Vista - Audio popping and static in Vista

Hello everyone,

I've been trying to get ideas on the Dell forums about this issue, and
figured I'd try here to see if this is an issue that reaches beyond Dell
computers. I have a Dell Inspiron E1505, Vista Home Premium, Duo Core 2
2Ghz, 2GB Ram, 7200 RPM HD. Now, you would think that with all of this that
playing a simple MP3 file would be a piece of cake, but alas it is not.

Whenever I play MP3's, WMA's, MIDI files, or just about any audio file, I
get random popping and clicking during the track. This ISN'T the "skipping
at the last 20 seconds of the song" deal. I had that and fixed it by
disabling the "Enhancements" on my audio driver. This is occurring
throughout the song at random times. It seems to coincide with the system
doing something in the background like downloading a web page or some other
process.

Does anyone else have this issue, and are the powers-that-be aware? There
are quite a few Dell users that have the problem and to date no new drivers
have been released. I've deleted my Dell SigmaTel driver and allowed Vista
to install it's native HD driver which has been slightly better, but it
hasn't fixed the issue by a long shot. Thanks everyone for your time.

Rich

/Rich/ said:
>
> I've been trying to get ideas on the Dell forums about this issue, and
> figured I'd try here to see if this is an issue that reaches beyond Dell
> computers. I have a Dell Inspiron E1505, Vista Home Premium, Duo Core 2
> 2Ghz, 2GB Ram, 7200 RPM HD. Now, you would think that with all of this that
> playing a simple MP3 file would be a piece of cake, but alas it is not.
>
> Whenever I play MP3's, WMA's, MIDI files, or just about any audio file, I
> get random popping and clicking during the track. This ISN'T the "skipping
> at the last 20 seconds of the song" deal. I had that and fixed it by
> disabling the "Enhancements" on my audio driver. This is occurring
> throughout the song at random times. It seems to coincide with the system
> doing something in the background like downloading a web page or some other
> process.
>
> Does anyone else have this issue, and are the powers-that-be aware? There
> are quite a few Dell users that have the problem and to date no new drivers
> have been released. I've deleted my Dell SigmaTel driver and allowed Vista
> to install its native HD driver which has been slightly better, but it
> hasn't fixed the issue by a long shot.

Sound capabilities built onto the motherboard, or does the PC use a
soundcard?

If the former, check in with the MB's tech support.
If the latter, try moving the card to another slot.

It is a SigmaTel HD device. I'm pretty sure that it is built into the
motherboard, since it is the base soundcard available with the system. I've
tried with dell, but it seems that mainly Vista users are having this issue.
I'm sure it's a driver problem, but I just wanted to see if it is affecting
other computer users aside from Dell.

Thanks for the advice .

Rich

"dev" wrote:

> /Rich/ said:
> >
> > I've been trying to get ideas on the Dell forums about this issue, and
> > figured I'd try here to see if this is an issue that reaches beyond Dell
> > computers. I have a Dell Inspiron E1505, Vista Home Premium, Duo Core 2
> > 2Ghz, 2GB Ram, 7200 RPM HD. Now, you would think that with all of this that
> > playing a simple MP3 file would be a piece of cake, but alas it is not.
> >
> > Whenever I play MP3's, WMA's, MIDI files, or just about any audio file, I
> > get random popping and clicking during the track. This ISN'T the "skipping
> > at the last 20 seconds of the song" deal. I had that and fixed it by
> > disabling the "Enhancements" on my audio driver. This is occurring
> > throughout the song at random times. It seems to coincide with the system
> > doing something in the background like downloading a web page or some other
> > process.
> >
> > Does anyone else have this issue, and are the powers-that-be aware? There
> > are quite a few Dell users that have the problem and to date no new drivers
> > have been released. I've deleted my Dell SigmaTel driver and allowed Vista
> > to install its native HD driver which has been slightly better, but it
> > hasn't fixed the issue by a long shot.
>
> Sound capabilities built onto the motherboard, or does the PC use a
> soundcard?
>
> If the former, check in with the MB's tech support.
> If the latter, try moving the card to another slot.
>

=?Utf-8?B?UmljaA==?= <Rich@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
news:A2AA7227-A1DE-4F51-AB47-16A0489F8610@microsoft.com:

> Hello everyone,
>
> I've been trying to get ideas on the Dell forums about this issue, and
> figured I'd try here to see if this is an issue that reaches beyond
> Dell computers. I have a Dell Inspiron E1505, Vista Home Premium, Duo
> Core 2 2Ghz, 2GB Ram, 7200 RPM HD. Now, you would think that with all
> of this that playing a simple MP3 file would be a piece of cake, but
> alas it is not.
>
> Whenever I play MP3's, WMA's, MIDI files, or just about any audio
> file, I get random popping and clicking during the track. This ISN'T
> the "skipping at the last 20 seconds of the song" deal. I had that
> and fixed it by disabling the "Enhancements" on my audio driver. This
> is occurring throughout the song at random times. It seems to
> coincide with the system doing something in the background like
> downloading a web page or some other process.
>
> Does anyone else have this issue, and are the powers-that-be aware?
> There are quite a few Dell users that have the problem and to date no
> new drivers have been released. I've deleted my Dell SigmaTel driver
> and allowed Vista to install it's native HD driver which has been
> slightly better, but it hasn't fixed the issue by a long shot. Thanks
> everyone for your time.
>
> Rich

Sounds like electrical noise to me. Most likely nothing you can do about
it either.

The wife's PC does the same thing, mine does also, but not nearly to the
extent of hers. Both running XP, both have integrated sound.

I used to laugh at external USB sound cards (but I haven't bought one
yet). I'd imagine they would have a cleaner sound than any on-board audio
system, since there is no card inside the PC to pick up EMI/RFI produced
inside the PC, by the PC itself.

Rich wrote:

> Whenever I play MP3's, WMA's, MIDI files, or just about any audio file, I
> get random popping and clicking during the track. This ISN'T the "skipping
> at the last 20 seconds of the song" deal. I had that and fixed it by
> disabling the "Enhancements" on my audio driver. This is occurring
> throughout the song at random times. It seems to coincide with the system
> doing something in the background like downloading a web page or some other
> process.

I have XP and Vista on the same machine so comparison is easy for
multimedia things. I've found that I can play a video DVD, for example,
on XP with no problem at all, while on Vista I get very choppy video
*and* audio -- and on the same hardware.

I've little doubt that this is because I have a low-end graphics card,
which Vista warned me about. I think the CPU works extra hard because
it spends more time on graphics.

I'm wondering if you have the fancy new desktop GUI installed (damn, I
always forget what it's called!). If so, try disabling that GUI and
see if it helps.

What make/model graphics card do you have and what driver release are you
using for it?

"Don" <don195702@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uuTgtwoZHHA.5020@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Rich wrote:
>
>> Whenever I play MP3's, WMA's, MIDI files, or just about any audio file, I
>> get random popping and clicking during the track. This ISN'T the
>> "skipping
>> at the last 20 seconds of the song" deal. I had that and fixed it by
>> disabling the "Enhancements" on my audio driver. This is occurring
>> throughout the song at random times. It seems to coincide with the
>> system
>> doing something in the background like downloading a web page or some
>> other
>> process.
>
> I have XP and Vista on the same machine so comparison is easy for
> multimedia things. I've found that I can play a video DVD, for example,
> on XP with no problem at all, while on Vista I get very choppy video
> *and* audio -- and on the same hardware.
>
> I've little doubt that this is because I have a low-end graphics card,
> which Vista warned me about. I think the CPU works extra hard because
> it spends more time on graphics.
>
> I'm wondering if you have the fancy new desktop GUI installed (damn, I
> always forget what it's called!). If so, try disabling that GUI and
> see if it helps.

I am not surprised then since AFAIK very few of the recent SIS chips
supported MCE 2005 much less Vista, However if you have Sis Vista drivers
fron the SIS Website for your specific SIS card then I would not expect you
to have a problem.
"Don" <don195702@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:O6CyMbpZHHA.1508@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "JW" <nospam@no.spam>
> Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.hardware_devices
> Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 4:15 PM
> Subject: Re: Audio popping and static in Vista
>
>
>> What make/model graphics card do you have and what driver release are you
>> using for it?
>
> SiS 315_315E (Microsoft Corporation - XDDM)
> (I have no idea what the MS-XDDM refers to. It's a SiS chip on a cheapo
> Asian third-party no-name video card, not from MS.)
>
> sisgrp.sys + sisgrv.dll, both v6.14.10.3744
>
>
>
>> "Don" <don195702@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:uuTgtwoZHHA.5020@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>> Rich wrote:
>>>
>>>> Whenever I play MP3's, WMA's, MIDI files, or just about any audio file,
>>>> I
>>>> get random popping and clicking during the track...
>
>>> I've found that I can play a video DVD, for example,
>>> on XP with no problem at all, while on Vista I get very choppy video
>>> *and* audio -- and on the same hardware.
>>>
>>> I've little doubt that this is because I have a low-end graphics card,
>>> which Vista warned me about. I think the CPU works extra hard because
>>> it spends more time on graphics...
>

----- Original Message -----
From: "JW" <nospam@no.spam>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.hardware_devices
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 4:15 PM
Subject: Re: Audio popping and static in Vista


> What make/model graphics card do you have and what driver release are you
> using for it?

SiS 315_315E (Microsoft Corporation - XDDM)
(I have no idea what the MS-XDDM refers to. It's a SiS chip on a cheapo
Asian third-party no-name video card, not from MS.)

sisgrp.sys + sisgrv.dll, both v6.14.10.3744



> "Don" <don195702@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:uuTgtwoZHHA.5020@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> Rich wrote:
>>
>>> Whenever I play MP3's, WMA's, MIDI files, or just about any audio file,
>>> I
>>> get random popping and clicking during the track...

>> I've found that I can play a video DVD, for example,
>> on XP with no problem at all, while on Vista I get very choppy video
>> *and* audio -- and on the same hardware.
>>
>> I've little doubt that this is because I have a low-end graphics card,
>> which Vista warned me about. I think the CPU works extra hard because
>> it spends more time on graphics...

Rich,
My brand new Gateway computer has the same sound device as yours and I also
am getting the popping sound. My XP machine sitting right next to the new
one does not have any trouble playing the same sound file. Let me know if
you hear of a fix.
Cindy


"Rich" <Rich@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AD3B67ED-1422-4DF7-B32F-23CCABF2F2DF@microsoft.com...
> It is a SigmaTel HD device. I'm pretty sure that it is built into the
> motherboard, since it is the base soundcard available with the system.
> I've
> tried with dell, but it seems that mainly Vista users are having this
> issue.
> I'm sure it's a driver problem, but I just wanted to see if it is
> affecting
> other computer users aside from Dell.
>
> Thanks for the advice .
>
> Rich
>
> "dev" wrote:
>
>> /Rich/ said:
>> >
>> > I've been trying to get ideas on the Dell forums about this issue, and
>> > figured I'd try here to see if this is an issue that reaches beyond
>> > Dell
>> > computers. I have a Dell Inspiron E1505, Vista Home Premium, Duo Core
>> > 2
>> > 2Ghz, 2GB Ram, 7200 RPM HD. Now, you would think that with all of this
>> > that
>> > playing a simple MP3 file would be a piece of cake, but alas it is not.
>> >
>> > Whenever I play MP3's, WMA's, MIDI files, or just about any audio file,
>> > I
>> > get random popping and clicking during the track. This ISN'T the
>> > "skipping
>> > at the last 20 seconds of the song" deal. I had that and fixed it by
>> > disabling the "Enhancements" on my audio driver. This is occurring
>> > throughout the song at random times. It seems to coincide with the
>> > system
>> > doing something in the background like downloading a web page or some
>> > other
>> > process.
>> >
>> > Does anyone else have this issue, and are the powers-that-be aware?
>> > There
>> > are quite a few Dell users that have the problem and to date no new
>> > drivers
>> > have been released. I've deleted my Dell SigmaTel driver and allowed
>> > Vista
>> > to install its native HD driver which has been slightly better, but it
>> > hasn't fixed the issue by a long shot.
>>
>> Sound capabilities built onto the motherboard, or does the PC use a
>> soundcard?
>>
>> If the former, check in with the MB's tech support.
>> If the latter, try moving the card to another slot.
>>