Popping sound when playing MP3s (onboard sound)

[imported_stev]

This is an annoyance that has existed since I built my computer a year ago (see sig). Periodically, while I'm just surfing the web, I hear a little popping sound or a series of little popping sounds in mp3s that I know are pristine. This is something that did not happen with my 5-year-old Dell. Now, the music will seriously stutter and even stop when I'm opening big programs, but this seems expected since both the hard drive and CPU are being taxed pretty heavily. Once things are loaded, the music resumes, but is still prone to popping.

If you don't want to read all this troubleshooting stuff, just skip down to the question at the bottom in bold

I tried a couple things to stress the CPU and hard drive individually. I tried CPU Burn-in, which should stress the CPU to 100%, but not stress the drive (as far as I could tell from clicking) and there was no stutter. I tried playing an uncompressed AVI, which stressed the hard drive, but kept CPU usage below 50%, according to Windows Task Manager and there was some stuttering, presumably until the video had been loaded into RAM. On the other hand, just starting up live tv through my TV tuner, which might briefly max out the CPU (hard to tell, CPU Usage doesn't update very fast), but not the hard drive and it stutters several times.

Here are some other notes about the problem:

-Winamp and Windows Media Player produce the same problem

-Problem exists with CBR and VBR MP3s, high or low bitrates

-Problem exists when running the MP3s from both of my internal drives (SATA and IDE) and a USB external drive

My Dell had a sound card and my new computer build uses onboard sound. Is this a problem that is related to using onboard sound? Or, should this popping problem not exist in either case?

 

[Seekermeister]

I can only give you an opinion. I would highly tend to suspect the onboard sound. I have never dealt with this much, because I found the sound quality of my old MSI Neo 2-F to be too inferior to a good sound card to tolerate. If you can borrow a sound card long enough to verify the source of the problem, it would probably cause you to buy a sound card instead.

 

[myocardia]

This popping problem shouldn't exist in either case. Just buy a sound card, they're cheap.

 

[imported_stev]

I think I can pull my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card from my Dell and try it out. Hopefully, there's nothing funny with this card running in a non-Dell system.

In the meantime, could you guys recommend some mid-range sound cards that would also allow the connection of my front headphone and microphone jacks? I would use it to listen to music, record audio from game consoles, and output audio to my TV and stereo for HTPC duties. Any reviews and round-ups would be great so I can dive into this. I've really never shopped for a sound card before.

 

[Nocturnal]

I attempted to fix a computer that was having similar problems that was using an M-Audio card and could not figure it out. I had to do a complete reinstall of the OS in order for it to stop doing that. It seems to have been a software problem and not a hardware related problem since it was completely gone after doing a reinstall of the OS.

 

[imported_stev]

Nocturnal: I've certainly wondered if it's a software issue, but I'm not prepared to do the reinstall the OS solution without some reason. Maybe I'll try it out in Linux, although it's through VMware right now so maybe that isn't an independent experiment.

 

[Auric]

I don't think I have ever experienced MP3 playback stopping even back in the early 1990's on an even-then low-end system. Stutter could occur then only if the CPU was overtaxed. No pops in any case.

Is the correct storage controller driver installed? Are the HDDs in DMA mode? Even if the storage system was unnavoidably overtaxed, the audio should at least optionally be loaded into memory first. I specifically recall this setting in olde tyme versions of WinAMP but I have not used it in many years.

If it is a software issue potentially fixed by a "reinstall" then you could simply run Windows setup and choose the repair option. It's relatively painless and keeps all your proggies and virtually all settings. Worst case is having to install the latest drivers for a few devices. Best to use a disc with the latest service pack integrated.

 

[imported_stev]

Originally posted by: Auric
I don't think I have ever experienced MP3 playback stopping even back in the early 1990's on an even-then low-end system. Stutter could occur then only if the CPU was overtaxed. No pops in any case.

Is the correct storage controller driver installed? Are the HDDs in DMA mode? Even if the storage system was unnavoidably overtaxed, the audio should at least optionally be loaded into memory first. I specifically recall this setting in olde tyme versions of WinAMP but I have not used it in many years.

If it is a software issue potentially fixed by a "reinstall" then you could simply run Windows setup and choose the repair option. It's relatively painless and keeps all your proggies and virtually all settings. Worst case is having to install the latest drivers for a few devices. Best to use a disc with the latest service pack integrated.

I don't ever remember seeing storage controller drivers. Anything to do with the chipset drivers? If so, those are correctly installed.

The IDE channels are set to DMA mode. As far as I can tell, you can't set this for SATA drives.

I jacked up the size of mp3 that will buffered in Winamp and it didn't make a difference.

I also tried playing a wave (mp3s wouldn't work, unrelated problem) and it skipped when I minimized windows back in WinXP, but this may all be due to Linux being in VMware.

Anyway, I guess I'll try some headphones to make sure it's not something related to the speakers and then I'll try the other sound card. If none of that works, I guess I'll consider repairing my installation, but I hope I don't have to go through the trouble.

 

[imported_stev]

Any thoughts on my recent questions? I'll be trying out the other sound card this weekend, but I'm looking for more things to troubleshoot as well.