Audio Latency Problems/Solutions With All Dell Studio & Studio XPS(And any other one) Discussions

NOTE
BIOS A11 has fixed the DPC Latency issue (only took them seven months).

edit: On the 1340. 1640 was fixed with BIOS A07.

 

Yep, that did the trick, all right. DPC Latency Checker showed about 1100 (Yellow) every 15 seconds with a message that the machine should be able to handle audio streaming with no drop-outs.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

what bout XPS 1640 ?

 

The 1640 was fixed with its own BIOS update a couple of months ago, both are good now.

 

But my skype still experiencing this problem =( just got my sxps yesterday (Bios A10) !

 

...then update to A11

 

why is there only a BIOS A08 available at the support download for the 1640 when their shipping laptops with A10? and now the 1340 has a A11 available in the site but nothing for the 1640.

has anyone messaged them about this?

 

A10 was never publicly available for the SXPS 13 meaning he has an SXPS 16. For SXPS 16 owners, A08 is latest version available on Dell's website and A10 is the latest available to new owners of the laptop.

 

Don't get confused about 1640 BIOS versions versus 1340. I updated my earlier post to be more clear. The BIOS updates are independent of each other - version numbers don't necessarily correspond. Every 1640 BIOS since version A07 should not have the DPC latency issue. Even if you can only get A08, it should be fine.

Chewyeong90, maybe try downgrading to A07 or A08 and see if it makes any difference. Otherwise it could be an audio driver issue, or something else.

 

Problem: Audio stuttering and clipping in new Studio XPS 1340, even after Bios upgraded to A11 and all drivers updated.

Problem traced to: Wifi card, Dell 1510. Using DPC Latency checker.

Good Solution: Turning off Wifi stops red bars.

Practical solution: Turn off Wifi Band A - in Wifi Card Properties -> Advanced.
This reduces latency by large amount - rare red bars and no perceptible audio issues.

 

You could just switch to an Intel 5300 and be rid of it all.

 

Yes...switching to intel 5300 might get rid of red bars but you will have tons of freezes due to compatibility issue.

 

Caused by what, the 5300? Mine runs perfectly?

 

The SXPS 13 has nvidia chipset which intel wifi 5300 does not support that motherboard.

 

Still no fix to this ? My 1640 still having the problem ! What's the disadvantage of uninstalling this IDT Audio Driver ?

 

You won't have 5.1 channel audio output and other audio effects.

 

I have a Dell XPS M1330 (changed motherboard 3 times btw) and have this problem as well. I usually notice it when using Firefox. After a while, I hear glitches and static when scrolling or surfing. Rebooting "fixes" the problem for some time and I am below 1000us using DPC Latency Check. After a while, I get those red spikes were all getting....

So if rebooting fixes the problem temporarily, it must be something in the system, chace, memory handling or system resources not being able to free itself after use?

 

Strange that people seem to be getting this mainly with firefox. Maybe it isn't that much of a Dell problem?

 

-Lagging/Stuttering video and audio on battery power
-15 second yellow/red latency spikes in DPC

Hi, I'm new to the forum. I apologize if this is a rehash of other threads, but I've searched through so many now, they've all pretty much blurred together. Sorry for the length of this post as well...I really just want to get this problem fixed.

I received my new Studio XPS 13 laptop 6 days ago. The laptop came with the A11 BIOS revision already installed, but I reinstalled it just in case. I have the NVIDIA GeForce 9500M video card with the 8.15.11.8628 driver from 6/26/09 installed. I also have the Dell Wireless 1510 N Mini-Card (5.10.38.26, 10/22/08).

The main problem I've noticed so far is lagging/stuttering whenever I watch videos, regardless of whether it's online streaming via YouTube or a standalone .avi file. After maybe 2-3 minutes of play, the video freezes for a few seconds and I hear a "de-de-de" sound, almost like a skipping CD. Then the video will resume, sometimes slightly off-sync with the audio.

This stuttering problem only occurs when I'm on battery power in Balanced or Power Saver Mode. I haven't seen it on High Performance mode yet or when I'm on AC power. The graphics mode is in Save Power mode, although I think I had the problem on Boost Performance as well. I travel a lot so I would really like to keep the battery usage as low as possible to avoid having to recharge it constantly.

I'm not sure if this is related to the latency problem that others have been having regarding scratches and pops in their audio. I've only played mp3s using Winamp and so far, nothing out of the ordinary with that.

Using the DPC latency program, I've noticed that I get mostly yellow, occasionally red spikes every 15 seconds. I read that disabling the ACPI battery driver helps and when I do, I get solid green bars on the DPC output. I haven't seen the stuttering with this driver disabled, but I just feel like maybe it could happen at any time...

Is anyone else having this same issue?
Is there a PERMANENT solution to this without having to disable drivers?
Is it even ok to run the laptop for extended periods of time with the ACPI battery driver disabled?

Disabling the wireless card does not fix the 15 second spikes either. Please help! I prefer not to constantly run my laptop at maximum on battery power.

Other than this issue, I've had no other problems. It's a great laptop and I'd love to keep using it, but I've still got a couple of weeks to return it if there's no solution. I've been surfing around in circles trying to figure this out so I appreciate any help. Please lead me in the right direction. Thanks!

*Edit to add: I'm using Vista 64-bit

 

Hi all. I registered at this place specifically because my search for Dell laptop latency issues brought me here.

I have a friend who asked me to try and convert his Dell Studio 1536 into a usable DAW (Digital Audio Workstation, for playing, recording and mixing music). At first I assumed the audio pops and stutters were related to the OS, device drivers etc. But I assumed wrong. I was stunned to see this when I used the DPC Checker:



The thing is, disabling/re-enabling something like the wireless card will modify the green bars in between the red spikes as expected, but this 5 second spike intervals completely transcend any normal tweaks.

After much reading and trial-&-error doing, I've tentatively concluded a few things:

1) The problem is marginally worse running Vista instead of XP, but not enough to make any real, practical difference.

2) It's an ACPI-related design flaw that only a motherboard swap (in lieu of a miraculous bios update) will fix.

3) The Process Explorer acpi.sys suspend thing is like a band-aid on a bullet wound. It's not a real solution.

So I've told my friend that, while this is a fine home browsing/business application computer, if he wants to have a DAW, he needs to purchase a new machine.

Is that about right?

 

Hi,

can somebody please test the following: download PowerMizer Switch v1.2 and execute it as Administrator. Select either of the Powermizer off settings and restart. Since then I have no longer the latency problem.
(only when switching wireless/bluetooth on and off)

Quadro FX 3700m
ATA mode (will try the other modes today)
Windows 7
Geforce 191.07 (will also try 191.56/186.21/186.81)
No Matrix driver as in ATA mode
eSata disabled

 

If no BIOS fix is forthcoming that sorts these spikes out, then yes you are correct. It's pretty much unusuable for serious audio work.

 

It's so strange, as mine has been fine since I got A11 in Vista and Windows 7. Odd.

 

whats the fix for this problem i have an xps 13 and i hate the freezing during video play back of a video

 

I could verify it with different driver versions and ATA mode settings. The problem (latency spike) appears when powermizer lowers the gpu frequency. With powermizer disabled (use powermizer switch v1.2) I no longer have problems

PS: Do NOT install the Matrix Storage driver as I had massive problems (latest version) but no without it and update to audio driver A11.

 

Hmm ... the problem is fixed on my XPS M1530 too by switching off the Powermizer ... realy strange but thanks a lot rugwarrior!!!

i've not changed anything other, so it's realy related to this...!

Edit: My XPS is running in AHCI Mode .. with the newest Matrix Storage Driver