Sound "skipping" problems with M50vm

I have a new m50vm-b2 and I've got a problem with the sound "skipping" - that's the best way I can come up with to describe it. Whenever there is silence for maybe > 10-15 seconds, the next time a sound is played, I miss out on maybe the first half second. Any sounds that come out thereafter are fine, unless there's a gap with some silence again.

Any clues as to what's causing this, or more importantly, how to make it stop? It only happens when there has been several seconds of silence first. This laptop is pretty much fresh out of the box.

 

That happens on my M50Vm-B1 as well. It is something unique to this hardware, because my HP laptop used the same Realtek HD Audio driver as this, and did not have this problem. I would describe it as "delayed sound" rather than skipping - that is if we're talking about the same thing. For example, a dialog box pops up asking if you want to save your work. You don't hear the "ding" [insert your sound effect] for a split second after you'd expect to hear it. It just seems to be slow for some reason. For what it's worth, my roommate's Dell laptop w/ Vista does the same thing too. *shrug* I have no clue how to fix this - just wanted to let you know you're not alone.

 

Was your HP running XP or Vista? Perhaps it's a driver issue? If so, I really wonder how I haven't heard more about this issue. I've tried re-imaging with no avail.

Your "delayed sound" description is better than mine though. It's like i'll miss out on the first half second of the sound then everything comes through.

 

I would suggest trying different drivers, as a first step. For instance, from Realtek instead of ASUS, or the other way around.

 

I suspect Vista's sound enhancements are at fault. I recommend going to Control Panel -> Sounds -> Speakers , and then put a check in Disable All Enhancements. If you want to troubleshoot it deeper and find out which enhancement is causing the problem I recommend disabling (or reconfiguring Room Correction and/or Headphone Virtualization while keeping the others enabled.

http://dale.fraser.id.au/2007/05/vista-flash-sound-issues.html

Explaination of Room Correction and Headphone Virtualization settings:
http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/articles/450038.aspx

 

I am willing to bet that it's your graphics card upclocking/downclocking that is causing the stutter. Go ahead, run Rivatuner, run a music program, and then run a game. Close the game, watch your clocks and listen for any stutters when the downclocking occurs.

Edit: This may be a separate issue, but this may have some relevance.

 

if i'm interpreting your problem right, i'm having the same problem. whenever i load certain websites(ie. flash or image heavy sites) my music stutters and my whole laptop just slows down like my cursor. it's really irritating because i was advised to toggle some taskbar apps and see if it's one of those that are causing the problem but ive literally turned all of them on/off except the essential ones and it's still happening. im using vista 64 and am contemplating just uninstalling and going with XP.

edit: well i've fixed my problem(as of right now..we'll see in a week or so if it's permanent). i took E.B.E.'s advice and downloaded the Realtek HD Audio drivers from the Realtek site itself and it's working so far.

 

Argh, this is really frustrating me.

Here's what I've tried so far:

• I downloaded the "latest" driver from the Asus website. I say "latest" because it was dated later than the driver on my computer, but the version was still the same: 6.0.1.5643. After reboot, I found that instead of using the Realtek HD Audio driver, Vista is using the generic windows one. There did seem to be a positive change though. The delay in the audio only happened after maybe 35-40 seconds of inactivity instead of 10 like with the original driver. I also found that changing the power plan to High Performance pretty much eliminated the problem.
• I then went to the realtek site and downloaded the latest HD Audio Driver. It's the same version I started with (6.0.1.5643) and all the problems are back again. Changing power plans doesn't make a difference.

This is something that also happens when I restore the laptop to it's factory condition - so it's an problem straight out of the box. If it were a problem with all M50's I figure this would have been brought up before. I also have an M50vm-b1 (that I'm trying to sell btw) that doesn't exhibit this problem at all.

Maybe it's time to contact Asus???

 

Hello Asus owners (and not only )

I own Asus M70Vr and recently encountered similar problems with sound. It is really driving me crazy.
My model is equipped with 4.1 spekaer set (with subwoofer) and this delay applies only for normal speakers - I mean when I start playback I can hear sound from the beginning but only from subwoofer and after 1/3 of second normal speakers start to play I want to get rid of this definitly
When I bought this machine three weeks ago it was shipped with Windows Vista Home Premium Preinstalled and sound seemed to work fine (I mean wothout this f... delay). I managed to install Windows XP Pro SP3 on it and all devices except IrDa worked fine until this friday. Since friday I have been fighting with this issue by installing evry combination of system and drivers( Win XP and Vista) and it behaves in the same way ! But under Vista when I remove Realtek drivers and reboot Windows then install its own (microsoft) drivers for this audio device. With microsfot drivers normal speakers start to play immediately (without delay) but the subwoofer doesn't work at all
And also with microsoft drivers under XP additionaly there were problems with playback using DirectSound ( Foobar 2000 and Winamp completely freezed computer very often with looped part of song )
Next thing I noticed recently is that when I reboot computer I can hear sometimes loud noise from speakers during POST (it lasts few seconds).
I am really confused especially that earlier there were no any problems. Now I wonder if I should take it to the service on warranty claim.

Maybe some of You has got the same problem ?

best regards
Michal

hint: when I plug headphones there is no any delay (on both systems and with any drivers) so this applies only for speaker set 4.1/5.1

 

I had this problem as well, but I fixed it! The problem was occuring in both XP and 64 bit Vista. I downloaded the R2.02 drivers (2.03 is now out, try that?) and installed those. I noticed there were two audio devices, and an nvidia hdmi device. I disabled the second one (digital audio I believe), and turned off the sound enhancements mentioned earlier in this thread.

After doing all of these shotgun fixes, the problem was resolved. All sounds now play in full, including the shutdown sound.

I'm definitely willing to help more if people need it, as I found this frustrating.

 

killermojo I have just tried what You suggested but it still doesn't solve this issue. Playback behaves still in the same way.
I have also made a phonecall to ASUS service and they told me to Load Manufacturer Defaults in BIOS but of course it made no difference for sound but now I see TPM Machine error every boot
I changed from Acer to Asus looking for better quality and service, now I think it was a mistake
I am going to send it to the service.

regards
Michal

 

hello again,

I have just received my M70 back from the ASUS service. Unfortunatelly they did NOTHING about the sound issue !!! I am very disappointed about this brand and really consider to say "good bye" to ASUS for ever after next unsuccessfull attempt.

Michal

 

Hello.

I have the same issue with skipping sound. Unfortunately Yours solution dont work for me :/
I also reset the BIOS and I install newest drivers from Realtek but with no difference.
I still try resolve this issue..

Anybody have any other ideas ??

Regards,
Waldek

 

Hello

Today I uninstall Realtek HD Audio driver on my M50Vm and I let Vista install own driver (system Vista driver). Now problem with sound skipping is gone Everything is OK.
For this solution is only one minus... I dont have Realtek HD Audio control panel.. whatever - I never used this soft

Regards,
Waldek

 

Waldek,

if you uninstalled Realtek drivers I suggest to check the subwoofer (on the bottom). With only Windows drivers It doesn't play at all.

Michal