Computer audio troubleshooting help

Discussion in 'Sound Cards and Speakers' started by DeusExAcumine, Sep 20, 2011.

  1. DeusExAcumine

    DeusExAcumine Geek Trainee

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    Hi all,

    I am at my wit's end. After moving apartments about 3 months ago, my computer's audio began glitching periodically. It occurs in all audio sources I've tried (mp3, flac, flash, video game audio) and it changes from instance to instance, sometimes more of a skip (slightly distorted audio, then silence, then resumed audio all in the span of ~1/2rd of a second) and sometime more of a "grinding" sound (still for ~1/2 a second). During this brief period, it sounds like the audio is halting, rather than continuing but not (eg, when it happens in the middle of a lyric, the first half of the word will play, then it will glitch, then the second half of the word will play). For instance, if a

    Before I go into what I've done to troubleshoot it, here is my set up:

    CPU: Intel i7-930 @ 2.8 ghz
    Motherboard: Asus P6X58D-E (Realtek High Definition Audio)
    Memory: 2x 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600
    Sound Card: Creative X-Fi Titanium
    Video Card: XFX HD 5850
    Primary (OS) drive: OCZ Vertex 2 60GB
    Storage drive: Haitachi SATA II 2TB HDD 7200RPM
    OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
    Speakers: Logitech Z-5500
    Headphones: ATH M50

    Here is what I've done to troubleshoot (in chronological order):

    - Tried various Realtek High Definition Audio drivers (R2.65, R2.42, R2.22) The latest drivers caused the glitch to occur less frequently, but it still happened.
    - Full reformat of OS drive
    - RMA motherboard
    - Tried various Realtek High Definition Audio drivers again
    - Tried new memory (Crucial 2GB DDR3 1066)
    - Installed discrete sound card (Creative X-Fi Titanium)

    Unfortunately, none of this solved the issue. I have also verified that it isn't a problem with my Z-5500s or my ATH M50s by reproducing the problem on both and by playing hours of music on both out of an ipod and -never- hearing the glitch.

    There are really only two other things that I can think of:

    - There is something wrong with one of my hard drives. I am disinclined to believe this as audio glitches are the only symptom. Video and games play perfectly (other than the audio for video and games which glitches and skips). I also used HD Tune Pro and watched the I/O from my storage drive as I played music and there didn't seem to be anything special about those moments when it was glitching.
    - There is something wrong with my CPU. I have no idea what could possibly be wrong with it that it would do everything else fine but not audio, but it is the only part of my PC that I haven't swapped out yet (I tried and Intel made it such an impossible hassle to RMA that I gave up for the time being)

    I really can't think of anything else that it could be.

    The only remaining shred of information I have is that it (very anecdotally) seems to happen slightly more often when my computer is "doing something" (opening a new program, moving between tabs in a browser, etc.). That said, it also happens when I'm not doing anything else at all and it does not correlate to high CPU use (I've never seen CPU usage higher than 50% when it happens).

    If you can think of -anything- that could be causing this, even if its a 1 in a million chance, please please please let me know. I'm completely desperate at this point as I listen to music most of my waking hours. The glitch happens 15-200 times an hour and it is slowly driving me completely and totally insane.

    Thanks for the help!

    DeusExAcumine
     
  2. Wildcard

    Wildcard Big Geek

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    Hi,

    If you want to test your processor, you can try running a program like Prime95 which will stress your processor to calculate prime numbers which is then compared to a standard list. If the processor calculates incorrectly, it is a sign of an error in the processor. You may also want to run memtest 86+ or the windows memory test for several hours to make sure your RAM is not returning errors. Also, run CCleaner on your hard drive to clear out any old/junk files. I am not sure if Hitachi has hard drive software for diagnostics, but you may want to go to their website and see. Most of the major harddrive makers have their own software you can download to check drive health. You can also try running a check disk on your hard drive to see if it finds any bad clusters. Try turning off any programs that could be running in the background as well, just for testing (including things like antivirus, malware scanners, maybe even the indexing service in win 7/vista - its constantly running and using system resources and helps only if you are doing searches on your hard drive, otherwise it seems to just slow down computers IMO). Also, move any non-computer electical equipment and wireless devices(cell phones, radios, tvs) at least a few feet from the computer in case they are causing interference.
     

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