Sound Stutters Vista 32-bit T61

Hi guys,

I wonder if anyone knows how to fix the issue with my sound... It stutters once in a while when I scroll or open tabs in vista. I've tried:

1) Stock drivers
2) Soundmax drivers newest
3) Older vers. of Soundmax

The stutter is still there. Any solutions?

Thanks

 

Have you tried adjusting the sensativity of Active Protection System?

 

I'll try that

 

No go... the laptop is completely still... anytime I choose a new tab in any window... it stutters.. really weird.. checked other threads.. no solution =/

 

bump bump bump =)

 

Mine stutters too! When I use Winamp to listen to music, it stutters sometimes. I thought it was just me.

 

Mine can do that as well.

However, the stutters usually happen if I put the machine into Hibernate, or if the display sleeps, and some of it may be due to the fact that I'm streaming my audio or video (happens with Hulu.com as well) over WiFi.

It doesn't happen without some sort of power-saving feature kicking in at the same time, so I haven't been too concerned --I just chalked it up to a buffering issue.

 

yep, exactly what happens to me.

pretty much the ONLY reason i don't use Vista.
I've tried at least 7 clean installs..being careful on which drivers I install and restarting after each.
I even sent my thinkpad in TWICE after I bought it thinking it was a hardware issue. The second time they even replaced the main board.

In XP I don't get this issue at all.

 

in XP, I'll get audio to pause due to the APS...but in Vista it's a totally different problem.

 

oh, and it's not only in Winamp.
I've tried Foobar as well. Even youtube will do this...so it's not about the program you use.

I have no hope of this being resolved in Vista

 

Yah it happens in other devices as well... ie. Windows Media Player 11...
weird...

how can newer programs have such issues when the programs 5 years ago had no problems playing mp3s...

Any solutions?

 

yeah, use XP lol

 

Does XP cure the stuttering? What about if you're streaming your audio/video from your network or the Internet?

If so, it might convince me to downgrade sooner rather than later --though I'd prefer to wait until XP SP3 if I can help it so I can slipstream the install.

EDIT: I thought I remembered reading about something like this, and (like I should have done before) I did a little searching:

http://blogs.msdn.com/larryosterman...ound-causes-network-throughput-slowdowns.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2007/08/27/1833290.aspx

Looks like I'll be backing down to XP over the next week. This alone makes Vista a show-stopper for me, since I use my laptop for entertainment when I'm at home streaming audio and video over my WiFi.

 

I hope this is one of the fixes included in SP1.

I listen always have music up when I'm using the computer.

Should've listened to everyone and got XP.

 

I don't believe it is. I had SP1 installed, and was still having stutters.

I downgraded to XP last night --if you bought Vista Business or Ultimate, you get the downgrade CD's with your machine.

EDIT: I didn't get a chance to test until tonight, but the problem is gone under XP. If I open up an M3U playlist from a network drive (all the MP3's stored on that drive as well), everything is crystal clear. No stutters.

 

UPDATE:

Installed newest Soundmax drivers and the stutter is still there when I switch tabs.

Any solution anyone?

 

The drivers are probably not the problem if you're running Vista; Vista itself is the likely culprit. Check out the preceeding links I posted to blogs from Microsoft employees on MSDN and TechNet. While they point more to network slowdowns when using audio, network usage can cause audio issues as well.

 

I have the same problem, and will add the comment that changing the thinkvantage power manager increases the stutter when setting it to low processor level. I experience the stutter both in VLC player and in WMP 11. I didnt hear the stutter yesterday when I played the mp3 files for the first time, but after the T61 ran all night it seems to have a problem today (it played nicely 10 hours ago). The only thing I did was setting it to a low performance setting during night...

Is there a solution?

 

Update! My wmp 11 is playing both mp3s and wmv files without problems after first setting Power Manager to 'Maximum Performance', and then restarting Vista. I will look into if this problem is purely related to the power managing scheme or if it was the restart of Vista in itself that solved the problem. Have any of you tried doing this?

 

Still does not solve anything...

 

I haven't had the time to look into it, as my Vista became unstable. Now I downgraded to XP, but my computer might have a HD problem (nothing to do with stutter). What Vista are you running? I have almost the same hardware setup as you...

Cheers

 

I'm on vista business 32... its really weird.. anything that happens... sooo.. say i open lavalys everest... it stutters.. when i plug in a usb.. the sound stutters.. when i have device managers open and i switch tabs... it stutters... really annoying....

 

Are you using the preinstalled Vista Business 32 or did you install it yourself?

 

Solution:

1. Start regedit and find Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AudioSrv
Find DependOnService and simply remove the value MMCSS from the list.
Leave AudioEndpointBuilder and RpcSs there. Now reboot and try if it worked.

2. Make sure Vista or Lenovo Software doesn't under clock your CPU. Put it a lowest MHz or highest. Don't let it go up and down. Picking maximum performance power profile should fix this.

3. Disable audio enhancements. Sound | Speakers | Advanced

4. Kick Lenovo anti shock hard drive software.

This fixed the worst sound glitches for me, though they still appear from time to time.

 

I installed it myself with SP1 included

 

(this is a somewhat belated solution, but seeing how it's so hard to find any solutions to stuttering sound anywhere online, I'm resurrecting it... it could be useful to someone)

In my case my stuttering sound was caused by my hard drive controller. Specifically, Windows was using PIO mode, which roughly translates to "awful slow." I had to go into my Device Manager, open up the Primary IDE Channel properties (may be a slightly different name on some systems), and force my system to use an UltraDMA mode.

If you find that your hard drive is in fact using PIO mode then that's almost certainly your problem, and you shouldn't be happy until it reads UltraDMA Mode 2 or better. In my case just telling Windows to use DMA mode, and then rebooting, fixed the problem. The display changed to Ultra DMA Mode 2 immediately, but the changes didn't actually take effect until after a reboot.

Apparently it's not uncommon for both XP and Vista to default to PIO modes, particularly on SATA drives (this according to various google searches of troubleshooting forums). PIO mode is so slow that it can literally freeze up the entire PCI bus, causing the infamous audio micro-stutters.

 

Are you talking about this? cuz if soo, i still stutters with it on =/

 

I am experiencing the same problem with my R61 on Vista Business x64. CPU (T8100), Ram (4GB) should not be a problem here -- I tried all of the above mentioned suggestions, none helped. I have done 5 clean installations so far, always the same. iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player, all the same. Using the SoundMAX driver, using Windows standard driver, all the same. This is driving me nuts!

 

I've had the same problem for as long as I've used Vista, and I'm sure that the OS is the problem. Something weird, though; when I tried various methods of clearing it up (changing power settings, various changes in device manager, driver updates, etc.), the only thing that I noticed helped reduce the amount of popping and clicking was to downclock my GPU. I don't know why that would be the problem, but it did seemed to help. It never did totally go away, so I switched back to XP since it was so annoying. I can't believe it's been out this long and still there's no fix.

 

I did a clean install yesterday and I noticed as soon as I had installed the UltraNav driver (ALPS) it startet stuttering with the startup sounds of vista. Without the driver there was no stutter.

Maybe someone could try that and verify this theory?!