new (different) audio problem with E6400

I've had my E6400 for almost two weeks and I've just started to notice this problem. When I'm listening to music and browsing the internet the music will skip whenever the cpu is stressed to render a web page. This happens for all media players I've tried (winamp, vlc, wmp, itunes) and for both firefox and IE. It's especially noticeable on sites that have lots of flash-based content (for example, the google homepage and search pages don't cause skipping but the tsn.ca homepage does).

I don't think it's a matter of not having enough resources because I can stress the cpu to almost 100% with other programs and the audio will never skip - it's just that brief second or so of rendering a new webpage that causes it. I'm using the vista audio drivers (but I did experience the same thing with IDT drivers). Here's my configuration:

p8400
4 gigs ram
160gb 5400rpm
intel 4500
intel 5300 wifi
led display
vista ultimate

Has anyone else experienced similar problems or have a fix for it? Would a clean install fix it? Does it matter what order you install the drivers, system software, windows updates, etc.?

 

I would try a clean install, it could be any number of things (registry corruption, bad drivers, etc). I think it's your best bet for now. It shouldn't matter what order you install things in, my preference would be do windows updates first then the latest drivers, then any needed software.

 

The only time I have noticed an audio problem is when the CPU was at its lowest speed and throttled by Dell ControlPoint (because I was using the 65W PSU).

Personally, I hate Flash (uses too much resources and increasespower drain on battery if you leave the web browser open) so I use Flashblock with Firefox.

It might also be worthwhile going into Task Manager and increasing the process priority of your music player.

John

 

I had the exact same problem and solved it by re-installing everything, without the Dell's software. You can see more in here.

I still occasionally get some crackling sounds (especially under heavy web site rendering), but it's definitely better than it's just to be.

J.

 

That happens on my old XPS m140 for every page, even Google.

Haven't had any problems with the Latitude though.

Greg

 

I'm going to try this tonight. Unfortunately I only have the disc for vista ultimate without sp1, so I'll have to wait for that to download and install (does anyone know where I can get a copy of the vista ultimate with sp1 dvd?). In your thread for the E6500 you say "without the Dell installed software" - which software are you referring to? Are you talking about controlpoint, the system software, one of the drivers? Also, I'm assuming you're using the IDT drivers rather than the windows drivers - is that correct?

 

I believe most people on here are using the Vista drivers.

 

I have a crackling audio problem when I have the volume set to the maximum, but I've only noticed it when listening to podcasts, but some tracks have been fine.