P-7811 FX sound stutter?

Anybody having this issue? I'm listening to some MP3s on Winamp and there is a stutter every once in a while. I can't believe it's happening to this system as well--I used to have this issue with my Dell XPS.

Here is my DPC Latency Checker result. Any ideas?

 

i think this is a vista problem, i've gotten it before and i think others have to.

 

hmm...
i've never had a problem with audio playback, though i do have a one second latency/ delay on any input when not hooked up to a external sound card.

Do you get the stutter in any other program (VLC, WMP, itunes, songbird, etc.)
Does the stutter occur when viewing video in winamp, online, other programs?
Do you have any programs in the background which might be taking up a lot of cpu power every now and then?
Do you have programs in the background that are using the soundcard ?
Is a network device/internal component cycling when you get this issue?

THe fact that it's happened on two of your computers in a row leads me to believe the problem is on the software side of things as opposed to hardware, but it's important to try to isolate the issue by answering the questions above.

 

I agree that this may be a Vista problem (possibly due to drivers they give us). My Dell XPS never stutter after reverting back to XP.

- The stutter happens when listening to music on Winamp or Windows Media Player. Even playing Flash videos and YouTube videos online. This also happens while listening to MP3 and just plain surfing the internet. Everytime the stutter happens, the DPC Latency Checker skyrockets.

- This is a fresh Windows Vista Ultimate x64 install. I don't have any programs running that would take all the CPU. My CPU usage ranges from 4-9%.

- I've noticed the largest spike when I am browsing the internet, like going from one page to another.

- On idle (doing nothing on the computer), there is no spike huge spikes in the latency. Just small yellow bars on the DPC Latency Checker.

 

OK I think I found the culprit. I have disabled the graphics card driver (NVidia GeForce 9800M GTS) in Control Panel and the latency is never red anymore (always below 2000 uS). Now I'll have to find the best driver for the graphics card.

 

I have had this problem on several operating systems ubuntu xp and vista usually happens when my system resources are around 90% trying to do too much at once lol

 

hanime: i reported this "sound stutter" in another thread, i made the analogy that it sounds like "Neo" getting sucked into the matrix when the crew "unplugs" him.. is this what it sounds like to you?

After mentioning it, user SEMIGAMER offered this solution:

The original thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=360503

If that doesn't work, you can try a fresh install, but if that doesn't fix it, i would take it back to best buy for testing immediately before your return window closes. You'll have to reproduce the error in front of the tech to get anything done, or so i've heard. If you don't have the option to return or service plan, there are also some potential fixes for the hanging glitch, at the bottom of the first post of the p-7811fx official thread, and the 7811 defective thread.

 

Wow! that DPC latency checker is an amazing little tool. Yea I noticed when I scroll up and down a webpage after a few seconds it would spike. And as hanime pointed out it seems to be video related. I tried the hd fix and its a no go a while back. I am currently using windows 7, but still the same drivers as vista, maybe we can try as many 64 bit drivers as possible and see which ones end up fixing this irritating issue.

 

Well I tried a bunch of drivers and still had the same lag spike....

But the good news is I think I found a solution, it was in the nvidia powermizer registry settings...I guess the explanataon is that everytime the GPU downclocks, the spike would happen..

Following this guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=261929

My Absolute maximum on DPC checker is 2492ms.....still barely hits read, but def no pop and not 6 digits

Use at your own risk! Would love to hear if this helps anyone else! good luck

Specs:

P-7811 FX on RAID-0: 500GBx2 7200 RPM, Windows 7 x64 Build 7000

Update: Using the computer for about 1 hour now, and have had only one lag spike, and it came from when I began installing Office 2007, so I believe it wasnt GPU related, it was only 27,000 ms, not 6 digits. I have also noticed, my GPU temps have gone up by about 10 degrees celcius so make sure you are well ventilated before doing this powermizer settings change!

 

not only do i get sound stutter, but also playing flash videos live at full screen mode in a browser, the frame rate drops dramatically randomly. gets normal again at when i minimize the screen. and no its not a bandwidth issue. the progress bar is far ahead. sadly i think its another driver issue. but anyone have any solutions.

 

It goes away if you lower your screen resolution a little bit. I don't know why it happens. CPU usage goes to 100% when it occurs too.

 

4 days and counting!

 

I did the shut off power mizer and it keeps the GPU at full clock and keeps the GPU fan on too. That is trying to keep the GPU cool............

 

Yea that's what it does disables the GPU from downclocking, but on my machine its pretty much silent. My GPU temps at idle are 55 celcius ish, and my room is pretty warm.

 

I'm not home on my cooler, but sitting flat on a table, so GPU hovered at 60c with fan on low at idle............

 

yep , so far only way I've gotten mine not to stutter, and yea as of now that's the tradeoff....coming from desktop GPU's 60 is still not bad. but if it's too close for comfort disable it again. I think the guide mentions with those settings, powermizer is only disabled when you are on AC, enabled when you are back on battery

 

Well, I followed the guide and disabled the PowerMizer (on AC power of course). It has smoothed the machine right out. I didn't have a sound stutter problem, but at times, it seemed like mouse movements, window resizing or moving, etc... were sluggish. This has made a world of difference.
Thx for the link.

 

ive had this stutter since i got my 7811 back in august. using this DPC latency checker it says "Some device drivers on this machine behave bad and will probably cause drop-outs in real-time audio and/or video streams. To isolate the misbehaving driver use Device Manager and disable/re-enable various devices, one at a time. Try network and W-LAN adapters, modems, internal sound devices, USB host controllers, etc."


and my maximum was 19002, i tried doing the disable powermizer thing but i dont have that option in the registry. i changed the PerfLevelSrc, but i dont have powermizer options. im using the new windows 7 drivers

 

I'm using the old windows vista drivers for windows 7 and they had these registry settings (and work fine)

 

The registry works great for my sound stutter issue. I'm getting roughly 2500us max on the latency checker. However, I am also getting the 10 deg increase in temperature for the GPU (51 average on idle). No biggie.