Finally - this thing causes all the problems (M6400)

What does "taskmanager" say? Any abnormal cpu usage after launching vista? Ah, and check "show all processes" in taskmanager, to get the list of all processes running. Or just use "process explorer".

 

It appears (at least so far) that this was the problem with me as well. I was ready to pull my hair out since I knew it had something to do with Windows (I couldn't replicate the problem with Suse or Fedora loaded).

Thanks!

 

I just restored from my backup, and everything seems to be fine now: no stuttering, no high CPU usage. Really strange, the system should be in the exact same state it was this morning, but this morning it was stuttering like crazy, and now it's fine. Something fishy is going on here...

Stay tuned!

 

I have had the audio studdering problem on boot up since day one. With and without a clean install. Of all the other problems I have reported I figured this one would eventually fix itself. What is the best way to make this go away?

 

For me, installing the original intel matrix storage manager solved the problem.
Just go ahead and install it, the driver will update the previous version delivered by dell.

 

I just uninstalled all the Dell Control Point stuff. I left the driver pack. The studder is gone for me now.

 

I just had a chat with a Dell Gold Support technician, and he says that the stuttering is simply an issue of certain CPU-intensive services starting with high priority at the exact time the startup sound is played (which is a task that always runs at low prioriry). He specifically mentioned the services associated with the Dell Control Point software.

Thus whether or not you get the stuttering really depends on what services are started in what order. In particular, note that BluesMan does not have the Connection Manager from the Dell CPS installed, which may solve the problem by itself. However, you could have a situation were an install of additional software, or even hard drive fragmentation of defragmentation causes the stutter to either reappear or go away. Like I said, this is really a matter of having a service that gobbles up lots of CPU time start when the startup sound is supposed to be played.

P.S.: I wonder if there's a way to have a service start at low priority, in order to avoid this issue with "known offenders" such as Dell's Connection Manager...

 

I also had audio stutter on startup when I first got my M6400. I reinstalled the OS, but before I did that I switched the HD controller mode in the BIOS from RAID mode to SATA mode (I only had 1 HD anyway). After that the startup audio was fine. I'm not sure if the reinstall fixed it or if the HD controller mode had anything to do with it. I'm not running any special driver for the HD controller, it's using whatever came on the vista DVD.

 

I just installed the latest IDT drivers from Dell (A05) and the Intel Matrix Storage Manager / Driver posted here and it did NOT fix the skipping issue for me on my E6500. Just in case anyone has a skip every minute or 2 instead of a stuttering issue. I think these may be 2 separate issues.

In fact, the latest IDT update + Matrix Manager update seems to be worse than before. I now have some strange popping happening along with the skipping that I had not noticed before...

I am really disappointed with the sound on these laptops. Really a shame. Hopefully eventually they will get ironed out like the other issues I had so I can enjoy this otherwise beauty of a machine.

 

yeah, that stuff is usually a flaky driver...glad to hear you resolved it.