[zantetsuken]

Hi people, im running foobar->flac straight out of my computer without any devices in between at the moment. but my audio stutters at times with all these clicks and pops and the song slows down for like a fifth of a second and then its all normal and then again. i checked my cpu usage and everything but its liike at 40%. can someone tell me what might be the problem? btw this only happens sometimes, its pretty random.

 

[zantetsuken]

anyone?

 

[fallsroad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zantetsuken /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi people, im running foobar->flac straight out of my computer without any devices in between at the moment. but my audio stutters at times with all these clicks and pops and the song slows down for like a fifth of a second and then its all normal and then again. i checked my cpu usage and everything but its liike at 40%. can someone tell me what might be the problem? btw this only happens sometimes, its pretty random.

Machine specs?

Is this a Windows box?

Open task manager and see what is eating up CPU cycles.

 

[zantetsuken]

machine specs are

AMD Athlon 3500+
3 GIgs of memory
250 + 500 gig hdds
Geforce 8800GTS 320mb graphics card
creative SB audigy onboard sound.

Running Windows XP Pro. SP2

i opened up my task manager but its only using about 30% of the cpu, nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[fallsroad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zantetsuken /img/forum/go_quote.gif machine specs are AMD Athlon 3500+ 3 GIgs of memory 250 + 500 gig hdds Geforce 8800GTS 320mb graphics card creative SB audigy onboard sound. Running Windows XP Pro. SP2 i opened up my task manager but its only using about 30% of the cpu, nothing out of the ordinary.

Wait.

Your music software player is using 30% CPU?

That is rather high, IME.

Stuttering is usually caused by one of the following:

Latency issues.

Overtaxed CPU/RAM.

Software conflict.

Driver conflict.

 

[zantetsuken]

no no. overall the cpu usage is about 30-40%. foobar is doing about 7-9%, and memory usage is about 70, 000K. so im guessing its not the CPU/RAM

how can i figure out which of the others it could be/

btw it seems to only happen sometimes, other times its not there.

 

[fallsroad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zantetsuken /img/forum/go_quote.gif no no. overall the cpu usage is about 30-40%. foobar is doing about 7-9%, and memory usage is about 70, 000K. so im guessing its not the CPU/RAM how can i figure out which of the others it could be/ btw it seems to only happen sometimes, other times its not there.

Hm.

When it happens, have you tried shutting down other programs to see if that stops it?

One other thing that can sometimes cause stuttering is intense HDD activity while listening to music. Things like running parity checks on large RAR files, or unpacking those files.

Do you have another media player open when this occurs? I used to have conflicts with PowerDVD and Winamp open otgether, even when one was not in use but open.

Sorting this, if it isn't one of the obvious things mentioned above, can be a pain. There are programs that can measure latency calls on a computer, but I can't recall names atm.

Software conflicts are hard to diagnose, unless you notice this happens when you have the same other program open every time your tunes stutter.

Driver conflicts are probably the toughest to diagnose.

 

[zantetsuken]

i think it might the the HDD activity. is there a way to test this?

 

[fallsroad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zantetsuken /img/forum/go_quote.gif i think it might the the HDD activity. is there a way to test this?

Yes.

Try running parity checks or unpacking/packing huge RAR files, and see if the stuttering occurs. If it does, immediately cease the disk operation and see if that stops the stutters. You could also use large file transfers, though they may not be as intensive.

I don't think there is a way to actually test for this through a benchmarking program, you have to run the operations and see if you can provoke the stuttering.

 

[Winterlord]

If you are playing with ASIO, increase the buffer size, it might cause clicks on even much more powerful machines.