A Curious Occurence

Aug 29, 2008

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You know, I think that I have to say that troubleshooting problems is my favorite activity of all time. No, no, it’s really not. Considering the fact that I’ve spent over three hours attempting to fix a small but incredibly annoying glitch with the audio on my computer, and barely begun to make the slightest amount of headway, I have to look back and think… “Now, is that what I wanted to be doing with my time?”

And the answer to that is a resounding, “No. Not at all.” But, at the same time, in an attempt to keep this from becoming no more than a long complaint, I’ve got to say that the feeling that one gets after fully resolving a problem, especially one that has caused much pain and hair-pulling, is undeniably pleasant.

I write this because of the fact that somehow, though I knew not that it was possible, the WiFi connection on my computer is interfering with my audio, making it stutter in an incredibly annoying fashion. After completing ALL of Dell’s troubleshooting steps, I had made it nowhere. Or so it seemed. I had reverted my computer to its original settings and it had been successful for, at the least, a few minutes. But then the problems suddenly started again.

Anyway, after a long time of being rather frustrated, I returned to the settings that I had (thankfully not having to reinstall all my programs and whatnot), and decided to try disabling the WiFi. With the simple flick of a switch (literally), all the distortion disappeared. And I was again listening to beautifully clear music.

But, this leaves me with a dilemma. Internet, or music? As of right now, I can’t really have both at the same time. Hopefully I’ll be able to resolve the issue shortly. I’ve sent another email to Dell asking them about their insight on my latest discovery. Hopefully they’ll know something.

Anyway, thanks for listening. It’s been good fun for me.

Comments

4 responses to “A Curious Occurence”

Allyson

2008-08-30

Ahh…and that’s why I chose HP. No internet OR audio problems. Just Kidding. What am I saying? You’re the computer master. I’m sure you know what’s good. Maybe Apollo knew you were an expert and broke on purpose just to give you a challenge.

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Gustav

2008-08-31

Well, here are my suggestions on the matter:

Does the stutter happen once every 60 seconds when your Wi-Fi is enabled? If so, it has to do with the Windows wireless configuration looking for new wireless networks (odd feature, but whatever). Look into the WLAN Optimizer, which will stop this from happening.

Do you have automatic defragmentation enabled (especially via a third-party program)? If so, disable it as the disk I/O can cause problems.

Are you using ReadyBoost? If your internal sound card, USB controller, and wireless card all utilize the PCI bus, this can contribute to bus starvation which in turn will lead to audio stutter, so turn it off.

Are you using iTunes? If so, go to Start, type in “QuickTime”, and select the “QuickTime” option (NOT “QuickTime Player”, we want the configuration panel). Go to the Audio tab and check “Safe mode (waveOut only)” and set your “Audio Output Device Latency (msec):” to 96.0000 or higher (some people go up to 300.000). Check your sound output under Sound Out. It should be 44.1 kHz, 16 bit, and Stereo (L R). For some reason, iTunes will stutter on my Vista machine if other DirectSound applications are running – setting the output to waveOut seems to circumvent this problem.

What is your shared mode audio set to in Vista? To check, right click on the volume icon, click “Properties” on your speakers, and go to the “Advanced” tab. It should not be set higher than 16 bit, 48000 Hz (and will probably be set to 16 bit, 441000 since it is a laptop).

Hopefully these steps will help you resolve the issue, but if you still have problems, do not hesitate to give me a call.

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Gustav

2008-08-31

I just came across another possible solution on these great Internets of ours. I have not tried the next solution out, but I figure I ought to provide it just in case the above options do not work.

Courtesy of “sidney1st” on the vistax64.com board:

“Before trying any bat file or software, disable MMCSS
First in registry: HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesAudiosrvDependOnService
Just rename the key in case you want it back
Then, disable MMCSS in services
Reboot.”

Best of luck.

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r.taylor

2008-08-31

Why thank you much, Mr. Whale! I had thought about calling you for your assistance, as it is always greatly appreciated, but I didn’t want it to seem like I was just calling to use you, so I waited. But I shall call you soon.

And than you much for the assistance. I shall try the solutions as soon as I can.

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A Curious Occurence

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4 responses to “A Curious Occurence”

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