Compal EL80 Audio Stuttering

Hi everyone!

I have a Compal EL80, wich suffers from serious sound stuttering under windows xp.
What happens is that when i'm listening to music (full volume, preferably), particulary rock and types of music that demand more from the sound card (like: 'You think i ain't worth a dollar, but i feel like a millionaire' from 'Queens of the Stone Age') the LED that indicates HDD activity starts getting more and more intense, until it reaches a level that i can't do anything because the computer is blocked... then the sound starts stuttering and after a while the blue screen appears and i have to reboot...
To solve this problem i've tried to re-install windows, install new drivers, and i also tried with external sound cards, wich solves the problem, but its a harassing solution...

The manufacturer argues that it's the kind of music that i use to listen to what provokes this situation, but the same problem also happens when i listen to this music (Enya - Adiemus), and many many more musics, when i play games, when i watch movies, streaming audio/video from the web, from my pen drive, CDs, DVDs..............

Does anyone has encountered this problem?
If it does, do you know if is there a solution?

Thanks!

 

The manufacturer is full of crap. Music is music, and rock is not going to tax the processor more than any other type of music (for crying out loud, I was multitasking with Rammstein MP3s playing without stuttering on a Pentium 2!).

Does the notebook feel HOT when this is happening?

I would suggest cleaning your notebook to reduce heat buildup (open all access panels, then use a canister of compressed air to spray out the insides, paying special attention to the fan and vent grills.

I would also suggest testing your RAM.

To test your RAM, please download Memtest86 from:
http://memtest.org/download/1.70/memtest86+-1.70.iso.zip

Extract this file, then use a program like Nero or DeepBurner to burn the .ISO image to a CD-R (make sure you use the "Burn Image to Disc" option, rather than dragging and dropping the ISO onto a CD).

Once the CD-R has burned, boot your computer off of this CD-R (you may have to go into your BIOS to change the DVD boot priority to number one). Memtest will run continually until you press "Escape" to stop it. I suggest letting it run for at least 4 hours.

There will be an error-readout in the lower-right corner of the information display.

 

That's exactly what i said, music is music, period.
They argued that the frequences or whatever that the musics i listen operates or uses are too high, and the sound card lacks the capability to handle them... Is that even possible???
Right now the notebook is in the store where i bought it, so i cannot test the RAM at the moment, but i have arranged to meet with the brand reponsibles to try to solve this without having to recurr to courts...
I'll let you know when i had met with them...

Thanks a lot for the input!

 

By the way, he does feel hot after a while, like 5min, lol
But its as brand new i used it for a while and i took it right away to fix the problem, but it seems i'm just unlucky... Because i have this friend of mine, he had an Acer Aspire 5200 Series or whatever... one day he simply opened it and BANG! the plastics at the left base of the screen just broke into pieces, and the monitor stopped working and lost the ability of maintaining at a fixed position, as it felt...

He took the notebook where he bought it, they could have argued that he had breake it, or let it fell, but no, in a week they fixed it and returned it at no cost...

I didn't bought an Acer because, the vendor where i bought it said that the assistance was crappy and that Compal's assistance was quicker and better... Gues not!

Result: i am with no computer since august the 6th... can you believe this?
I found the issue in the very first day i bought the damn notebook, and they just don't want to do what they must... Guess ill rather spend the money in a lawyer than in another notebook, this way they might learn something...

 

Well, Compal GENERALLY doesn't support the notebook directly. Usually, the system builder sends it off to Compal only if they can't fix it themselves. The EL80 is a great machine that really shouldn't give you trouble like that, so it sounds like it may have been shipped with a defective part. Still, any OEM worth their salt should be able to diagnose and repair that within a week.

 

I've got EXACTLY the same problem. The only fix I could find is to either disable the right speaker (near the HDD) or plug-in external speakers. It's a really annoying issue and when I RMA it, they couldn't find the issue, so I'm stuck with it.

 

That's what happened to me, they said they couldn't find the issue... So i made a video demonstrating it with a cellphone and sent it together with the notebook.
Then, they said the the problem was the version of the operating system, and put me another, but the problem persisted, so i sent the notebook again to fix it.
This last time, they said that the problem was the kind of music that i listen to... (for example: Queens of the stone age - little sister) but i have the same problem with this song: Enya Adiemus, and many many more... So i'm going to confront them with this situation and see what's their new excuse...

I've tried many notebooks on the store from the same brand, and they all have the same problem, wich i consider to be a severe one, furthermost considering that i have paid around $1600 US for this laptop, in Portugal, were the average wage is around $600... I can't simply accept to keep a computer who doesn't even plays music...

 

I would also request that they install the latest BIOS. Almost every reseller that my company supports has sold the HEL80 since it was released, and we have NEVER recieved a report of a problem like this.

 

Thanks for the hint. I'll do that and see what comes of there, i guess i can't get any worse. lol

 

I've noticed something yesterday. When my operating system is on my external hard drive, not matter how loud my speakers are playing, it doesn't stutter or freeze, so I'm 99% sure it's the interaction between the right speaker and the internal hard drive that cause the freezing.

 

I wouldn't bet on it... At least in my case, it doesn't matter if it is streaming from the web, mp3 from my PEN Drive, external drives, CDs, DVDs, you name it... it allways stutters, i might be possible that my case is a more severe flaw or something...
It also happens when i'm watching movies or playing games... I have never tried to shutdown one of the speakers though, but i'm pretty sure that in my case it is a sound card issue, as i've done some research and as it seems, Compal notebooks do have some stories to tell about sound issues...
Or my best guess is that the Compal motherboard has some kind of limitation or flaw that provokes some kind of error in the Data Bus, because is the only explanation i can come with for the hard drive to start reading like crazy before the crashes...

 

Oh, wait... did you mean that when your operating system is INSTALLED on the external drive the stuttering doesn't happens?...

 

I would still check to see about getting a BIOS update for your notebook. One of the companies we support has sold every major non-VBI Compal notebook to come out in the past 8 years, and I've never heard of a stuttering issue like that. If the issue really is so prevalent, my only thought would be that the affected owners complained on a forum instead of calling tech support, which doesn't seem likely.

Out of curiosity, do you know if your notebook is an HEL80 or the VBI EL80?

 

In my case its the VBI El80

 

In my case is an HEL80

 

Have you tried getting drivers direct from Compal?

Compal HEL80/EL80 Drivers

For both models, you can download the drivers next to the light-blue cell that says HEL8X20061013WinXP.

Incidentally, are either of you running the "Smart WatchDog" utility? From what our OEMs have told us, this utility messes with the system something awful and should never be run (if you download the drivers, that's the "16WD" driver).

You can also download the latest BIOS for the Channel or VBI versions of the notebook at this site, but I would make your OEM/reseller flash it for you if they've got the computer, anyway.

 

When the error first ocurred, i thought: "I keep it this way, and when i have the time i reinstall windows, the updated drivers and voilá, problem solved"...
I tried the updated drivers fom Clasus wich is the Compal representant in Portugal and the updated drivers from Realtek... Nothing worked.
I also avoid to install unnecessary software like Smart WatchDog, fingerprint drivers or Infeneon Security TPM... So i guess i wans't from there...

Currently my notebook is at TechSupport, i'm just waiting for a response to see what action i'll take next. But when i have the chance, i'll do the RAM test, ask for them to flash the BIOS and, try the dual-core fix, wich is an windows xp update that provokes some slow-down in dual-core computers, and i will also try to shutdown the right/left speaker to see if the same happens with only one of them.

 

If you want to save some time, directly disable the right speaker. I've tried installing multiple OS, drivers, etc, but the only thing that did it for me was to disable the right speaker. I'm kind of surprised that there aren't more people having the same issus as we do. Maybe we just got unlucky?

 

I don't think it's just us qho have this problem, i think the other people just don't know they also have it...
Lets see, you say that with the right speaker disabled, the problem is gone, and in the front of the laptop is the speaker. In the back - judging by it's cnfiguration is the sound chipset - what's in the middle??? The HDD!!!
How does the laptop crashes? The HDD starts overtasking and sucks the resources all for himself...

My guess is that the circuits or wires that go from the sound chipset to the right speaker, by crossing with those form the HDD make some kind of interference that provokes HDD to overtask or whatever...

thain1982, do you think this is a viable possibility?

 

It's possible, but I would say it's extremely unlikely, unless there's a really small batch that got miswired. Really, though, that would be a defect that should be caught by your OEM during repairs. Stuttering audio is an issue that's kind of hard to miss, so I really doubt that there is a large group out there that is affected without knowing it. Consider, too, that the HDD is not WIRED, per se. Notebook hard drives plug straight in to the SATA or IDE socket.

 

I went to the store a few hours ago and they said it's normal for the sound to stutter...............
I think they know what the problem is, they just don't want to assume it!
And i know that the hard drive connects dirctly to the borad, but the sata connector leads to the system BUS and DATA BUS, and motherboard's circuits are composed by several layers of printed circuits, what i'm sayin' is that in the middle of all those crosses between circuits that surely happen might be just one that is so near another that makes inerference or something, i think its quite possible.

 

Like I said, it's possible, but with as many HEL80s as I have supported since they were released, I would have expected to hear SOMETHING. The only audio complaint I've ever heard is one of the speakers failing, and even that I've only heard 2, perhaps 3 times.

One of the other techs in my office suggests using drivers from Realtek, rather than from Compal, as he says he has found this to be more effective on his own notebook, and he actually has every customer he supports install Realtek drivers instead of OEM drivers. Here's a hyperlink to Realtek's download page:

Realtek HD Audio