7915u fx sound problem?

whenever I'm using internet explorer or chrome and it's loading a page, it lags my sound for like 1~3secs... and it's really annoying.

anyone having a same problem?

 

That sounds a lot like the dpc latency issue that has me returning my alien ware m17x. The issue is addressed in This thread. It is one of the primary concerns that I am researching before considering the purchase of a p-7915u fx. I would be extremely grateful if you could run the utility linked below and post a screenshot of your results. Running it with a youtube video playing would be best.

http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

*edit*

If anyone with a p-7915u fx can post a dpc latency graph from the above program... that would be awesome!!!

*edit2*

Woot@gselsidi ...I can't wait to see the results. If you can listen to an mp3 without the audio cutting out / stuttering or popping and crackling, then you are already doing better than the m17x ;-)

 

i will run it tomo when i get mine, i will post results and maybe you can tell me if everything is working fine or not lol

 

mine is an p7908u..
what do u say bout it?
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6730/testam.png
i don't know if there's the problem, but i think some times i noticed that.. i don't know really

 

That graph looks good. All green is good. Were you running anything when you captured it? My desktop, which I never have any problems with, looks a little better when not under load, and occasionally spikes a little higher when under load, but the problem is apparently much more prevalent on laptops. My mom's xps regularly hits low 1000s (low end of yellow), and does not have any issues with normal apps. The m17x, as is evident in the link above, regularly hits in the multi-thousands (red), and consistently spikes off the charts (red). The audio (and video) glitch out very noticably in everything you do. If I see a couple p9715u users with graphs like yours while playing a youtube video, I will be happy. What OS are you running? It seems the problem can be a bit amplified with win7.

 

I was loading a videoclip in you tube like u asked..
But the graphic haven't been green all the time, some times spotted somes red bars, but just few times during the music, like if it was going up and down just on bar, 4 times in a music .
I'm running the Windows 7 Home Premium 64bits from factory.. the only thing i changed was the graphic driver to the new nvidia..
i think everything it's ok, in games too.

 

It sounds like you probably have acceptable performace. Can you post a screenshot of when it goes into the red? You say it goes into the red maybe 4 times during the course of the song?

Again, if any p7915u people out there can post a graph, and or otherwise testify that thier multimedia performance is fine, that would be awesome!

I'm really interested in seeing the OP's graph. I hope he checks the thread soon.

 

i returned my 7915u fx. technicians were tellin me to do recovery so i did, it never solved the problem, reinstalled the sound driver, did all annoying and it just made more and more problems.

I ended up returning my 7915u fx, and im not sure if i wanna get 7915u fx again. I might wait for ebay bing cashback or something.

 

here the screen
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/7237/test2lj.jpg
and yes, usually that how often it happens.
Do you know why does it happens a lot in notebooks? it would be because the soundboard is near to anothers boards?
But it just happens in chrome, ie, firefox.. during games, movies, etc i don't have this problem.

 

Well... your red bar is obviously off the chart... do you notice any stuttering, crackling or popping in the audio of the youtube video when the red bar occurs?

The problem is not directly related to audio, it's just the easiest symptom to pick up on. As far as I can tell, it is a result of a lack of attention to detail and quality in things like the chipset, bios, and drivers. It is a very hard problem to pin down and there are a lot of opinions on it. I think the reason it happens more in laptops is because, especially in the desktop replacement category, the technology is much less mature, and they are more apt to cut corners on things in order to bring the whole package together with primary specs that compete with a desktop, and less able to look closely at some of these things, but really, I don't know. I guess laptops are always going to be at the forefront, pushing the edge of what’s possible with electronics, so they are going to have more problems. When it comes down to it, if it was something I could easily articulate, then the vastly more knowledgeable and smarter than me engineers that create this stuff would have solved it a long time ago, and $3k laptops touted as the most powerful in the universe (read alienware m17x) would be able to play YouTube videos without skipping. All I know is that I’m about to get so frustrated that I’m going to find out exactly when DPC technology was first implemented, and buy a laptop built before that date. You know, I went to best buy tonight, and even though they had the netbooks on a wireless network, they conveniently could not get the asus "desktop replacement" machine with the nvidia 260m card in it online so i could test a YouTube video

 

"Powermizer switch" worked for me.

 

Who did you buy your's from... Best Buy? Did you have to pay the restocking fee?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=273276

 

Hey here are my results, i did notice sometimes when i would click on save file or something i would here like a little static click in the sound other then that it streams perfectly fine.

this was also running on battery power on high performance not plugged in.

here are my screen shots tell me what you think.

This is running windows 7 x64

I can listen to it fine without crackling it's just when i start doing things like taking the print screen pictures pasting them and saving them that i might hear a crackle for a sec. every now and then.

I'm thinking it might be the display drivers.
Let me know what you think

do you think i should return it?

 

This one is the computer plugged in again when i open paint and save stuff i hear a crackle for a split second nothing huge or bothersem

 

i can run hwmonitor also if you want to see the cpu load, if the computer has no load just streaming and playing its perfectly fine.

 

the pictures i posted before while plugged in were on balanced power settings these are on high performance and no load on the computer just the music being streamed.

 

I'm currently having this issue with my p-7811FX running Windows 7 x64. I am running BIOS Version 9C.17.00 and have the latest NVIDIA drivers running with the powermizer disabled.

Updating my NVIDIA drivers took my DPC latency down to an acceptable level, But I still see a frequently occurring red spike (around 3000) that manages to interfere with my gaming. Its pretty disheartening to put up with random freezes when playing a game competitively.

Every device under the sun has been disabled, various BIOS versions have been tested, numerous NVIDIA drivers have been used, and many services have been stopped. I cannot pinpoint whats causing the remaining latency issues and I seem to have hit a brick wall.

Pretty sure that I did not have this issue on vista but I never checked the DPC latency while I was running it, so I cant say.

 

Well, I went ahead and placed an order for the p-7915u fx over the weekend, so I will be posting about my experience in about a week. I anticipate some problems with dpcl, but plan to do my best to work through them and do not expect to return this machine. This seems to be quite a widespread problem, and when it comes down to it, at least this machine is a reasonable price, so I will be willing to work with it. I will definitely be keeping an eye on the Alienware threads too, since Dell has acknowledged the problem and is supposedly working on a fix. It will be interesting to see how that develops.

gselsidi: I'd say that your data probably shows about an average amount of issues with dpcl for what this computer is. I would not return it unless you are willing to make some significant changes to the type of computer you are getting. Maybe if you stepped down a few video card models, or went with integrated graphics you might find a computer without this problem, or maybe if you did a lot of research and found just the right chipset, you might escape it. No matter what you do, I am starting to think that it will not be easy to get away from. So, depending on how things go once the machine arrives, I will probably stick with the 7915, and work to resolve the issue, while hoping that subsequent bios revs, driver revs, and os updates, also address the issue.

 

its not that big of a deal to return like i said its barley noticable, in games its perfectly fine.

 

same happens here gselsidi.
TechnicalTransient, please, tell us what did u do if you resolve the issue.
and if u need help with something, just tell us.

 

Absolutely.... I can't wait to get my hands on it!

 

I have the 7915u and i'm having the same issue but it's only slightly annoying. Could it be the 5400rpm hd?

Also, i only notice the skipping whenever i'm clicking, opening up games, and browsing. When i'm idle, i rarely get any latency.

 

no it isn't spek, TechnicalTransient told us what happens. The same issue happens in another notebooks, also m17x.. its hard to believe but that's true.

 

roger. i'm going to post a video/picture of my DPC results in a minute to help figure this whole thing out.

 

So here's my results with Itunes playing 1 song while browsing the forums on mozilla with aim open.

I get the same patterns when I play steam games like Half-life 2 and Portal, etc

EDIT::

man weird... just got done playing 30 minutes of counter-strike source while playing itunes and not one blip... perferct.. the second i get out of the game and start chatting on aim, browsing, and still listening to itunes... it starts glitching again

EDIT#2::

sound skipped every other minute while playing diablo ii

 

this is major reason I returned my 7915u fx. if anyone comes up with an solution, i might buy this again.

 

euisungkim, did you have to pay a restocking fee to return yours? Who did you purchase it from.... best buy?

 

i don't understand why would u return, this problem happens in all laptops or not?

 

Well, I'm not necessarily planning on returning mine; I'm more interested for hypothetical reasons. However, there are laptops that do better with this issue than this one.

It's just that as you narrow down the factors like price, hardware build, and software build, it gets harder and harder to find them. For example, some of the clevo $3k+ machines apparently do great with dpcl, but that’s a little out of the price range for people looking at the 7915. Apparently, the TI firewire chipset can be key. Apple is one company that uses that chipset, but, obviously, not everyone wants to go to apple, and computers with the TI chipset are probably going to be more expensive because of it. Also, the firewire chipset is not exactly an easy spec to find out on a lot of machines. There is a lot of talk about Nvidia contributing to the problem, so you could look at getting a machine with significantly different graphics, but Nvidia is definitely not the only thing that causes problems when you look at the big picture, so basically, yes, you might be able to find a machine that does fine with dpcl, but especially if you are looking for one similar to the 7915x, you might find it very difficult to find one. Especially since there is no real consensus on the underlying causes yet. You could also just go with a desktop, which, supposedly, have far fewer dpcl issues. So, there are plenty of valid reasons for wanting to return it, because, even with the 7915, a computer of this caliber should not have these issues.

 

No, I didn't pay the restocking fee (idk why) but hey
Yes I bought it from best buy.

Well since I'm a musician(drummer), I got sensitive ears. Any little sound will annoy me, and sometimes 7915u fx used to make a huge cracking noise out of nowhere when I was listening to music.

 

I am very interested to see how the similar Asus machine works out for you.

 

When I get the laptop i'll definitely post the results.

 

Here is a preliminary look at my dpcl with the 7915. I have not come close to fully putting it to the test, but, eventhough the graph doesn't have a whole lot of green in it, the interference I am hearing from youtube videos is minimal. I heard a split second glitch once or twice in the course of about 4 plays of the video. This is worlds better than the M17x was.





*EDIT*

btw.... i'm doing more than just running a youtube video in that graph.

 

TechnicalTransient, so do you think that the sound in p7915 got better results than the m17x?
Mine i think it's minimal too, and also the issue about the fan.
Mine just make noise sometimes, just to get a good temperature.. usually i just heard it at night.

 

Preliminarily, yes, I definitely think it's better, but I am by no means done testing. I have not even downloaded wow yet ;-).

The fan... haha... yeah, that would have freaked me out a bit if I had not already read about the "pulse" cooling technique implemented on these machines in another thread here.

*EDIT*

OK, after further inspection, I would say that this machine Definitely is better than the M17x, but still very much so has the problem. I really hope that this can be solved by the manufacturers via firmware, driver, BIOS, and OS updates that get at the core of the problem soon. It's a shame to see so many really nice laptops have such signifigant issues with the basics.


euisungkim, I can't wait to see how the Asus performs.

 

Just ordered this little bit of awesomeness here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167016

 

So...... I decided to watch a streaming Southpark video last night from southparkstudios.com and dpc latency went nuts. Below is the graph. For some reason it is not that bad if it is not in full screen mode (which you can see to the far right in the graph, but it was awfull in full screen mode. (with nothing else running but windows) Constant popping crackling and stuttering. It's not hard to see why when you look at the below graph.



Needless to say, watching streaming southpark on a factory configured p-7915u fx is a no go...

CSI from NBC website:




It's understandably worse for CSI. Like you pressed the slow mo button on your sega genesys controler.

 

Open your nVidia control panel, create a custom profile with very low clock speeds(like 1/2 stock speeds), disable powermizer and replay the video.

There is a fault with nVidias powermizer that will cause the "full screen stutter" in alot of applications because it is agressivly powermizing and agressivly trying to take over video playback at the same times and thats causing the GPU to constantly throttle which will stall out the video.

Thats been a known issue for a while.
I'm not sure if it has to do with the g92 core on the GPU's or what, but its been around since the 8800 class cards.

 

PowerMiser Switch seems to work nicely. I'm back to a normal looking graph after disableing and restarting.

Kamin Majere,

I do not see any controls or information displays for clock speeds or powermizer in the default nvidia control panel. Do I need to install additional software, or am i just being a noob?

 

Have you downloaded and installed nVidia's system tools?

 

I don't mean to hijack this thread but since everyone's already kind of discussing the P-7915u's shortcomings, I thought I might as well add my thoughts here.

I'm actually planning on ordering this laptop but, *sigh* I'm getting kind of discouraged, what with everyone reporting one kind of defect or another. Since this is, or rather will be, my first laptop, what do you suggest? Should I go ahead and order it or settle for another? My main problem is that I can't find any other laptop that will offer quite the same specs for the same price range.

 

i think youll be fine ordering one because like any product there are some defective units. you must remember that the amount of people saying something about it being defective even though it seems like alot its still just a small portion of all of those who have bought one. but to be completely safe i would order one from a place that will take it back with no problems like a local store, newegg, etc.

 

I returned my 7915u FX to bestbuy with no problem(no restocking fee). I recommend bestbuy.
and in addition,
I didn't have any problems with the laptop except the sound.
Good cooling system, keyboard kind of felt cheap but for 1050$ this still is a good deal.

 

It's a great laptop. You won't find a better deal anywhere else

 

Thanks for the replies everyone . But I think I might go with an Asus G60 now - unless the Gateway P-7915 has more to offer? Because, quite frankly, it is kind of clunky at 17".

 

well if im not mistaken the gateway gpu is running at full clock speed and the asus from what ive heard is underclocked. also the gateway uses higher speed ram which conveniently puts it at a 2 to 1 ratio with the fsb so it should have higher bandwidth because of the higher speed and ratio. in my opinion though i dont think it really matters which laptop you go for as they are both great.

 

Yes asus' 260m GTX is underclocked.
and what ASUS G60 series are you going for? if it's the one in bestbuy, I would have to recommend 7915u FX.
7915u FX is well-built machine. Cooling system on both CPU and GPU, and not as many problems as other machines.
ASUS has 1cooling system i believe, and resolution on the g60 is 1366 x 768, also its 150$+.
You can upgrade the CPU later on when you save up money (That's what people did with their 78xx series)
From what I'm seeing getting a FX is a better deal than getting G60 with 1200$ with same specs.

 

Has your new machine been shipped yet?

Like someone else said, it probably does not matter much which one you go with. When it comes down to it almost all laptops are going to be built cheaply, and there are always going to be some that ship with broken parts, but this gateway feels like a solid machine, and is a great deal for what you get. 17" machines are clunky by nature, and i think this is one has a very low clunky factor compared to most. The dpc issue (what this thread is about and what euisungkim returned his laptop because of) is pretty much an nvidia thing, and so you will experience it with any computer that has the same video card, and probaly any computer with a recent Nvidia card. It can be almost completely negated by disabling the power management app for the video card.

 

No I havn't, I'll have to go get that soon. For now, I need to find out what is making WOW lock the computer up occasionally. Thanks for the info.

*edit* Allright i've got it installed now... I also installed the latest drivers (192.62) .....maybe that will help with my emerging wow issue.

 

Hey guys and gals: Has anyone here has pin point and fix the audio issue of the Gateway Fx 7915U?