"Rich" said:
I have these strange stuttering sounds while listening to MP3's. I have
DMA
enabled in windows and I have updated drivers and firmware for my hard
drive
and CD/DVD drives so these are all the latest but still I have these
sounds
at random times. Does anyone have any ideas what I can check next to get
rid
of these sounds?
It seems to have started happening when I added a new Plextor 8X DVD
burner
PX-716 ATAPI.
Thanks for any help in tracking this down, Rich
Delayed Transaction [Enabled] ? That improves PCI bus
efficiency.
There is also "PCI Latency Timer" [32], but 32 is a pretty
good setting to use anyway. The only other value you might
try is 16, but if you go much lower than that, you'll notice
the desktop might update more slowly, and the computer will
not be much fun to use. Lowering the setting will make a
difference to disk benchmarks, for example.
Some sound problems are actually caused by the player used
for the sound material. Since I don't listen to music on
the computer, I don't have a collection of these tools or
the experience that goes with them.
If there is no disc in the Plextor, there is no particular reason
for that device to affect other stuff. (Just the occasional
check, I suppose, for media in the drive.) If you were using the
Plextor at the same time as you were playing MP3's, then there
would be something to investigate. Basically, you want to make
sure that each storage device, whether ODD or HDD, is using the
highest transfer rate you can manage. The one to avoid, is
polled I/O mode, where DMA (a.k.a Bus Mastering) is disabled
or is not being used.
PIO transfer keeps the processor pretty busy, and typically
results in drive benchmarks of about 4MB/sec.
I see "Ultra DMA Mode" [Disabled] is the default in your
manual, and selecting a higher rate might allow Windows to
select a higher rate as well. Cables with 80 wires, versus
the cables with 40 wires, can make a difference as well.
Apparently, according to the ATA/ATAPI spec, it is possible
for software to sense whether a 40 or 80 wire cable is being
used, so that might have an impact on the performance level
of your storage devices. In any case, a quick check with
one of those Windows utils, like Sandra or Everest, might
tell you what mode is being used for your IDE devices.
Recent Windows OSes also have a feature, where if the OS detects
CRC errors on a drive, it may "turn down" the transfer rate
from a drive. It doesn't take too serious an error rate problem,
before Windows will be using PIO mode for transfers.
(See "Workaround" near bottom of page)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817472
I hope that gives you a few ideas.
If you post back, perhaps if you suggest what applications you
are using for playing MP3's , some more experienced posters can
suggest versions of your application(s) which may work better.
A Google search will likely turn up version numbers known to
have performance problems, as well.
And, to make you feel better, there are a few motherboards,
where sound playback can never be fixed, at least reliably.
These tend to be the motherboards, where the PCI bus is created
at the Northbridge, and the PCI bus services the Southbridge
and other onboard devices equally. Modern motherboards use much
faster private hub busses running from Northbridge to Southbridge,
which helps a bit, and they also use slightly different bridging
solutions inside the Northbridge. I had one lousy board, where
AGP transfers tended to mess up the PCI bus - just one of those
old architectures.
When Windows boots, and you get that startup sound when the
Windows desktop appears, in my experience that is the most
sensitive test for proper sound operation. There is a lot of
disk activity, while the startup sound is playing, ahd if
there is a "Delayed Transaction" or "PCI Latency Timer" issue,
that is when you'll hear it.
Good luck,
Paul
