Horrible Stutter Issues
 

Hey guys. I'm about to pull my hair out right now figuring out why the heck my sound stutters. For months I did not have this problem. Then all the sudden I start getting this goofy stuttering when listening to music, watching youtube vids, playing games, etc. I've tried to figure out how to explain the sound, but can't. It's like it thinks it's out of sync and makes a techno-ish sound that's loud as hell and then all is fine. This happens more often when I open new tabs and browse the net. Playing BF3 is impossible right now with all the stuttering. Lemme start off with current specs:

i7 2600k @ stock
Gigabyte P67A-UD7-B3 w/ BIOS F3H
4GB Gskill 2133 C8 @ 1866 C8
Asus GTX580 CU II
Creative X-FI Fatality Titanium Professional
2 x 64GB C300 in R0 with latest firmware (OS)
2 x 1TB Samsung F3 in R0 for data
Corsair AX850w
Win 7 Ultimate with latest updates
Latest VGA drivers
Latest Creative driver by Daniel K

Things I've tried:

Sound Card- I have un-installed/re-installed creative driver. This problem started with another modders version of the older driver so it's not a Daniel K driver issue. I have disabled shit like CMSS-3D, EAX and anything I can think of. Nothing Helps.

LAN - I read that lan drivers could be the culprit. I un-installed/re-installed drivers last night to no avail.

HPET - 32 or 64 bit is the same. If I disable HPET, the stuttering doesn't happen as often but it's still there.

Intel Power Management - I've ran with and without C1E and all that garbage on. None of these settings matter.


I've tried a few other misc things and can't fix it. Do you guys have any idea whats up with this? I swear I think the problem started with a beta nvidia driver that wouldn't let you deselect the 3d surround and audio driver during install but I'm not sure. I have been too busy in the past months to really listen to much music or anything so I can't pinpoint when this started exactly. Any suggestions?

See and ENT doc :D

Sounds like the card itself is screwed. Is it mashed between hot vid cards?

:Dizzy:

No I have it below my 580 away from the heat. Think maybe trying to switch pci-e slots might help? Right now I have it in pci-e_3 since I have a triple slot monster of a VGA.

I've searched around google and the net is littered with win7 sound stutter issues. Most of them were with the RC back in the day. This also wasn't isolated to creative but onboard and all sound. Most threads have no single fix either. The LAN driver was one of the common fixes but no luck on my end. Oh I also updated the chipset drivers last night to no avail.

Stock it all out ..... everything and run XMP profile for stix

Terminate all Creative cancer from system and remove all traces in regedit

Like it never happened .......... :blink:

Roll with onboard until you get a viable sound card .........

Revert to last known vid drivers that did not demonstrate this behavior

How badly was this card pounded with vcore ???

could be the card itself

last ditch new OS, could be a bug ???

good luck bro ... :thumbsup:

Asus card may be in order after the end of the year. I really don't feel like playing the re-install game. I have so much crap on this rig.

I would take out the sound card so I can pawn u in bf3 :laughing:

But I always used onboard so idk what I'm missing or care haha

Try taking out the sound card rebooting and then removing all the Creative drivers. Rebbot and install the motherboard sound drivers. If it dosn't happen then at least you've narrowed it down to the card or its drivers.

Did you sweep the drivers?

Also...

Uninstall Flash and see if the issue occurs, this is a known issue with flash and creative products. I am guessing it has to do with HW acceleration. You mentioned youtube.. since EVERYTHING uses flash anymore it might be hard to trouble shoot, "it happens in game" if you were just on a youtube page....

However you must remove CPU and mem issues causing the problem too, traditionally sound ka-ka-ka ing is a memory issue.

I agree with witchy in removing the card completely to remove its from the equation (makes trouble shooting easier if you are positive it has something to do with one specific device or its drivers) :)

I steer away from creative products they have a history of creating crap and saying F-U to the people that support them (purchasers). Gimmie a realtek nic with xfi software license, I am happy :)

Thanks.

Rich thanks a ton. I will try uninstalling flash. I'll also revert my memory to bios defaults too. The sound stutters while listening to music on WMP, youtube vids, pandora radio (browser), playing games (happens really often on BF3). I can make the problem happen if I start opening tabs in firefox and when I load random web pages. To answer your question, no I did not use driver sweeper, but the problem started with the first set of drivers this machine had installed albeit several months later. So basically I'm gonna do these things in this order:

1. Set memory to BIOS defaults (CPU is at stock)
2. Uninstall Flash Player
3. Take out card, uninstall drivers, driver sweep, install realtek onboard, test
4. Re-install card with fresh drivers
5. Smash card with hammer and order a Xonar. :thumbsup:

FYI, I only have this card because I snagged it cheap from Circuit City locally during the liquidation. I new back then I should have just got the damn Xonar. :blush: