[Justin Uthadude]

I notice you have Windows Update and Avast running. Those boys seem to have a tendency to cause glitches when they periodically raise their head to look around. Like others here, I have stripped my o/s and done other tweaks to optimize the playback of tunes, but I would still hear a dropout once in a while. I had my anti-virus (Avira) running like always, but then I disabled it during tuneage and haven't had a problem since. Now my habit is to right-click the AV icon in the system tray before I start up the music. You might not want to do this if you're on the net, but then how much can a glitch bother you if your music is effectively now in the background? My suggestion is to check those things that are designed to 'interrupt' the processor.

 

[xnor]

Quote:

I notice you have Windows Update and Avast running. Those boys seem to have a tendency to cause glitches when they periodically raise their head to look around. [...] My suggestion is to check those things that are designed to 'interrupt' the processor.

Shouldn't be a problem unless you have very small buffers. I'm running over 80 processes including WU and Avast on one of my machines without any glitches. Since they are just normal user-space processes they cannot really interrupt anything.
 
Dropout's are usually caused by drivers (kernel-space). Take a look at the link/tool I posted in my prev. post.

 

[lessblue]

Thank you, looks like the DPC Latency tests are good. This was while playing back lossless files to my EMU 0404 USB:
 

 

[lessblue]

Uh oh, this is somewhat unrelated but I decided to go into Services (msconfig -> startup) to turn some things off and I found something strange:
 

 
It was set to Startup up which I unchecked. Manufacturer is unknown and the location of the exe file is in the Appdata\Local\Temp folder, although no file is visible there (show hidden/OS files is enabled).
 
I did use HiJackThis this to "fix" the problem and it doesn't show up when I do a scan with HijackThis anymore but it still shows up in MSCONFIG -> Startup (remains unchecked after reboot).
 
It may be time for a wipe and fresh install.

 

[lessblue]

 
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I would even consider building a separate PC for audio playback as Ham Sandwich suggested although I wish I could manage one without the need to connect a monitor to browse, a homemade Logitech Squeezbox for lossless playback.

Set it up so it starts up then automatically logs in.  Use VNC software to control it from another computer, or RDP [faster] if you use windows (or install software on linux to use RDP).  You could look for linux distros that are simple and stripped down for this use, (a simple MP3 player or media center like interface, geared for music) and build an audio PC with a small built in incase monitor to assist in navigation (like some home theater PC cases have).

This sounds like an interesting option to build a small, possibly mini-itx, standalone desktop audio PC. Think I will look into small cases and PSUs (hopefully there are nice efficient PSUs out there for small PC cases).

 

[xnor]

Guess that's just some orphaned entry there.
 
Latency looks fine indeed. Have you monitored it during drop-outs or glitches?

 

[Ham Sandwich]

I've been using the free Microsoft Security Essentials AV.  I've got it configured to exclude the directory where my FLAC files are and to also exclude the processes for my media players (J River Media Center and Foobar).
 
Another DPC latency monitoring tool is LatencyMon.  Similar to DPC Latency Checker but gives more detail about which drivers are potentially causing problems.

 

[lessblue]

Quote:

Guess that's just some orphaned entry there.
 
Latency looks fine indeed. Have you monitored it during drop-outs or glitches?

Haven't monitored during drop-outs or glitches yet but I think they may indeed be caused by some other background process. I hope that's an orphaned entry, strange just a bunch of numbers and no manufacturer.
 
Quote:

I've been using the free Microsoft Security Essentials AV.  I've got it configured to exclude the directory where my FLAC files are and to also exclude the processes for my media players (J River Media Center and Foobar).
 
Another DPC latency monitoring tool is LatencyMon.  Similar to DPC Latency Checker but gives more detail about which drivers are potentially causing problems.

 
I do like MS Security Essentials and have it installed on my HTPC, I was planning to install it on my desktop the next time I do a wipe/fresh install. Thanks for the Link, going to check the latency with that tool too.

 

[infinitesymphony]

xnor is right. I also have an E-MU 0404 USB and the USB bus is the limiting factor. If it saturates, it doesn't matter what specs your computer has. I would just ignore the drop-outs if you know you're doing intensive work.

 

[MacT]

put it on separate ssd. If possible use only ssd. And do not use laptop, music somehow doesn't sound good from them