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Skipping Audio on XPS M1210
Here's the low down:
My XPS M1210 got a virus so I sent it to my college laptop repair shop and they wiped it clean, reinstalled Windows XP Professional and sent it back to me. Ever since, it has had audio issues both in playback and recording. When playing music on iTunes or listening to audio on the internet it will skip or scratch a bit if I open another program, check my email, or otherwise increase CPU usage. My main problem is with voice recording. I use Skype and everyone I call says the audio skips every few seconds. (This is driving me espeically nuts since I am overseas and Skype is my main form of communication).
I have tried: switching between Sigma Tel Audio and the built-in Logitech Quickcam Microphone (still skips in recording), updating drivers, disabling my wireless card (thought it might be a conflict with that since I use a wired ethernet connection at my school) and almost every step suggested by the Windows and Dell audio troubleshooters.
Interestingly, if I record audio/video using my Quickcam it plays back crystal clear--no skips, fade outs, anything. This suggests to me it may not be hardware but rather some kind of connectivity/compatibility issue. Any suggestions would be most welcome! Thanks!
Jim Coates
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October 3rd, 2009 19:00
It wouldn't hurt to look at section 2 of the thread Choppy/Skipping Audio Workarounds.
I think the cd drive mentioned there was used in some of the M1210's. If the people who reinstalled Windows on your computer then routinely updated all of the drivers, they might have installed the defective firmware. Check to see if you have the TS-L462C slim combo drive. With the bad firmware, the noise occurs not when playing a cd but when not playing one.
Check that your IDE drives are not running in PIO mode as explained in Section 2.
bpski11
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October 5th, 2009 06:00
I checked that out but sadly nothing different. Primary and secondary IDE channels are running in DMA and I have a TS-L632D drive (couldn't find anything on the forums about it having the same issue as the TS-L462C).
Tried running a latency checker and indeed the levels were extremely high every 4-6 seconds. Disabling both my wireless card (Dell 1505 Draft 802.11n WLAN) and CD drive brings latency back down to acceptable levels but the sound will still skip every so often. Furthermore, I get latency down to the regular level but then go into test my sound hardware using the option in the Control Panel and when I get to the microphone testing the latency spikes again. I am thinking it has to be something with the microphone in the built-in Logitech Quickcam on the computer. At a complete loss as to how it records audio/video of me perfectly just using the camera feature, but the audio cuts in and out when I test the microphone or use Skype.
I hesitate to do a complete reinstall of the system because that is what messed up the audio to begin with. Any other ideas greatly appreciated!
Jim Coates
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October 5th, 2009 07:00
The ultimate diagnosis is to run PC Restore (in XP) or Factory Image Restore(Vista), depending on which OS was pre-installed by Dell. After the image is restored anything that does not work is either because of a hardware problem that has developed, or a problem that has always been inherent in the computer (like the wireless problems). Unfortunately when people manually install an operating system they often format all of the partitions on the hard drive instead of just the c drive, and afterwards the image partition cannot be recreated.
Another suggestion is to make sure all power saving settings and schemes are off.
Here is the main thread about DPC latency, but the m1210 model is not one discussed there. At one point the Dell liaison Bill B says to owners of m1330 to "update your WLAN drivers and BIOS".
bpski11
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October 8th, 2009 07:00
Thanks for the help. After searching for solutions for so many hours I finally stumbled upon a Skype forum discussion (http://forum.skype.com/lofiversion/index.php/t80953.html) that suggested turning off the AEC in the Logitec Camera Settings and that fixed my cut in-and-out audio problem on Skype! Audio still skips (though much less noticeably) when playing music but I can deal with that. Go figure that after trying so many drivers, latency tests, system configurations all that needed to be done for the main problem was to uncheck one box...