Very unusual and debilitating audio issues

Hi, I am a professional musician using Vista home premium x 64 and sp2. I have an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.4 ghz, with 6 gb of ram and my laptop is a HP Pavillion Dv7 notebook. My soundcard is a NI Audio Kontrol 1, and I know for a fact the issue is not with the soundcard hardware here, it works prefectly fine with other systems and always works flawlessly with xp.

I had this exact issue about a year ago, and contacted many experts who were just confused and eventually after about a month, the problem just dissapeared overnight by itself. But now it is back, and I dont want to just wait it out, as I need my laptop for music production.

The computer will work just fine unitl the sound will randomly drop out, and not just not make any sound, but the program running it will stop responding. From that point on, no sound will work. All programs work fine until they make a sound, then they will also stop responding completely. If someone Ims me in AIM, the bloop sound will freeze it; if i try to play a video or a tune in explorer or firefox, it also will freeze, etc...

I cannot open the sound panel in the control panel, or anywhere else. Most strictly audio programs (daws, wav editors, even itunes) will either freeze upon opening or not even open. Once the computer is in this "no sound mode", nothing i can do will restore sound short of turning it off.

When I try to turn it off, it shuts down normally (i have to force explorer to shut down as it freezes when playing the logoff sound), the display turns off, but it does not actually shut down. the fan keeps going at full speed and the lights on the laptop are still lit up. It will stay like this indefinitely (ive waited a while to see if it would turn off, but it didnt) until i force a shutdown by holding the power button down. If the sound issue does not occur, the computer shuts down normally without problems.

Everything is fine when I turn it back on for a period of time until it repeats itself. After a random time period, it will just stop working again. Nothing that I notice triggers it, the computer could be in middle of a video, or just sitting there doing nothing with the screen saver running. It has happened in pretty much any situation with an equal likelyhood. When I first had this problem (and this time as well), it takes less and less time from power up to do this. At first it would take a couple days, now after a week it happens roughly 5-15 minutes after.

I know a good bit about computer audio, but I have never heard of something like this. I have always had occasional pops and glitches in the audio (i assume from dpc latency spikes and confirmed it with a checker, altough i never found a source or solution), but i got used to that and this is a much bigger problem. I think it might be a driver issue/conflict, but I updated every single driver for anything audio/video, and uninstalled each and every one separetely with a clean install, to no avail. When the issue is occuring, there is absolutely nothing else out of the ordinary. All the problems I listed are the ONLY problems occuring. No scan reveals anything unusual, and all hardware and software reports to be working fine.

What could the problem possibly be? I have searched everywhere on the internet and have found nothing.

I really need this computer for music production, and this obviously gets in the way.

HELP!!!

Well... Sounds to me like your hard-drive is failing.

Luckily, you have an HP. They have built-in diagnostics.

Make sure you're plugged into an external power source... Turn the computer on while repeatedly tapping F10 until you're in BIOS. Once in BIOS, Locate the Diagnostics Tab. Under Diagnostics, you should see a Primary Hard-Disk Self Test.

Run the Quick Test AND the Full Test. If it fails, it will tell you.

Next step, after this would be to run a Memory test just to make sure, that memory test would be in BIOS as well.

Good luck mate.

If all those tests pass, then post back and we'll further help you.

Well, I ran all the tests I could again (inc those), and nothing was reported unusual. I have done some experiments myself, and noticed that it ONLY happens when my audio kontrol 1 (a usb soundcard) is plugged in. Now i do think it is some sort of driver error, as it never does this with xp or other computers. I have checked with the native instruments forums, and this problem seems to never haver occurred there. I have tried several times reinstalling, updating, and rolling back drivers (but there is only one available for vista 64). Nothing has worked, any thoughts?

Hello cjweaver,
Have you tried to re-install the USB drivers ?.
Go to Device Manager and un-install all your USB devices, reboot and Vista will re-install the drivers.
Give this a try, (if you haven't already) and post your results, good luck.

You may want to check your Vista file system too, follow this tutorial.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66978-system-files-sfc-command.html

yeah, ive tried uninstalling all the drivers. it seemed like it may have taken longer that time, but it still came up. I ran sfc pretty soon after i noticed the problem. It found some errors it could not repair, but then i ran chkdsk and didnt find anything in a subsequent sfc. the problem persisted. I know the vista drivers for the ak1 are consistently buggy, but this is different. it happens unprompted for month long periods, and solved itself one day and then came back a year later.

Hmm.. These issues are odd.. Intermittent as hell. Try switching the power scheme to High Performance. Reset the BIOS Defaults.

Psst. Hey, weaver, congratulations on your new album!

:P

PS your soundcard might be broken. It's rare but I think a chip construction fault is bridging circuit paths by accident and that's why you're having freezes when a sound plays. This would explain why the computer hangs in a processing loop when any sound happens.


You know who might be able to think of a fix? Jukata from the Buzzlife Message Board. He's real good with physical electronics. The soundcard might just need to have its connectors cleaned and its circuit board dry-air cleaned.

Thanks paulie! I might just have to get a new interface, this ones like 5 years old, and has gone through more than most cards have (its been submerged in water, and has had 2 rum and cokes spilled all up inside it about 3 years back). Not sure if even Jukata will be able to fix it, i think its time for a new one.
I just now need to find an interface that doesnt have all these crackles and pops. hrm...

Thanks for the help everyone!