e6500 crackling audio

Guys,
Have read through the read and seems like these are the contributing factors towards crackling:
1. Intel 5100 seems more prone
2. or Intel 5300 on wi-fi 802.11a (b/g don't seem to cause the problem)
3. Intel Matrix Manager 8.7.1007 seems to make things worse (by increasing latency)
4. Vista (Didn't notice XP folks having the problem)

I don't have any crackling on my E6500 with:
- Vista 32-bit SP1
- Matrix Manager 8.7.1007
- Intel 5300 running 802.11g only

But I do have high latency yet no crackling audio at all.

Just sharing what I picked up as the common denominators across this thread - pls do highlight if I'm mistaken. Just trying to help those with the crackles.

 

I had no crackling either...latency, yes...crackling or any audible issue at all, no.
But, i did have the same in XP (latency) and i could hear it mess up when i was running Cubase with lots of tracks @ 192khz. So the issue does exist in XP, it'll just take a LOT to actually be bothered by it

 

Good to know.

 

Please see my updates at http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=341918 . (Many of us have come to the same conclusion that the IMSM driver is currently the most responsible for high DPC latencies and other issues. Whether or not this directly produces the audio crackling issue, it still affects the ability to reliably record audio and/or video without dropping frames, etc.)

 

I just bought a Dell E6500 running XP and quite
loaded. I find that when I play Spider Solitaire the
audio skips when the cards are dealt. I called up
Dell and they downloaded an updated driver which
I thought had fixed the problem. At least it had
disappeared for a while. I just logged on again and
the problem is back. When I play a standard audio
file, such as Beethoven, I don't seem to have the same
problem. I agree that the audio is bad.

It looks like I should just return the laptop. But what
do buy. I need a high-end laptop for work, this is my
only computer, and I do a lot of CAD design. I bought
a Lenovo some time ago and hated it because it came
with IBM/Lenovo software on top of XP, which, for example
proved to be impossible to use with the wireless where I
work. I ended up having to wipe the system and install
XP without any of the Lenovo stuff, which of course, meant
the a bunch of the keys no longer worked. All I need is
a fast reliable machine with no extra software to muck
things up.

 

A big thank you to all of you guys in this thread for helping me solve the “cracking-sound” issues with my new laptop. I got recently an HP HDX X18 1103EA with the Intel Q9000 and Vista Home Premium 64bit and of course with the IDT audio chipset. I did update all the drivers immediately...one of these drivers I updated was the Intel Storage Matrix and the new version was 8.7.

I had tried everything to solve the popping sounds problems but I was oblivious to the fact that the above driver was loading heavily the system and was making the latency skyrocket.

I downloaded the DPC Latency Checker and my system latencies were topping over 10000 (normally they should be only 60). Great utility BTW...
I uninstalled the 8.7 driver and installed version 8.2 of the Intel Matrix (without rebooting in between, only after the 8.2 version of driver was installed) and now everything seems to be working fine. Latencies back to normal levels 50 to 60 and no cracking or popping.

Now of course there is another issue, playing AVIs directly from the network seems to be affecting the sound in different ways (still investigating). But hey, if it wasn’t challenging to run a computer, then nobody would buy them

So I still think that the drivers and the IDT chipset overall is not as good as the Realtek one. Out of respect for this forum I won’t use alternative words to describe it.

But of course there must be some serious problems with the ICH9 chipset and the Intel matix driver as well.

I tested the same version of the driver on my server (Windows 2008, ICH7 chipset) and it seems fine, i.e. no heavy latencies. But then again it is not an ICH9 chipset.

Thanks again guys,

mil

 

It's gone. Just gone. No more crackling.
I had the 8.7 installed for some time but I had no time for tinkering around. This driver version also lets vista hook itself up at shutting down sometimes. So I rolled back - once again - to the 8.2 driver.
Haven't had any crackling for some days. The things I changed were as follows: newest Dell 1510 WLAN driver (february), new Bluetooth Software (Widcomm), played around with the 2,5" hdd module bay thing, which works quite good.
But what I believe was the real big difference: the dvd-drive was outside the system, while I installed the older intel driver.

Additional info: No IDT driver installed, no Matrix Storage Manager installed, driver only

Maybe someone likes to check that out on his machine.

 

hi,

Where can I find the version 8.2 of the Intel Matrix?

Sami

 

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...stemID=PREC_M4400&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=

That's the location for the Drivers page for the M4400

From there, choose your version of Windows, head to SATA Drives and click on "Intel - Driver" NOT "Download"

Click on "Other versions" and you'll find the previous releases of that driver (consequently A02/A03 -- 8.2.x) You can optionally download the Matrix Storage Manager application too, but if you're trying to eliminate the latency -- I would install just the driver first and then the Manager app if you want it. Unless you have a RAID going, I don't think it would be of much use to you.

 

Thanks to all who have offered help in this thread.

Here's my story in a nutshell.
First Latitude 6500 had crackling/skipping. plus, touch sensitive buttons (esp. mute) button didn't work well.
Finally got my replacment from Dell. At first, thought it was fine but then skipping/crackling was noticed.
Used DPC latency checker-- continuous red bars.
Disabled "a" band on my dell 1510 wireless card. fewer red bars and noticeably reduced noise but still the occassional red spike and accompanying skip (not as bad as at first)
I've read that it may help to install the 8.2 driver for the Intel matrix storage manager.

Here's my question: the intel matrix storage manager on my laptop says that it's version 8.2 and there's a small 8.2.2.1001 on the "about page" So do I already have the earlier driver that is supposed to reduce the latency and thus skipping? If so, is there anything else I can do to reduce the skipping. fyi, i'm nontechnical and don't really want to wait for another machine from Dell.

thanks agian.