Distorted sound when scrolling on Precision T5400 worstation

Question

I have a few months old Precision T5400 workstation with Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 (32 bits).

Only recently I've added speakers to the system (which I use primarily for 3D cad work). Everything seems to work smoothly, even CPU and GPU intensive tasks run like a breeze thanks to two 4 cores Xeon processors, 4 Gb of ram and a decent graphic card. However, when I am playing music and I am scrolling a document or performing another task that requires a little more CPU (i.e. cpu usage spikes to about 30%), the sound is distorted and "clicks."

I do not have a dedicated sound card, just an integrated one, but with all this CPU and memory, I don't think this should an issue. I tried the latest drivers, but without luck.

Is this normal because I don't have a soundcard? Anyone experiencing a similar problem? Thank you for your help.

Corthezz · Accepted Answer

Hello!

I have the same issue with my Optiplex 755, but i am figued out what is causing this problem. I have onboard Graphic-Card, but i am using a geforce 8600GTS, and not that onboard one. And here the problems coming. After first transfer of my computer i heard a crancle sound. I tested everything but finally worked this solution:

When i dont have my Graphic card precisly putted in the PCI-E slot, i hearing this sound. So the solution is you must take your GC out from PC and try to put it back better way there can be a micrometer, where the GC pins are not in the good place. I think this causing that problem. I replicated tis problem a 3 times, but i finally fixed it the same way every time. So take GC out and put it back and reply pls what happened.

gio79 · Answer

Thank you for your reply, unfortunaly that did not help:

Control Pannel -> Disable all enhancements (they were already unchecked, but to make sure I explicitely disabled them). No difference.

The clicking (or popping or scratching or skipping) is definitely not a system sound: it is more like an old 386 trying to run 10 programs at the same time.

Even if sound is considered a low priority there is something wrong: with a total of 8 cores at 2Ghz each, a song should not skip as much when browsing the internet (the CPU never spikes above 30%). I tried uninstalling the drivers, rebooting and reinstalling it, but no luck. I also tried disabling everything through MSN config, but no luck either...

fireberd · Answer

First, go to the control panel/sounds and audio devices and disable any sound "enhancements" as this can potentially cause some problems.

Some Windows functions will make a "click" in the sound, so turn off any Windows function that causes a sound event to elimate that.

Dell systems MUST use Dell sound drivers, drivers from some other site or even the Windows downloads either will not work or will not work correctly.

Finally, sound is considered a "low priority" item in the Operating System and is normally on a shared IRQ (Interrupt) with a higher priority device and if the higher priority device "interrupts" it can cause interruptions in the sound. Unistall the Sound in the Device Manager then restart the PC and Windows will find the sound and reinstall it and sometime on a different shared IRQ and that MAY help the situation.

fireberd · Answer

Although you have multi-cores, most software is not designed for optimum use of the cores. I have an Intel Quad Core CPU and Vista 64 bit and I don't have ANY programs that make use of that, even Vista 64 bit. Contrary to what you see on HSN or QVC's ads for new PC's you can't, for example burn a CD using one core and do something else with another core - the programs do not have the capability to actually do that.

One other thing, update your Video drivers to the latest from the Video card vendor (e.g. if you have an NVIDA card or ATI card get the drivers from them, not Dell).

gio79 · Answer

Yes, I see your point, but with all the spare CPU it is not normal that my audio skips so much when I am just scrolling a webpage just because I have integrated audio. I have a lot of beta software installed, maybe I should try a clean install when I get a chance.

I have already updated the vio drivers (NVIDIA in my case).

fireberd · Answer

I've seen the problem before and I don't think it has anything to do with the CPU capability. I've had clients PC's do this but it's been a long time since I've had a client call me with this problem (and usually it was either a sound driver, video driver or a reinstall to fix it). A clean install will usually fix it, although I know it's a hassle. If you go the reinstall route, keep track of it and check it after you install all the drivers (including the chipset drivers that must be installed before installing device drivers such as the sound) but before installing any application software and then try the sound after each application program install to see if some program is the culprit.

gio79 · Answer

The chipset driver must be installed BEFORE the devide drivers? Oups, that might be the problem. I always reformat the system after receiving it to remove all the crapware that comes with it and to repartion the disk, but I never knew the chipset must be installed first. Fortunately this is not a big problem because right now I really have no time to go through a clean reinstall. Thanks for the tip, I will try when I have a little time (or when Win 7 comes in public beta to try a nice dual boot).

gio79 · Answer

Thank you for your answer. Unfortunately that was not my case. I tried moving the sound card and also using another PCI-E slot, but that did not affect my particular sound problem. I do think it is a problem with the video driver though because further testing with the video driver disabled did not produce this problem (though video drivers are pretty essentials). I hope in a video driver update.

Best regards,

Giovanni

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Distorted sound when scrolling on Precision T5400 worstation

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