Stuttering sound

[moonbeamdanser]

I purchased a new barebones system a couple of years ago; nothing fancy.  I transferred over a few components from my old pc to the new one, one item of which was my old Sound Blaster Audigy sound card.

From the moment I booted my new system, I would get stutters in the sound.  At approximately 1-1.5 minute intervals, the sound would go through it's stutter for roughly half a second to a second.  In sound environments that are particularly rich--for example, very deep tones in .mp3s, or, when it rains in World of Warcraft--it will have continual stuttering/static in addition to the traditional cyclical problems.

I assumed it was my old sound card; but didn't feel the need to put up the money to purchase a new one at that time.  Nor did I attempt the onboard sound as I am persnickety about using onboard sound.

Imagine my dismay when recently, I purchased a new sound card--a SB Xfi Xtreme Music, and the sound problems persisted.  Imagine my further dismay when I grudgingly converted to the onboard sound and the same issues continued.

At this point I'm at my wits' end.  I've reformatted several times over the last 2 years and the issue has prevailed, so I know that won't fix it, as has been suggested to me.

I've even gone so far as to change out my power supply from a 500w to a 550w, and that did nothing to remedy the problem.

I'm running:

ECS P4P900T-M v 1.0 motherboard
Pentium D, 3.4ghz
1x2gb pc4200
GeForce 7950 GT video card
SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Music sound card
1 350g IDE HD, 1 80g IDE HD
1 DVD R/RW
1 DVD Rom
1 3.5 floppy

I've got Windows XP Home Edition with all the properly updated drivers...

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, before I pull out all my hair..

[moonbeamdanser]

Edited to add:

On a whim I started up Process Explorer and played a song on Winamp.  Whenever the stuttering happened, I notices a spike at the same time on the monitor that notes "DPCs".  Not really sure what that is or what to do to prevent it....

[Mulreay]

DPC's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferred_Procedure_Call

[westom]

From the moment I booted my new system, I would get stutters in the sound.  At approximately 1-1.5 minute intervals, the sound would go through it's stutter for roughly half a second to a second.  ... I assumed it was my old sound card; but didn't feel the need to put up the money to purchase a new one at that time.  ...  I've even gone so far as to change out my power supply from a 500w to a 550w, 

  Fix things first and foremost to learn. Learn how to solve problems - work smarter.  You kept assuming - shotgunning. Therefore spent much money and accomplished absolutely nothing.

  Everyone eventually learns from your mistake.  First determine what is wrong.  Fixing it comes much later.  Mulreay provide important facts.  A sound card is constantly provided more data to 'sound'.  If the buffer gets empty, it must repeat its last 'sound' until new data arrives.

  Now go to what would be causing DPC.  A first tool is Task Manager.  Look for processes that are consuming too much proceeding time or processes that are causing other bottle necks (ie large Memory Deltas or PF Delta).  Any of these would be a reason for DPC - a data transfer bottleneck.

 Collect facts first.  Fixing comes much later.  Then you would not have shotgunned.

[moonbeamdanser]

I didn't shotgun anything... I wanted a new sound card for 2 years and upgraded finally to something better only to find that it wasn't a bad sound card to begin with.  (And I spent a grand total of $18 dollars to do it, for what it's worth.)  And the extra power supply I already had.  Just because I am new here doesn't mean I haven't, or am incapable of, approaching things logically.

I am throwing things out as possibilities because I am not a computer tech.  I know enough about computers to build them at median levels of skill, or, to be dangerous, depending on your viewpoint on the matter.  I am attempting to provide information I feel may be relevant as part of my plea to assist me with a frustrating situation.  And this, to me, also doesn't qualify as "shotgunning".  But, thanks for the.. um... information.

[Mulreay]

Is your onboard sound card disabled? If not disable it first.

Go through all your settings and tweak around and see if you can fix it. Make sure no kind of signal "boost" is going on. Make sure it has the right number of speakers chosen (2, 2.1, 4 etc). Check the environment settings and try different ones. The EQ settings.
Make sure digital audio is OFF unless you KNOW you're using it with your speakers.
Also I would check Windows own audio settings from Control Panel and volume settings. Make sure all that looks good.

If it still does it, it could be a background program. Try closing any and all open programs and see if that helps. Close them through the icons by your clock. And also you can use the task manager, press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC. Then look for programs to close under the Programs tab, and also look for programs to close under the Processes tab beside your user name. Don't close processes under the SYSTEM user name.

Lastly, maybe try moving the PCI card to a different spot, AWAY from the video card. As far as possible from the video card. EMI can happen between them.

Let me know how you get on and I apologise for the aggressive response you received earlier. Were not all like that 
welcome to computer hope. 

[moonbeamdanser]

Well at this point to be honest I've already exhausted all of the suggestions you've just given me... everything is per the norm as far as I can see, I don't have any settings turned up beyond what would be ideal performance, it's not set to digital because my speakers aren't capable, etc.  And yes, the onboard sound is presently disabled.

I use ProcessExplorer to see what I have running; and there aren't any background running programs that shouldn't be, to be honest.  It's actually via ProEx that I saw the DPC spikes earlier today.

I can't really move my card any further away.  My board only has 2 PCI slots, and they are at present occupied by my wireless network card and my sound card.  It would be like robbing Peter to pay Paul..

I think I may have the beginnings of a clue; at present the way I connect to a wireless network is via the Linksys utilities they provide.  I note when I disable the monitor that the DPC spikes don't occur.  I'm going to attempt to use the built in Windows utility and see if that makes a difference...

Edit to add:  the spikes are still there. But I'm sparing a lot of system resources, so I at least accomplished something.

[Karnac]

You may be on to something...I was wondering if a wireless card was being used.......during a search I found reference to audio stutter caused by a wireless card....when the wireless card refreshed, there was a lag or stutter in the audio.

[moonbeamdanser]

At this point I'm leaning towards it also being caused by my wireless.  I started up in safe mode with networking and nothing at all showed on the monitor--except the DPC spikes.

I am puzzled, as my husband runs the same wireless N card that I do in his computer, on a motherboard that is very similar, yet experiences none of the same issues.  I have heard of flashing the Bios with the newest version helping, but, alas, I am very very paranoid about it failing and causing my motherboard to be non-salvageable.

[patio]

Remove the wireless card and run it that way a few hours...

DO NOT flash the BIOS.

[moonbeamdanser]

My conclusion is--it's definitely the wireless adapter.

When disabled, the spike occurs immediately as I disable it, and then for the duration of the disable I get no spikes.  As soon as I re-enable it the spike occurs again, and then resumes it's 1-1.5 minute cycle of spiking.

While I am glad I have found the problem, I do not have the slightest idea as to how to remedy it.  There are no newer drivers for my WMP300N card than what I have already, and trying a different network card is out of the question.  Bah.

[patio]

Other than fabricating say a cardboard shield covered in aluminum foil to nest between the 2 cards i'm outta ideas...

[moonbeamdanser]

I don't think that would help, as I'm pretty certain it's going to be driver related, not EMI related.

[patio]

Why do you conclude it's driver related ? ?

[Mulreay]

Its generally when the adapter runs a test that it spikes.

[moonbeamdanser]

That does seem to be it, yes.

There seems to be a precedent with wireless cards having the same issue; there is actually a thread on the Linksys forums specifically for my model of card--WMP300 N.  Thus far all issues seem to have been driver related, and there haven't been any changes made to the driver with my particular card to correct the issue (although apparently for the USB version there has been--though per that thread it now dumps everything to the PCI bus instead).

[patio]

Other than fabricating say a cardboard shield covered in aluminum foil to nest between the 2 cards i'm outta ideas...

[westom]

When disabled, the spike occurs immediately as I disable it, and then for the duration of the disable I get no spikes.  As soon as I re-enable it the spike occurs again, and then resumes it's 1-1.5 minute cycle of spiking.

  If some other process is doing 'too much', then temporarily shutting down some otherwise perfectly good task will temporarily make the defect disappear.  As posted earlier - only way to know what actually exists is to view what causing DPC.  A first tool is Task Manager.  Look for processes that are consuming too much processing time or processes that are causing other bottle necks (ie large Memory Deltas or PF Delta).  Any of these would be a reason for DPC - a data transfer bottleneck.

  Bandwidth of a PCI is so large that a functioning WiFi card could not create a bottleneck.  If a driver is defective, it will not even operate.

What processes are actually causing things that would created a DPC?  Viewing Process Explorer for background task says nothing useful.  Items to view are listed in that above paragraph - using the simpler Task Manager that responds faster.  Or a more complex Process Explorer that sometimes has problems reporting this kind of problem.

 I am completely befuddled why you assumed anything agressive or condescending.  I do not waste time with such nonsense. That post was 100$ technical.   Shotgunning is not something for computer repair.  Shotgunning is a mistake made in solving most any problem in life.  For example you have no reason to believe the problem is a driver until you actually see that problem listed, for example, in categories listed above using Task Manager (or a more complex Process Explorer).