Audio problems with vista?

[MDTerp429]

I am experiencing audio stuttering and i'm trying to figure out if it is vista or my hardware. I've tried with different audio players and the same thing seems to happen in all of them. Basically, its like being back on windows 95 with a 233 MHz processor and 32 MB of RAM. As soon as I open another program my audio stutters or stops completely until the application finishes loading.

I've gone into device manager and I have no exclamation points, indicating drivers for all things are at least installed and windows thinks they are working properly.

This is on the new system in my sig that I just put together.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with this?

[shadowpr]

I assume you're using onboard audio? Did you download and install the latest drivers?

What programs are you using?

Have you tried safe mode?

[MDTerp429]

Yes onboard audio. I got all the latest drivers for the mobo from the gigabyte site.
The programs that I've played music with are iTunes (hate it) and windows media player and then I also get the stuttering on the system sounds.

One app that always causes the stuttering when I start it and while it's running is HWMonitor, but in general most apps when I start them cause the stutter, such as EasyTune software for tweaking the motherboard. I don't actually use the EasyTune app, its just one that I noticed causes the stuttering.

I haven't tried safe mode, I'll have to try that when I get home this evening.

[MDTerp429]

I was impatient and tried before leaving work. In safe mode, running my mouse over the volume icon in the system tray reveals the "audio process" isn't running. Double clicking results in a prompt asking me if I want to enable it, to which I say yes, and it seems nothing happens. Running iTunes gives a message about sound not being enabled, and trying to play a file the song doesn't even play, as in the bar doesn't even move to indicate the song is playing. I double click to run Windows Media Player and nothing happens--the program doesn't start, but I don't get any type of message either. Just nothing happens.

I did run HWMonitor and found that the system sluggishness is still there--every couple of seconds my mouse goes crazy.

Unless anyone has any tips or suggestions, I may try loading a clean install of XP and see if these issues go away.

[shadowpr]

Try removing your overclock.

[MDTerp429]

Ah, that was the first thing I did. Just running stock.

[liambl]

That behaviour is normal in safe mode, as Windows hadn't loaded the sound driver as part of the fail safe boot. Perhaps before reinstalling Windows, try a Linux Live CD. It should have the sound drivers already there, just play some music and have a play around (open/close things like GIMP and Firefox).

[MDTerp429]

Thanks for the replies. Just an update, I did some more experimenting and narrowed the problem down to a few specific applications that cause my sound to stuttering when I first open them. It happens when the screen goes black and the UAC prompt comes up and sometimes again once I click allow and my screen flickers again and goes back to my desktop.

I used DPC latency checker to confirm huge spikes in latency for the applications that cause this behavior and I tried disabling various devices in device manager, one at a time, to see if I still see the behavior. No dice.

I guess this is just normal behavior when dealing with the UAC. perhaps I'm just paranoid. I know what, its damn annoying nonetheless...

[not important]

Disable UAC. It's jut an annoyance that comes with Vista and has no real purpose.
http://www.petri.co.il/disable_uac_in_windows_vista.htm