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Topic: Skipping, pausing sound is... (Read 5029 times) previous topic - next topic
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Skipping, pausing sound is...

I have a WinXP Pro SP3 system.  I never used to have a problem with audio.  But for the past few weeks, I can't listen to any sound--be it sound in a video, sound from foobar2000, or anything else--without even minor CPU spikes making the sound pause and skip.  It makes listening to music impossible.

For example, if I start foobar2000 and then try using Firefox, the music skips constantly when web pages load.  If I am watching a video and anything above moderate disk activity takes place, the same thing happens.

I have no idea what brought this on.  I had not (intentionally) changed my audio configuration, or messed with my audio drivers.  I did uninstall and update my drivers in an attempt to fix the problem (a failed attempt).  My software has stayed pretty much the same.  I haven't switched anti-virus software or anything like that.

Obviously, something changed, but I've no idea what.

Guidance, please!  A clue!

Skipping, pausing sound is...

Reply #1 –
Quote from: nameless on
I have a WinXP Pro SP3 system.  I never used to have a problem with audio.  But for the past few weeks, I can't listen to any sound--be it sound in a video, sound from foobar2000, or anything else--without even minor CPU spikes making the sound pause and skip.  It makes listening to music impossible.

For example, if I start foobar2000 and then try using Firefox, the music skips constantly when web pages load.  If I am watching a video and anything above moderate disk activity takes place, the same thing happens.

I have no idea what brought this on.  I had not (intentionally) changed my audio configuration, or messed with my audio drivers.  I did uninstall and update my drivers in an attempt to fix the problem (a failed attempt).  My software has stayed pretty much the same.  I haven't switched anti-virus software or anything like that.

Obviously, something changed, but I've no idea what.

Guidance, please!  A clue!


What _I_ would try is a system restore to a time you were certain it was operating properly and then start making 'improvements' until it breaks again.

G²

Skipping, pausing sound is...

Reply #2 –
2 guesses.

1) something changed so the player doesn't get high enough priority.

2) Something in your environment or use pattern changed so you are using more memory and the pauses happen when memory is being paged from the virtual memory disk file.

The task manager (accessed by control-alt-delete) can tell you if your processor is 100% busy, which programs are getting the CPU time, memory usage, etc.

Skipping, pausing sound is...

Reply #3 –
You might try DPC Latency Checker.
Ceck thinks like anti virus, they often poll the network at high priority
TheWellTemperedComputer.com

Skipping, pausing sound is...

Reply #4 –
Thanks for the replies.

System Restore isn't really an option.  I only started using it recently (and only because I also started using TrueCrypt full-disk encryption), and this problem started longer ago than I have restore points for.

I don't think TrueCrypt is the cause.  This problem didn't start when I began using full-disk encryption.  However, I have updated TrueCrypt lately, so I guess it's possible that one of the updates is the problem.

I don't use a paging file at all.

I'll just have to resort to the usual pain-in-the-ass process of elimination.  I guess I was just hoping there was a magical answer someone could spoonfeed into the top of my head.

Skipping, pausing sound is...

Reply #5 –
Encryption? That is CPU consuming process. Especially if you do a lot of disk read/writes. And if you updated, maybe the encryption engine failed somewhere.
Try reinstalling audio drivers.
TAPE LOADING ERROR

Skipping, pausing sound is...

Reply #6 –
Check if your HDD (assuming that you play your music from a HDD) did not switch to PIO mode.
Ceterum censeo, there should be an "%is_stop_after_current%".

Skipping, pausing sound is...

Reply #7 –
Quote from: nameless on
Thanks for the replies.

System Restore isn't really an option.  I only started using it recently (and only because I also started using TrueCrypt full-disk encryption), and this problem started longer ago than I have restore points for.

I don't think TrueCrypt is the cause.  This problem didn't start when I began using full-disk encryption.  However, I have updated TrueCrypt lately, so I guess it's possible that one of the updates is the problem.

I don't use a paging file at all.

I'll just have to resort to the usual pain-in-the-ass process of elimination.  I guess I was just hoping there was a magical answer someone could spoonfeed into the top of my head.



 

Why no paging file?  Do you have 3+ GB RAM installed?  Even then, you should have a paging file.

I have 4 GB installed in one of my WinXP Pro SP3 32-bit systems, although only 3.5GB is available due to memory addressing issues.

I still use a 2GB *static* paging file on a non-Windows OS drive added with a small stub 64MB paging file on the Boot OS drive.

Skipping, pausing sound is...

Reply #8 –
I've already tried reinstalling/updating the audio drivers.  No luck.

TrueCrypt is working fine, or it wouldn't boot.  Maybe the new version has a bug though.  I don't even know if I can revert.

If my disk was in PIO mode, everything would be extrrrrrrremely ssssslow.  It would be unmistakable.  That's not happening.

I have 2.5 GB and don't need a paging file.  I haven't used one in years, including when I had 2.0 GB of RAM.  My system has always run great, and this problem isn't because I don't have a paging file.  I've experimented with using a paging file, and it hurts performance.  There's no way it can't--it's writing to disk rather than to RAM, which is always slower.  I never run out of RAM, so there's utterly no point in using a paging file.  I know people get emotional about this, but I'm not going to argue the point.

Thanks for the ideas at any rate.

Skipping, pausing sound is...

Reply #9 –
What about your hardware?

I'm not sure that it could cause this problem or not, but dying Power supply unit seem to always cause some weird problems, out of nowhere.

Skipping, pausing sound is...

Reply #10 –
Eliminate hardware as a possible cause: boot a linux live CD, and browse the web while playing some tunes. If playback is smooth, you know it's not your hardware.

Skipping, pausing sound is...

Reply #11 –
Are you using the integrated sound on a motherboard with an nForce 570 chipset? I've got one, and occasionally it will cause little skips, usually when performing large disk operations (like maybe encrypting?). I remember reading somewhere that this is a known problem with the chipset. If you've got one, the only solution is to buy another sound card.
 

Skipping, pausing sound is...

Reply #12 –
I've had skips etc suddenly increase after doing minor tweaks to the hardware configuration, like enabling/disabling 1394 on the motherboard, moving slots around, etc. Just as a point of comparison: My Envy24 PCI card was solid as a rock until I switching something around this year, and now it will start skipping under certain types of load (even pure CPU load!)

Sound devices tend to be extremely sensitive to interrupt management changes. Granted, a lot of that may be due to poorly written drivers, and it's not always the sound card's fault. It can happen even to high-end cards.

My experience doesn't sound quite like what you're dealing with, but it's worth keeping that in mind. Replacing/upgrading the sound card may not fix your problem.