Stuttering Audio

[katanna]

Hello all,

Thanks to the recent public beta, I installed the 7000 build of W7 on my old laptop. The laptop is 3 years old, it is: AMD Athlon 64, 2.0 GHz, 512 MB of memory. Here is an extended information sheet, .xps file)

Whenever I play any media, it stutters. This happens for audio and video, under iTunes, WMP, Media Center, and VLC. Even when I turn off Aero Glass, simple audio stutters.

What could be causing this problem? I had someone suggest a RAM upgrade... would upgrading my RAM solve this, or is it a software/driver problem?

Matthew

 

[Ian]

It could just be a driver problem, as I guess they might not be totally compatible with Windows 7.

Which sound card do you have, and did you use old Vista drivers for it?

 

[katanna]

OK, this is strange, but today all audio and video is playing fine, even with Aero Glass on... I don't know what I did, but apparently it worked.

Matthew

 

[katanna]

It could just be a driver problem, as I guess they might not be totally compatible with Windows 7.

Which sound card do you have, and did you use old Vista drivers for it?

Device Manager says "Conexant AC-Link Audio", I couldn't tell you outside of that (sorry, I am a Mac guy).

I haven't installed any drivers personally, I did a fresh install (reformat) from XP.

Matthew

 

[Ian]

Do you know what make and model the laptop is, as I might be able to find out from that. If it's still working then I guess it doesn't matter though - it could be that Windows Update automatically got some better drivers.

 

[katanna]

Sure, it is a Compaq (Presario) R4000.

Between the time it didn't work and the time it worked we blew out the fans with a can of air, and we unplugged and plugged back in the RAM and hard drive (I was thinking about replacing those).

Also before it started working I may have opened the device manager and said to "Upgrade Drivers," but every time I did that it said that my drivers were up to date. I don't know if it meant "they were already up to date" or "we updated it for you."

Anywho, I am constantly impressed with W7... my mind is finally changing about M$!

Matthew

 

[brianthomas]

This is a common problem in Vista as well. Are you coming from XP? In Vista, Microsoft dropped directsound support. This is the cause of audio glitches in Vista. I have been running 7 for a few days and the "problem" seems to be present in 7 as well. Perhaps this will explain things a bit. I have still not found a solution to the Vista problem.... I continue to try. I have been able to stunt, not halt, the glitches in Vista when my wifi card is off (tweaking settings and installing "fixes" for programs). But, this is surely still not a fix. I have not experimented with 7 as much (I thought MS would have addressed the problem). It seems MS is simply ignoring the situation. Sad really, as I do audio production, and I don't touch my recordings with Vista, and now probably not with 7 as well. I have to use my Mac for music software (I hate Macs, audio is all I use my Mac for; Linux, too, is far behind with audio production). MS is really loosing out on a wide range of consumers with this problem. I imagine those interested in film and video production are in the same boat. Those I know are on Mac's too. (Side note: I feel Macs operations are illogical (their attempts at simplicity for the casual user cripple the logical power user), and Windows is speedily catching up. I miss the days of DOS.) -Brian

 

[katanna]

(Side note: I feel Macs operations are illogical (their attempts at simplicity for the casual user cripple the logical power user))

I think what you mean to say is "Mac operations are illogical to Window power users." As a Mac power user, I think that OS X is logical while Windows is amazingly illogical.

But I don't want to start THAT fight here. =: >

Matthew