Computer Hope
Microsoft => Microsoft Windows => Windows Vista and 7 => Topic started by: LennM24 on March 09, 2012, 09:44:43 AM
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I own a Dell Inspiron 1545 Laptop
Specifications:
Intel (R) Celeron (R) CPU 900@
2.20GHz 2.19GHz
64-Bit Operating System
About two to three months ago, my computer began experiencing a sound problem. Whenever I play a video, music, or anything that requires sound, from the internet or from my saved and imported files, every so often it will have a slight freeze or buffering of sound, followed by a really bad sound, then it will return to normal again until the next freeze. These freezes range from 1 sec to 10 seconds. It's frequency is unstable but I estimate it to be about every 25 seconds. I have done everything possible (from a novice ability) to try to solve this. I have performed a full scan with all anti-virus and malware software. I have ran a defragmentor. I have cleared out any saved files that are no longer in use to prevent hording or some form of corroption (Idk, it just like a smart move). I have uninstalled and re-installed the sound drivers and BIOS from the Dell Website. I went to the Dell's online support and sat with the guys for over an hour and explained the situation, he then checked my all my drivers and my registry for anything that shouldn't be there or might have been missing. He failed to locate anything (atleast he stated so) and made the whole over-used speech "purchase our 24-7 protection plan blah blah blah". I really need help fixing this problem, I use this computer for alot of media activies, including presentations at local events. Can anyone please help me? If you need any more information please ask! Thank you in advance :)
PS- I have not added any software or hardware prior to the first time this sound problem began happening.
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Based off everything mentioned above that has been done on the computer. My guess is that you have something running in the background that is causing your problem. Have you made sure nothing is running in the background that is not needed? Try the below steps.
1. Click Start, and in the Searc/Run line type: "msconfig" and press enter.
2. In the Startup tab, click the Disable All button.
3. Click Ok and restart the computer.
After the computer has restarted try an audio file again and see if it is still stuttering. If it's not it's likely something that you have running in the background is causing your problem. You'll need to determine what program is running in the background by selectively choosing what program to have startup. It could be anything, including your anti-virus.
To re-enable everything, just repeat the above steps and do Enable all instead.
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I did as instructed. Disabled all, rebooted, and loaded a music file. But sadly it still frooze and made the sound. I went to double check that all things were unchecked, and sure enough they all were. So I enabled them all, rebooted and retested (just for the sake of testing: still nothing). Anything else I can possibly do? I'm currently re-running virus scans; though everytime I run them, it says i'm 100% clean.
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I don't think this is virus related. Just mentioned the anti-virus because if what I suggested earlier did fix the issue it could of been that the anti-virus program was using too much system resources and causing the system to stutter. What version of Windows are you using and what is your Service Tag or Express Service Code?
Also if you right-click on the sound icon in the Windows Notification Area (bottom right-corner) and click Playback devices what is listed and checked?
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I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1.
My service tag code is: B6RN6N1.
Express service code is: 24353834077.
On the playback device, the following are listed:
Speakers/Headphones
IDT High Definition Audio CODEC
Default Device
(The icon has a green check on it. To the right of it there is a level bar, which I assume measures the amount of volume as audio plays)
Independent (R.T.C) Headphones
IDT High Definition Audio CODEC
Not plugged in
(The icon has a red arrow pointing down and no level bar)
This is all in the playback tab.
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Ok thank you. Your assumption about the volume bar is correct. First, attempt to disable the headphones (in case they're the culprit) by right-clicking on the headphones icon and choosing disabled. Test your audio again, if it still continues to have an issue, follow the remainder of the steps for re-installing the drivers since it still seems very likely that it's a driver issue.
1. Open Device Manager (http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000833.htm) and remove everything under "Sound, video, and game controllers" by highlighting each device and pressing delete.
2. After all devices have been removed and "Sound, video, and game controllers" is no longer visible close the device manager and do not reboot.
3. Download the ICT drivers from: ftp.dell.com/audio/R312650.exe
4. After downloaded run and allow the drivers to be installed and then reboot the computer.
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Well I began by disabling the headphones, but no good, it sound froze. Then I went to device manager, uninstalled driver (which deleted the Sound, Video, And Game Controllers sub-header). I did not roboot, downloaded and installed the drivers from the provided link, then once completed I rebooted. I went to open up a sound file but now...it's worst. I get an message saying Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing this file and refuses to play it. So I went on Itunes, and clicked on songs, but they just don't play. I try fastforwarding nothing. I went online to test if sound was even on, and on youtube, the sound contiues to freeze. I hate to add to the topic but now I need help with 2 things. 1 is the original issue (sound freezing). 2nd is how to get my media files to play again. I know for sure it isn't the file since prior to the download it could play (sound freezing, but cout still play). Also I went to check online why it couldn't play in the help button, and it said there might be something wrong with my driver. I understand this is alot to ask from you Mr. Computer Hope Admin, and I really appreciate the help you've so far.
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It's no problem LennM24, that's what we're here for, is to try to help you with your computer problems. Sorry to hear the last suggestion made things worse. Since it's apparent now that there really is a driver issue lets try some additional steps to hopefully get things resolved. Try following the below steps.
1. Click Start and in the run/search box type: cmd and right-click on cmd.exe and choose to run as Administrator.
2. At the prompt type the below command and then press enter.
SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1
3. After that has been done, enter the below command and press enter to open Device Manager from the command prompt.
devmgmt.msc
4. In Device Manager go back under Sound, Video, and game controllers and right-click on each device and choose the option to "Uninstall". Do this again until all devices under sound video and game controllers are gone.
5. While still in Device Manager look for any "Other Devices", if you see any Other Devices Uninstall them also from Device Manager.
After all the above steps have been done reboot the computer to allow Windows to re-install the sound drivers. If you're prompted for a location of where to install the drivers point the computer to the below location.
C:\dell\drivers\R312650
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Did exactly as instructed. When I rebooted, a fade-in/fade-out message on the bottom right appeared telling me that it was installing drivers. But shortly after a message poped up saying:
Device driver software was not successfully installed
Please consult with your device manufacturer for assistance getting this device installed.
(And in a box)
IDT High Definition Audio CODEC (A red X)
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Hmm that's interesting, those steps almost always re-install the sound card properly. Dell does have two drivers listed on their support site, but I was having you use the latest version of the drivers according to their web site. Assuming there is some corruption with their drivers lets try one more time with the other drivers.
Download the below file and try installing it on the computer to use the earlier version of the drivers.
ftp.dell.com/audio/R264250.exe
* Before installing the above file make sure to go back into Device Manager, and uninstall each of the Sound Video game controllers, any "Other Devices" and any device with an exclamation mark on it.
If that still results in the same situation, try the below steps and restore your computer back to an earlier copy of Windows.
1. Click Start
2. In the search box type System Restore
3. Select Choose a different restore point
4. Check the box for show more restore points.
5. Select the oldest restore point and click Next
Let the computer restore to an earlier point and restart the computer.
If you continue to have the same situation then either there is a serious corruption with the Windows registry or other files are residing on the computer that are conflicting. You could also try running ccleaner to clean out any registry issues.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
The other possibility is that there is a defect with the sound card on the computer, and that hardware defect is what is causing all the problems. Because this is out of warranty you could be 100% by running a diagnostics on the computer to check for any hardware defect and also erase everything and re-install everything back on to the computer. Both diagnostics and system restore are available by pressing the F12 key as the computer is starting up to access the hidden partition.
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Ok so I did everything as described. Good news: my songs/ and files play once again. However, the original problem is still active. I downloaded CCleaner and when i asked it to check the registry, you wouldn't believe it. It was filled with problems, so many that I had to run it three times for all of them to disapear, so thank you for recommending it :). As far as the problem. I'm not sure I comprehend the last thing you said, did you say there was a way to diagnose problems with hardware and return everything to it's factory settings? And if so my only concern is some files and software that I have on my computer, will they disapear? I don't have a backup hardrive or anything. What can I do to preserve those?
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Well I decided that I'd rather make this much simpler, and I did "Restore to Factory Settings". Problem fixed. What ever it was it's gone now. Thank you so much Mr. Computer Hope Admin for all your time and support :)
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You're welcome. Sorry we couldn't get it resolved without resorting to having to do a factor restore. Likely a really corrupt driver or registry setting that would of took more time to locate and fix than it would be worth.