult to just put an option in there so you could switch back and forth between PIO and UDMA? Even if the problem was an SiS one on my end, at least I would have realized this right away if the UDMA option had been grayed out. Grrr. Good thing my monitor can take a punch.
Man, this PIO-UDMA thing with XP is a miserable fucking nightmare. After reading the above responses, I thought I'd check on the PIO thing to see if it might be responsible for the really long loading and file tranfer times I've been getting the past few months. Sure enough, my drives were locked on PIO.
1. Get new, 80-conductor IDE cables.
2. Replace old cables.
3. Reinstall motherboard drivers. (If this is a VIA chipset, all you need to reinstall are the IDE miniport drivers).
Windows "falls back" to PIO mode if it detects errors when in DMA mode. If it detects errors several times, it will lock to PIO.
john black
09-11-2003, 03:14 PM
That's not your back! You're sitting on a baby, you monster!
Maybe it was just gas?
Did you notice a foul odor after the strange noise?
Toddy
09-11-2003, 06:43 PM
Thanks for the advice, Loyd, but I'm pretty sure my problem was the SiS IDE driver. As I said in the above post, everything cleared up when I installed an updated driver. It also added a little application called IDEUtil, that provides detailed info on how my drives are running.
Thanks for the advice, Loyd, but I'm pretty sure my problem was the SiS IDE driver. As I said in the above post, everything cleared up when I installed an updated driver. It also added a little application called IDEUtil, that provides detailed info on how my drives are running.
Didn't catch that -- but looks like my suggestion to "give the latest chipset drivers a whirl" was on target.
:)
Bub, Andrew
09-11-2003, 09:57 PM
but looks like my suggestion to "give the latest chipset drivers a whirl" was on target.
:)
You talking to me? Because that's what you suggested, that's what I just tried, and it looks like Loyd Case is God. No more ... stutter, so far. Thanks Case.
but looks like my suggestion to "give the latest chipset drivers a whirl" was on target.
:)
You talking to me? Because that's what you suggested, that's what I just tried, and it looks like Loyd Case is God. No more ... stutter, so far. Thanks Case.
Not a God. Just a guy who's run into waaayyy too many of these problems...
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