Insanely annoying problem i cant figure out with Vista...please help me

Okay, heres the deal. Often times, i try to play a song or movie, and all the sudden i get an error message, there is a red X by my volume meter, and no sound plays. After a while, the little volume indicators come back on and sound works.

The error message i usually get is "windows event log has stopped working." Sometimes i'll get a "DCHP client error." What i dont understand is why this happens. It seems to happen less often (or maybe not at all?) when the computer is on "high performance."

Things i think i can rule out are:

1)Its not a codec issue. i use sharks codecs (just 32bit, but ive tries 64bit and its messed up the same way). Ive tried removing them and no dice.

2)Its not a driver problem. The IDT drivers are what i use (from the dell downloads). Ive tried uninstalling, and still the same thing. Uninstalling/upgrading/reinstalling, etc, i still get the problem.

something interesting to note is that using the Dell control point software, the little volume increase/decrease indicators no longer come on after i get this error. the only thing i can think of is that its a vista 64 issue.

ive tried asking on the Dell forum but no one seems to know whats wrong.

I'd really appreciate any help, thanks in advance!

 

I don't know, but... try running Dell's hardware diagnostics utility. (Restart, press F12 at the Dell splash screen and choose Diagnostics.) See if it finds anything wrong.

 

i ran it and the extended one all the way through, no errors were found.

 

Also, i dont have any idea how these unrelated errors affect my volume either.

 

quick solution switch to XP

 

I found this error came up after i installed the latest driver from dell, i uninstalled (alone with driver software) and restarted the PC i didn't have too much time to see if it happened again - as I was tackling another issue at the time DPC latency (e6400) and re installed my OS.
You will find the sound hardware at the point of error no longer functions properly and applications will complain you have no audio hardware installed. Right click the speaker and select
playback devices" it will tell you the Windows audio service has stoped, it should give you the option to restart it.


After the install of vista, i left the default vista driver controlling the audio hardware and i didn't get this error again. so its definitely something to do with the IDT driver or its dependencies and their interaction with the eventviewer snap-in

 

QFT

10 CHAR

 

ah, i wasnt sure. i was pretty sure i tried uninstalling IDT and just running the windows drivers and it did it, but maybe not. i could swear its better on high performance. i was thinking of tinkering with the allowance of applications to have exclusive access to the sound (its in the properties of the speakers).

 

well, it definitely only happens when not on high performance. are there any settings or something i cant seem to find?