PLZ HELP!! XP Audio stutter drives me NUTS!

[ZballZ]

Starting to feel kinda alone with this issue - seen several old threads around, with various no good fixes! My XP-installation has a bad case of audio stutters - maybe not much - but listening to music is pretty much impossible with little glitches every 5-10 sec...

Here is what i have tried:
- deactivating all non-working units (with the yellow "!") in device manager.
- disableling any hardware acceleration
- deactivating the battery-driver
- switching off all power-saving functions in the battery-controls
- switching off all power-saving things within the sound-card-drivers

and a zillion combinations of all of the above !!!! NO F.... DIFFERENCE!! Even the "windows start-up"-sound and the "windows shut-down"-sound stutters!!

Battery or AC - no difference. Stutters all the same!

There seems to be a working fix out there, which argues that the problem comes from the integrated gfx-card, and then explains how to fix it. Only, I have the macbook PRO, so it doesnt help me!

I have noticed something odd though - the cpu usage seems to jump every few 5-10 sec. from 2-4% (only the mediaplayer running) to anywhere between 10-30% - if this has anything to do with the stuttering, I dont know...

PLEASE HELP! Before I go (even more) crazy! Even if you havent noticed anything or havent got a clue how to fix this - plz check and tell if you have "the stutters". I really wanna know if this is a general problem, or just me being cursed with bad karma (again!!!)

 

[theblotted]

are you using stock sound card from MacBook Pro? cuz i had the same problem with MacPro, but the issues came about using external audio interfaces.

i was using RME Fireface and M-Audio FW1814. everything was fine until i installed M-Audio. then all audio went to crap and it was stuttering like crazy. i did everything i could, with no avail.

sorry to tell you this, but my only fix was to reinstall the entire XP. i went as far as re-partition the drive (i use FAT32) in Windows Installation.

then, i installed things one at a time; however, from a good friend who's savvy at XP suggested to me that i should install more important software/drivers LATER rather than before. i've always done the opposite, installed important drivers/software first in OSX, so they stay close to OS. there's prob not much difference from a technical standpoint, except where it's written physically on the drive.

my friend couldn't explain why either, but from experience it works out better a certain way in XP. and sure enough, now it works fine. i think the reinstalling/repartitioning is more crucial to solving the problem tho.

oh yeah, make sure you're using the latest bootcamp, the earlier versions messed up the audio. g'luck.

 

[ZballZ]

Yes, I am talking about the stock sound card for the macbook pro.

Thanks for your reply, but the problem doesn't start after I install more software - it is simply there from the very beginning. I already reformatted and reinstalled winXP twice, and the audio stutters from the very first start up... OSX is fine, though, so I have no idea what could cause the problem. Certainly not any crappy software, since I havent installed anything yet. Only thing I can imagine is that the audio driver is faulty - but other people should have noticed the issue then ... dont know what else to do

 

[Bill Gates]

I have the same problem. I haven't researched it, but my guess from past experience is that it has something to do with IRQ or resource allocation. A newer driver would be welcomed with open arms.

 

[cocacola5373]

Hi Guys,

I had this problem as well. Believe it or not, my audio stuttering was solved when I installed .NET Framework. Just download the latest version and it should do the trick.

I know it may sound that the two are entirely unrelated but give it a shot. It worked for me after almost 48 hours of trial and error. A little longer and I probably would have lost it.

Hope this helps. Please post results for others.

Good luck.

 

[Bill Gates]

Hi Guys,

I had this problem as well. Believe it or not, my audio stuttering was solved when I installed .NET Framework. Just download the latest version and it should do the trick.

I know it may sound that the two are entirely unrelated but give it a shot. It worked for me after almost 48 hours of trial and error. A little longer and I probably would have lost it.

Hope this helps. Please post results for others.

Good luck.

I have the .NET framework installed and the same issue, so that's not it.

 

[mstrflsh]

Incorrect "Bill Gates"

The .NET Framework IS the cause of Audio Stuttering.
The problem will appear after a failed installation of any .NET update.

The 3.0 Update will subsequently always fail, until every .NET product is removed and reinstalled using the downloadable full size installers, not the 2mb Bootstrap versions.

This whole process could take you up to a week though. (It's currently the ONLY fix for this issue)

Good Luck, any issues send me a P.M.

 

[alanlindsay]

I'm experiencing this problem too on the new 2008 MBP. Very annoying...I don't have the .NET framework installed so I don't know what to do. Possibly a driver issue? Cheers.

 

[cercina]

For me the stutter disappears when I disable the Wifi card :S

 

[damienxx]

I had tried every suggestion I could find on google to fix the stuttering apart from re-installing Windows XP until I found a solution that works for me. Maybe it will work for you.

I've got Windows XP Service Pack 3, 2 gigs of ram and it was stuttering badly.

To fix this all I had to do was go to Task Manager by pressing ctrl-alt-del, right click on iTunes.exe under the Processes tab and set priority to Above Normal.

You will have to do this every time you use it unless you create a .bat file to make it happen automatically.

This is how I created the bat file (below). You will need to change the bit after "abovenormal" to wherever you have saved iTunes. Mine is saved on my P drive in the itunes folder, but yours will be saved somewhere else.

I opened Notepad and typed the following:

start /abovenormal p:/itunes/itunes.exe

Then Save As itunesloader.bat

Now all you have to do is double-click on that bat file to open iTunes in above normal priority mode every time.

Hope this helps some frustrated people out there.

Damien