Windows 7 and RealTek AC'97 Audio Distortion

[Roast Beef or Crush]

Rig:
MSI K8N-Neo Platinum 7030
-Realtek AC'97 on board
AMD Athlon Socket 754 3000+
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro
2gb ram
Windows 7 32-bit Beta 7000 build, windows experience of 3.0

Problem:
I was running XP for the past 5 years with no audio distortion problems. I installed Windows 7 and now the audio becomes distorted, like it is clipped in bit rate. The drivers for the Realtek AC'97 is v6.0.1.6293 from 9/16/2008 installed from windows update.

I have tested the audio with head phones and speakers with the same effect. The system is using 5% CPU while listening to an mp3 - so I have ruled out an underpowered cpu.

I have played with the levels of the system by turning down the system level out and turning up the speakers amplification. This reduces the audio distortion but does not get rid of it. Doing the opposite - turning up the system out up and the speaker amp down makes the problem worse.

A couple samples of the sound:
Poor Audio Example

Do you think it is a driver problem?

 

[jasonlvc]

I am having the same problem, with a very similar setup to you (except an Asus K8N motherboard instead of an MSI one). I have tried using three different versions of the Realtek drivers, but to no avail. I seem to recall that my sound worked fine in Vista. Let me know if you find a solution!

 

[Viix]

Exact same problem, I got better results but not perfect going to sound control panel and adjusting the sampling rate to am radio and unchecking the 2 options below. Major Bug Here!

 

[krnmastersgt]

Not really a bug, the audio drivers were designed for a different OS, you should be thankful the other drivers work without a hitch (I'm just guessing they do).

 

[iwodo]

I am having similar problem. I may have found the cause of it. But i hope you guys will verify

Download DPC latency Checker.

http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

And see if you are having abnormal numbers.

Currently i am having 600+us which is very high for an idle machine.

 

[yylazy]

Same problem here - partial solution was to switch to the Vinyl AC 97 combo codec driver from VIA, it fixes the sound corruption but sometimes just goes quiet and then i cant get any sound until i switch to the old driver and switch back

 

[jasonlvc]

The Vinyl AC 97 driver won't install for me. It can't find the hardware. What sound chip and motherboard have you got?

 

[jasonlvc]

No problem with my DPC latency (unfortunately).

 

[yylazy]

hp pavilion zd8000 - im using the conexant driver now with the am radio sampling rate trick, and its ok but im hoping a normal fix comes along soon

 

[rogval]

Can you elaborate/clarify what you did yylazy?? Please!! I too have a zd8000 with conexant ac97 and i'm trying to get the audio unbroken in my windows 7 install. Everything else installed great and i've done all the standard driver troubleshooting, etc.!!!

 

[mpilchfamily]

Keep in mind you guys are working with a Beta. So there will be issues and some you may not be able to resolve. Just be sure to report it to MS so that the same problems do not occure on the final release.

 

[dirkschwiggler]

I was having trouble with the clipping/distortion on my Windows 7 install. To fix it when installing the driver for my Realtek HD audio I did the following:

-Right click on the Realtek installer file (I'm using Vista_R213)
-Choose Properties
-Compatibility Tab
-Run this program in compatibility mode for: Windows Vista
-Ok

-Right click on installer file
-Run as administrator

This fixed my audio completely, it was unlistenable before with the clipping and distortion. Let me know if this works for anybody else.

 

[jasonlvc]

dirkschwiggler, no effect with my Realtek AC'97 (ALC850)

 

[Roast Beef or Crush]

dirkschwiggler,

Those appear to be the HD drivers, not the AC'97 drivers (Version: A4.06) that we are all using; thanks for the attempt though.

 

[dirkschwiggler]

Yeah, I was hoping it may be a common fix between them since I was having the same issues. Best of luck, I know how it sucks. Hopefully someone with Realtek HD issues will discover this thread in a search like I did and get some use out of it...

 

[yylazy]

http://www.download.com/VIA-Vi...0-2120_4-10163027.html
worked perfectly after restart, but after a few restarts it just stopped working - no errors or anything, just no more sound... switching back to conexant drivers, restarting, switching back to vinyl, restarting, worked again for a little while, but the same thing kept happening (didnt have patience to figure out what triggered it, just switched back to conexant for good and stuck with am quality)

 

[Continuity28]

I get no such issues.

Then again, on Realtek's website, I made sure to choose the Vista driver. The driver version is 6.0.1.6285. It's NOT A4.06!

 

[Roast Beef or Crush]

Continuity28,

I'm on driver version: 6.0.1.6293. This driver was auto installed when I reinstalled 7.

I will attempt to reinstall with your version of the driver once it's done downloading.

 

[Continuity28]

Yeah, their download servers are usually pretty slow.

Does it work better Roast Beef?

 

[jasonlvc]

I have the same issues with the Vista driver on Realtek's site above.

 

[Roast Beef or Crush]

Continuity28,

The audio distortion is GREATLY reduced with the 6.0.1.6285 drivers to a bearable level. There are times where the audio becomes distorted, but on the whole I can deal with the distortion. Thanks for the help!

 

[jfish1000]

Just got a brand new Windows 7 box - HP Pavillion slimline

the audio is distorted - you especially hear it when using the CPU - so if I'm playing a track in iTunes, and i open my Chrome browser with 5 tabs, I get a ton of distortion in the audio.

This distortion is regardless of output - external speakers or headphones.

And regardless of program - itunes, WMP, etc.

I have tried installing older and newer versions of the Realtek HD driver from the HP site, and the latest windows 7 version from the Realtek site to no avail.

I have also tried running the latest Realtek driver from their site in compatibility mode for Windows Vista SP2 - no good.

What can I do to solve this?? I called HP tech support and they have no other ideas! Help!

 

[tphilbri]

Windows 'advisor' told me I was good to go. The last thing I would have suspected to fail was SOUND. They toted W7 as a multimedia wet dream. It LOOKS like it could be such a thing... sort of. But for sure, distortion was the first thing I noticed. And not something that gnawed at the back of your mind ('what's wrong here?') while listening to music or gaming...this is grating and here's a fun twist - It blew my speakers. Poor Logitech speakers and sub... overloaded by some poor software. Wait, not blew, just killed them. Something fried that I can't figure out. For a while they just stopped and I found that hitting the sub woofer would bring the sound back (this is where the ps is housed and all the connections, as many/most 3+ speaker configs are). I bought new speakers because I still want sound (just keeping everything low right now). Distortion is worse than ever because I went from 3 piece to 5.1. Here's what's happening: Front Left = Very Distorted. Front Right sounds normal. Center = Very distorted. Left rear = Very quiet. Right Rear... I think is Very distorted. Subwoofer... seems to work, but I THINK it's on the low side. So you can tweak these settings with W7 to make it sound more normal.

And then W7 pushes a new update and I log on to the beautiful sound of W-T-F?? My biggest complaint is that an 'advisor' from MS tells you it's ok to convert, you/I do, and one of the most important pieces of the upgrade fails miserably. Their answer: "Push your motherboard/sound card company to put out compatible drivers."

That's one of the most unacceptable responses I've heard. I asked to be reimbursed for the POS I bought from them or for a compatible sound card and MS just doesn't have a response. I've asked in nice ways and not so nice ways. They elicit the same response. The blowing wind and an occasional tumbleweed. Hey, they got what they wanted. Guess it's my turn to Go Fish. Or Go F myself.

Good luck folks. I regret to say I've already been looking at compatible sound cards. That's another sad venture. Wow, they get pricey quick.

My most recent feelings of the Microsoft Empire = :thumbsdown:... and a boo-hiss.

 

[cokecain]

Hi I just found this forum from browsing the web to find the solution of my on board sound card problem.

My Rig info
ASUS A8N SLI
4gig ram
-Realtek AC'97 on board ( I installed 6305_vista_PG537)
AMD Athlon Socket 939 3800+ dual x64

Anyhow, I installed win7 ultimate x64bit version and some of the avi movies has very loud and distorted sound, weird thing is that only few avi movies i get this problems and never had any problems with when i had vista home 32bit was installed.

Also I have 2 yellow flags in device manager (ACPI\PNPB006 & ACPI\PNPB02F) as well and it has something to do with on board sound that i found out from reading some other forums.

Any help would be very much appreciated !!!!

 

[tphilbri]

I hate to admit this, but I let Windows win. Went and bought a sound card that is listed in MS's compatible cards. Pasting the link below. This is a game of wait and see if your h/w will be added to the list. W7 cost me 1.5x the amount I originally paid. That and all the time to deal with the useless tweaks their tech support had me do. I can't tell you how the new card works yet since it's due to show up on Friday (4/23). Hopefully I'll remember to give an update to this thread. In all seriousness, MS should pay for this sound card. Their program told me I was golden for an upgrade to W7 from XP. I buy an OS that has unusable sound = no multimedia. How is this an upgrade? Anyway, I lost this one. Here's the link if you care to stop wasting your time:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/co...B_B320751B-A697-4235-AEB3-A025A5C01FBB_google