I have a new Mac Pro 3.06 12 core, and have noticed I'm getting very slight fraction of a second interrupts when playing music, either through iTunes, or a cd. These are extremely brief, totally random and most of the time very hard to here, but they never the less are present, and very distracting. Any idea what can be causing this?
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Music interrupts
- Thread starter tony3d
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I have no idea what causes it, but I've got the same problem.
When I contacted Apple about it, they had be send in a whole truckload of diagnostic information. The iTunes guys said that iTunes is supposed to read 10 seconds ahead and buffer that much data in RAM, so if your disk is blocked under heavy load for that long it might skip... However, I was able to prove that the entire thing would skip irregardless of the disk load. It would happen over here with a totally idle computer.
I never heard back from them or the OS X team.
All I know is that 10.6.8 didn't have the same issue. My music skips all the friggin' time under 10.7 and 10.8 and it is incredibly annoying, but nobody seems to have any solutions. The only thing that I've noticed is that it happened less and less the more I used the computer, but it still happens every so often and it's super easy to provoke by putting the disks under any kind of load.
-SC
When I contacted Apple about it, they had be send in a whole truckload of diagnostic information. The iTunes guys said that iTunes is supposed to read 10 seconds ahead and buffer that much data in RAM, so if your disk is blocked under heavy load for that long it might skip... However, I was able to prove that the entire thing would skip irregardless of the disk load. It would happen over here with a totally idle computer.
I never heard back from them or the OS X team.
All I know is that 10.6.8 didn't have the same issue. My music skips all the friggin' time under 10.7 and 10.8 and it is incredibly annoying, but nobody seems to have any solutions. The only thing that I've noticed is that it happened less and less the more I used the computer, but it still happens every so often and it's super easy to provoke by putting the disks under any kind of load.
-SC
Try a cd. I notice it does it then as well. Nearly $7000.00 I spent on this thing, and almost another $1000 on a sound system for it, and I can't even play a stupid cd. Pretty sad! It is very subtle, and totally random. They had me send in data as well, but I haven't heard back either. It may push this further. Kinda good to hear I'm not the only one.
I have something similar where my music in iTunes skips once in a while, especially when the cpu is under heavy load. It's like you said only for a fraction of a second, and only happens once every few days...not frequent enough for me to worry about.
I heard a micro-skip just a few days ago, for the first time ever. I can't be sure if I was playing iTunes over wifi to my Airport Express, or if I was playing it over Airport Express via my iPhone, so maybe not the same problem. Never heard it directly from the Mac.
I might be having a related issue. The optical audio port as connected to my Pioneer XV-DV303
has started to sound garbled as if there are micro-skips in the data-stream. It started shortly after installing 10.7.5 but I was thinking either the 4 year old cable or the Pioneer XV-DV303 was to blame because when I use System Preferences --> Sound to select Headphones it clears right up. I haven't tried Line Out yet though. Nor have I yet tried a different source on the surround processor - like it's built-in DVD player or another computer - I suppose I will when I decide to actually do something about the problem.
So I guess this might be a related issue and driver/OS library based instead of it being the cable or surround system. <shrug>
My system is only 5 months old and it does the same thing. Playing music through Line-Out from iTunes. Audio files or from a CD.
I also have the same issue on my new Mac Pro and my rMBP. There is a long thread on the apple forums about this. I have also been in contact with apple techs myself.
This hole thing started with the ML installation on my rMBP. But there, it seems to be related to the automatic graphics switching, at least in my case. But people with other macs are also affected.
I was hoping not to have this issue on my MacPro, but recently, I've heard it a few times, never as bad as on my rMBP though.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4149309?start=0&tstart=0
This hole thing started with the ML installation on my rMBP. But there, it seems to be related to the automatic graphics switching, at least in my case. But people with other macs are also affected.
I was hoping not to have this issue on my MacPro, but recently, I've heard it a few times, never as bad as on my rMBP though.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4149309?start=0&tstart=0
Happens to me on two Mac Pro 5,1's (one from 2010, one from 2012) running OS 10.8.x.
Same blip I get if I'm launching Final Cut Pro (feeding a Kona 3G) while playing iTunes. As the problem became more frequent, I thought it was related to running FCP in the background, but discovered it's happening without FCP running.
Same blip I get if I'm launching Final Cut Pro (feeding a Kona 3G) while playing iTunes. As the problem became more frequent, I thought it was related to running FCP in the background, but discovered it's happening without FCP running.
I have a new 5,1 hex core and have not noticed this at all, fortunately.
Were it me, I'd reconnect with Apple Support. While I haven't always connected with the right person at first, I have had great success if I persevere.
There's always Customer Relations. I've found them quite helpful in the past.
Were it me, I'd reconnect with Apple Support. While I haven't always connected with the right person at first, I have had great success if I persevere.
There's always Customer Relations. I've found them quite helpful in the past.
Same thing here. 2012 3.2 Quad, as well as my early 2008 MBP, both on 10.8.4. The MBP played music fine on 10.6.8, but started doing this after the upgrade to Mountain Lion (I skipped Lion). The MP came with 10.8.2 and has always had it. I wonder if anyone who has experienced this problem is running Mavericks and can confirm whether or not it's been addressed?
Do you have any specific reproduction steps? I have a 5,1 and have never observed it yet.
Are you guys running RAID cards by chance?
I am, on four stock Apple WD 1TB drives. I'm wondering if the RAID controller has anything to do with it. It's hard to believe that iTunes would operate like this on other Macintosh products, especially when iTunes is considered a flagship product (if you can't listen to music uninterrupted, what good is it?).
-SC
I am, on four stock Apple WD 1TB drives. I'm wondering if the RAID controller has anything to do with it. It's hard to believe that iTunes would operate like this on other Macintosh products, especially when iTunes is considered a flagship product (if you can't listen to music uninterrupted, what good is it?).
-SC
I'm running two instances of SW RAID 0, one SSD pair for boot and one HDD pair for A/V files. I also have a PCIe USB 3/esata card. However, this issue has existed since day one with the stock configuration.
Well, I finally heard back from Apple on this problem. They seem to think its either the back connection board, or sound card. I think their nuts! I think they have a real OS problem here. So now they want to rip my 1 year old 2012 Mac Pro 3.06 12 core apart, and start swapping things in, and out. Last time I did that under Applecare the third party people they sent out to the house fried my Mac Pro 2.7 gig dual processor machine! What do you guys think? OS or hardware issue? I still OS. Really afraid to have them have it.
Personally, if everything works the way you want it (aside from a minor skip) I wouldn't do it. I would install a different OS (or 2) and test. If it's the OS (and I'm pretty sure it is), the down time and hassle of it all isn't worth it. I have the issue on my machine as well, but it's extremely minor. In the end, only you can decided what is best for your case.
What do mean VLC?
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Yes, The machine is fine other than that. It really is very minor, and happened very infrequently. It's not really a skip, just a tenth of second interrupt it seems totally random, happening in about 5 minute or so intervals sometimes less. I think I'll just leave it be. Ticks me off though that after spending over$6000.00 I can't reliably play music. How dumb is that?