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Solved Audio / Sound popping, Crackling, Stuttering, Jitter Inspiron 1501 Laptop
Hi everyone,
I have worked at solving my audio jitter issue the last few months and have resolved it. I have catalogued some of the fixes others have used to help those with similar issues. Some of the fixes were strange but the issue was annoying and I was willing to try different things:
Issue: when playing Dvd or streaming video from Internet, sound would pop like an old record.
Troubleshooting steps: Using trial and error, used a microsoft program called autoruns (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx), to disable startup programs to see if a particular program/driver I had installed was interfering with sound. I have used this program before when I've had trouble starting windows. Msconfig (system configuration) can also be used, but list of startup programs is missing some found in autoruns list. (right click taskbar-select task manager-File menu-select new task run-type msconfig-select startup tab-disable all).
Isolated ATI video driver as the problem (In autoruns-select Options menu- ensure Hide Microsoft Entries are checked, but Verify code signatures is not checked, to show all non-microsoft startup programs). ssmdrv.sys is the file that I disabled going down the long list and looking for ATI listings.
A more straight forward approach could be to uninstall video driver, windows will install default driver which allows to verify ATI driver was problem, and then download ATI driver and catalyst control center (driver software) from ATI :
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/integrated_vista32.aspx?type=2.7&product=2.7.5.3.1&lang=English
Note: this is for 32 bit Vista driver, onboard ATI Express 1150 chip. Going to device manager (found in control panel) and selecting "Display adapter" will tell you what video chip you have.
Previous troubleshooting that has worked for other people:
1.Disabling wireless card in device manager - extreme and not workable if you need your wireless internet (I did not)
2. Leaving CD/DVD disk in drive has worked for some people(windows seemed to check for disk constantly)
3. Enabling Direct Memory access for DVD drive. In device manager select IDE/ATA controller, select IDE Channel, select advanced setting, enable DMA must be checked and Ultra DMA mode listed. Uninstalling IDE channel and restarting will get windows to reset channel. "Device type" under advanced settings tab will show this IDE channel is for the CDrom drive.
With issues like this I try to isolate whether windows, hardware or other software is problem. I first uninstalled my audio driver and used windows default to no effect. Then I tried disabling startup programs/drivers to locate software problem. I found sound problem existed whether playing video from DVD or Internet, so DVD hardware was not source, but motherboard could be. Tried system restore (used to go back to earlier system configuration - type "rstrui" in run box from task manager) but no effect. Tried restoring windows to factory default using system recovery (this can be used to reinstall windows/drivers when system cannot load windows), but again no effect, and then i further had to download Vista Service pack 1 and do all windows updates again:
I hope this information is helpful as I know computer issues can be pretty frustrating.
Regards,
Dean
Jim Coates
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February 6th, 2010 11:00
Thanks Dean for posting..
You will find this interesting, the 8th item in the thread Choppy/Skipping Audio Workarounds. You would think that known issues like this would be in a FAQ or a sticky but unfortunately that is not the case here on the Laptop Audio Board, so finding solutions is not as simple as it could be.
zman2009
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February 12th, 2010 18:00
When you think about it, if you disable one driver/startup prog/service/process/hardware...etc, and the problem SEEMS to go away, it does not necessarily mean that that is THE cause, a cause, part of the cause, or even a relevant step in the way, of the problem. Without getting too philosophical, let me say that components are vastly interconnected and there are extreme levels of dependencies. A technician/engineer with access to hw diagnostic tools, software debugging tools may still have difficulty figuring out what the problem is. However the "solution" ca be very simple at times even if you don't why for sure. I had the same issue plaguing many laptops over the last two years, with the stuttering/ crackling and general degradation in performance that can start spontaneously about one to four hours after hard reboot. In my case after exhausting all possible elimination techniques, it boiled down to simply getting a can of compressed air, blowing it through the intake vents and using a vacuum cleaner on the exhaust side to catch any dust coming out. If you decide to remove some of the covers in the back, then make sure power is disconnected and battery is removed. Laptop has been running for 7 days without reboot, streaming multiple hi-def video at high speed and the problem has not happened since.
So it appears to be a heat issue or maybe dust affected hardware component contacts. Again I can't deduce causality for sure. But it has worked for me so far. Try it out and let us know.
Also you may want to keep intake and exhaust vents unobstructed at all times, and keep all sources of heat far away from the laptop and see if it helps.
Delmere
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May 20th, 2011 09:00
This web site has VBS, Visual Basic Script, that resets the IDE channel to Ultra DMA. Makes for an easy solution.
Jim Coates
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May 20th, 2011 10:00
Thanks for sharing that. The good solutions come from folks who find them and share.
You might be interested in the Choppy/Skipping Audio Workarounds FAQ. The DMA/PIO problem is also discussed there.
dwl6296
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January 10th, 2012 19:00
I am having similar issues with my studio laptop. I have found that the audio and video jitter occurs with all applications! Media Player, IE, , Firefox, Youtube, Netflix, even windows sounds.... I have updated all Windows, I updated the ATI drivers, JAVA, damn near everything............
Not sure what else to try..... I suppose a reinstall of Windows might be in order, BUT I'd hate to do that for this.....
Jim Coates
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January 10th, 2012 20:00
What model of Studio do you have? The earliest ones were plagued with problems. Have your problems existed since the laptop was brand new or did they just recently appear?
bipingiri
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May 22nd, 2012 20:00
I am also having this issue.....jitter sound pops up for like 1 sec and the processor utilization in task manager shows sky high for that 1 sec and immediately lowers down. i have xps 15 ...8gb ram...corei7 2670.