Music Skipping, Games Fine

[Brainonska511]

Problem: MP3s are skipping every now and then, no matter what media player I'm using. Also, I have discovered that CDs are also skipping in the same fashion that the MP3s skip. All other system sounds are fine. Also, there are no sound problems when playing FEAR. It was not doing this when I had my 3000+ and Integrated Video running with the stock PSU in my Qpack.

System Info: MSI RS480M2-IL mobo with Realtek AC'97 Audio (latest drivers installed), PNY GeForce 7600GT (lastest drivers), 80GB SATA, AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+, Enermax Noisetaker 425P. I also have the last version of the K-Lite Codec Pack installed.

What I've tried (and didn't work): Disabling Cool'n'Quiet, Microsoft Dual Core Performance Fix, playing with DirectSound Settings in Winamp, Setting Winamp affinity to one core, Uninstalling Realtek Driver and reinstalling.

 

[Brainonska511]

Anyone?

 

[Brainonska511]

Can video drivers cause sound problems? I was looking over the Nvidia Open issues for the current driver set and saw that they have a few issues with dual-core CPUs. Could this be the culprit behind my audio issues?

 

[Brainonska511]

Anyone know?

 

[oynaz]

I suspect your video drivers.

 

[corkyg]

Could also be a bad connector or solder point in your audio hardware chain. Try it with headphones - that can narrow that chain for diagnosis.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Could also be a bad connector or solder point in your audio hardware chain. Try it with headphones - that can narrow that chain for diagnosis.

I did try with headphones in front port and back and I still get the music skipping. It was working fine before I added my 3800+, 7600GT, and Enermax PSU.

I'll try new video drivers though and see if that can fix it up. I'll post back.

 

[Brainonska511]

I initially tried running the machine without any Nvidia driver installed and I still got the audio skipping. Then I tried it with the 91.23 beta Forceware driver and it still skipped. So I reformatted the machine and the skipping is a little less, but still there. I think I'll try a sound card next.

One last question: Is there any particular PCI latency that should be used with a sound card as when I had tried an Audigy 2 ZS, I was getting terrible popping?

 

[Brainonska511]

I think I'll just pull the 7600GT out and see if that solves any problems. If so, I'll RMA that. If not, I'll talk to MSI and see about getting a new motherboard or I'll just buy a sound card.

 

[BadThad]

This is sometimes caused by two devices not sharing an IRQ nicely.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: BadThad
This is sometimes caused by two devices not sharing an IRQ nicely.

I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but I also reformatted the machine the other day and still had the same problem. This has only cropped up after adding a 7600GT, X2 3800+ and an Enermax PSU. As for what I've just done: I just tried removing the video card, and still have the same problem.

Looking at IRQs:

17 MSI Radeon XPress 200 Series
17 Realtek AC'97 Audio

Maybe I can change that in the BIOS.

 

[Brainonska511]

I didn't see anything in the BIOS for changing IRQs on specific devices.

In additon to all this, I notice that it seems to take a long time for the Windows log on screen to show up. Should I contact MSI about getting a replacement board?

I had tried an Audigy 2 ZS in the computer before, but I had terrible popping with it (even though it was fine in the machine I took it from). What could have been causing that? If I could get over that problem, I could try the Audigy again just to see if it solves the skipping issue.

Edit: Updated the BIOS to a version that wasn't listed on MSI's site. I found it through their live-update program. At the moment, I haven't heard any skipping, and so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't suddenly happen again.

 

[Brainonska511]

I think I solved it with that BIOS update.

It may have sounded like a basic thing to check, but MSI does not list the 3.9 update on their website. I had to download their LiveUpdate program in order to find out there was an update. After the update, I have yet to hear a song skip.

Now I'm just going to reinstall my video card and probably reformat due to all the crap I've done trying to solve this problem.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[Brainonska511]

Update: Finished Reformatting and have the computer running with all normal applications. No skipping to report.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

[Brainonska511]

Update again: Apparantely, the BIOS was also affecting my 3dMark06 score.

These are my after BIOS Update scores:
3dMark06: 3166
SM2.0: 1293
HDR/SM3.0: 1168
CPU: 1515

And before fixing the problem I had, the scores were:
3dMark Total: 2804
SM2.0: 1291
HDR/SM3.0: 1151
CPU: 767

Edit: ooo... post 1400