Audio skips every 1 - 2 minutes on E6500

Try removing your DVD-ROM drive and see if it eliminates the skipping with the other driver combos. I am not sure why. But it seems to be the only fix for me. I'm hoping that a driver update can allow me to have my DVD-ROM in and listen to music at the same time....

 

eger,

With the DVD-RW Drive (TSST U633A) removed and the nVidia Quadro NVS 160M video driver installed, there was no apparent skipping in audio playback in iTunes (ver 8.0.2). Also, this was with the Dell provided 8.2 matrix storage driver, not the 8.7 version as that one appears to be buggy.

Strangely, the DPC latency was about the same whether or not the DVD drive was inserted. Spikes of 2500 - 60000 microseconds occurred approximately every 20 - 70 seconds.

I then tried playing audio again through iTunes with the DVD drive inserted in the bay with the nVidia video driver installed. The music started skipping. However, it was almost nonexistent, occurring maybe once every two minutes or so. Also worth noting, the audio skipping only rarely coincided with the latency spikes. Most of the time the two occurred independently of each other.

 

When I test with the DPC checker I also noticed no correlation to spikes a skipping. I'd be interested to hear if you try the latest Dell provided Matrix driver and nVidia driver without the DVD-RW installed. I may go this route next to confirm if the drive is the problem.

Even with the drive out it seems like different combinations of drivers make the skipping worse. I wonder if this is a problem with the actual hardware or bus the removable drive uses?

Also note, I have a different removable drive, PLDS DU-8A2S.

 

I will try this too when I have a couple of hours to spare.

This may seem like a real stupid question, but which media software are you using to determine if the audio playback is skipping? I have noticed that the skipping is much more apparent and frequent in iTunes (8.0.2) than in other media software. In fact, when I play the same exact media files in iTunes vs. WMP, the songs do not seem to skip at all in WMP, yet they do skip in iTunes. There are some threads over in the Apple forums where folks have noticed skipping in their music after upgrading to the latest version of iTunes (8.0.2).

I’m drifting off topic here, but I just wanted to mention it to make sure we both use the same media software when we run our “tests”.

 

Well...I had a bit more time to test and it turns out that the music does indeed skip with the DVD-RW drive removed. So, in my system, the music skips regardless of whether or not the drive is installed.

Note 1: I did not disable the drive in the BIOS, I just physically removed it from the system.

Note 2: As I mentioned before, I am using iTunes 8.0.2. The skipping is not apparent when I use WMP.

 

I have run some more tests for the annoying audio skips on my system.

All tests were run using iTunes, version 8.0.2.

With the DVD-RW Drive removed:

• Latest Dell provided matrix driver 8.7 + nVidia driver = audio skipped
• Matrix driver 8.2 + nVidia driver = audio skipped
• Tried both of the above cases with matrix mgr application uninstalled = audio skipped

I then tried the following changes one at a time through the BIOS, with and without the DVD drive installed:

• Disabled eSATA;
• Changed IRRT to AHCI;
• Disabled module bay (didn't know if this might have a different effect than just physically removing the drive);
• Disabled internal modem.

None of these worked; audio still skipped.

Next, I shut off the wireless card (Intel 5300 a/g/n) using the built-in switch and I also tried the suggestion from LPTP-LVR (changing the default audio format to 16 bit, 44100 Hz).
Audio still skipped.

I sincerely thank all of the great people in these forums for their help and suggestions. Unfortunately, these solutions have not resolved the audio skipping problem in my system.

The only combination that has worked to eliminate the problem in my system is:
Matrix storage driver 8.2.2.1001 and standard VGA graphics adapter driver from Microsoft (ver. 6.0.6001.18000).

I know the latest matrix storage driver is creating problems for many users. However, in my case, it is a combination of the matrix storage driver and the nVidia Quadro NVS 160M driver (7.15.11.7607, A01). I hope a new driver release for the nVidia chip will resolve this.

For some reason, when using the standard VGA graphics adapter driver, amongst other things, you also lose the option of putting the lappy to sleep when the lid is closed. You only have two options in the lid-closing actions: "Hibernate" or "do nothing" whereas with the nVidia driver the options include "sleep".

 

Thanks for the additional research and analysis which adds the nvidia GPU onto the list of possible culprits.

I've got Intel graphics and use Winamp and haven't had any audio problems in spite of having hight latencies.

John

 

I think Nvidia has to be the culprit! In Ubuntu, I have the latest Nvidia driver and it has no video/audio problems. In vista, audio skips and ANY fullscreen streaming flash video becomes choppy after 5 minutes. There has to be a way to update the Nvidia drivers for Vista owners!

 

Just an update to this problem. I recently switched to Windows 7 RC (Official Build 7100) and the problem is 100% gone!

Been using Windows 7 for a week now and haven't had one skip or audio drop out at all. I installed NO drivers at all. Any driver updates came from Windows Update (for nvidia 160M and creative webcam). I have listened to my streaming audio Shoutcast station during all kinds of computer load (installing apps, graphics editing, compiling, etc) and can't get it to skip. I also tested the DPC latency checker and it is in the green with an occasional yellow spike that is just over the yellow line (see attached image).

This leads me to believe the problem is still rooted in software somewhere (in either the intel ICH controller driver, nvidia driver for vista, the audio driver in vista, or a combination). I would be interested to hear if anyone else are testing Windows 7 on their E6500 or E6400 who had audio skipping on Vista and it went away....

Strange to say it. But I think this is the first time I have been happy after upgrading to the next version of Windows

 

Intel Matrix Storage version 8.8 has fixed the latency problem for most people with XP and Vista.

What version of the driver are you running?

John