Turbonium
Platinum Member
Running 32-bit Vista Business on a laptop.
The system has a fairly powerful dual-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, and a 7200rpm HDD with no S.M.A.R.T. issues. All drivers are the newest available. However, this means the audio drivers are rather old, being SigmaTel drivers from late 2007, but the laptop manufacturer does not provide newer drivers, and finding newer hardware-specific drivers for this OS is proving difficult.
The problem: If handling specific tasks while playing audio (locally) or streaming music online, the audio tends to stutter. And by that, I mean that after a stutter, it doesn't resume playing where it "should" be, but actually pauses for a split-second before continuing on. This means that if I'm listening to a live stream, I actually start to fall further and further behind as the stutters add up.
By specific tasks, I mean things like updating antivirus software, running Windows Update, or miscellaneous common tasks within the OS, such as opening a populated directory while running other applications on the side.
I strongly believe it's an issue with the drivers (which are almost as old as Vista itself, meaning it probably has issues, given the overall driver debacle with Vista when it was released). If so, does anyone know where to get reliable drivers (i.e. non-corrupt, and no malware or viruses) for the now defunct SigmaTel?
I know how to look up the Hardware ID of the SigmaTel hardware in question, but it's been almost useless so far.
Note: With normal multi-application use, RAM usage never seems to go above 1.8GB (average is probably around 1.45GB), so I'm fairly sure it's not a problem that is compounded by SuperFetch being overly aggressive (if that's even a potential issue, that is).
I considered that it might be a problem with how Vista itself handles tasks and schedules them (thread priorities or otherwise). If someone could address this matter as well, it would be interesting.
The system has a fairly powerful dual-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, and a 7200rpm HDD with no S.M.A.R.T. issues. All drivers are the newest available. However, this means the audio drivers are rather old, being SigmaTel drivers from late 2007, but the laptop manufacturer does not provide newer drivers, and finding newer hardware-specific drivers for this OS is proving difficult.
The problem: If handling specific tasks while playing audio (locally) or streaming music online, the audio tends to stutter. And by that, I mean that after a stutter, it doesn't resume playing where it "should" be, but actually pauses for a split-second before continuing on. This means that if I'm listening to a live stream, I actually start to fall further and further behind as the stutters add up.
By specific tasks, I mean things like updating antivirus software, running Windows Update, or miscellaneous common tasks within the OS, such as opening a populated directory while running other applications on the side.
I strongly believe it's an issue with the drivers (which are almost as old as Vista itself, meaning it probably has issues, given the overall driver debacle with Vista when it was released). If so, does anyone know where to get reliable drivers (i.e. non-corrupt, and no malware or viruses) for the now defunct SigmaTel?
I know how to look up the Hardware ID of the SigmaTel hardware in question, but it's been almost useless so far.
Note: With normal multi-application use, RAM usage never seems to go above 1.8GB (average is probably around 1.45GB), so I'm fairly sure it's not a problem that is compounded by SuperFetch being overly aggressive (if that's even a potential issue, that is).
I considered that it might be a problem with how Vista itself handles tasks and schedules them (thread priorities or otherwise). If someone could address this matter as well, it would be interesting.
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