Realtek Sound Card Problem

[M. Kh.]

Dear all,
I've got a problem with my sound card and wondered if you could spare a
moment and help me out.
The problem is that while playing a music or a video clip, the sound
frequently freezes for a second, i.e. still playing that particular
tone, and then it continues normally. Meanwhile the CPU usage shots up.
If I execute sth while playing, this happens more frequently.
My system:
Sony VAIO laptop VGN-FS285H - Pentium M Centrino 1.73 GHz - Realtek
High Def. Sound card -WinXP-Pro-SP2

I have installed/reinstalled:
- Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for high Definition Audio (Tried both
KB835221 and the newer KB888111)
- Realtek High Definition Audio Driver
- Latest DirectX

But the problem still persists. Any ideas?

Many thanks in advance for taking the time to response.
Kind Regards,
Masood

PS: I also have WinXP-Home and FC5 installed in my computer; both of
them are OK.

 

[JS]

You need to find the specific process that's taking all
the CPU resources and causing the Audio hiccup.

To do this try Process Explorer:
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

Once you have Process Explorer installed and running:
Click on the CPU column to sort processes by %CPU usage.
Start playing Audio music and watch the process that is spiking (high cpu
usage) when the audio problem occurs.
Then click on the process that caused the CPU % spike, once it's
highlighted, right click and from the options listed select: google
This should display what out there on the web about that process.

Note: some entries like Explorer and svchost may need to be expanded to show
the detail,
(sub processes), in this case click on the + located to the left on the
entry.

JS

 

[M. Kh.]

Thanks JS.
I have tried exactly the same thing with normal Win Task Manager.
I monitored the process usage and even terminated the suspected ones.
But no result; hence this post.
I will try the same procedure with Process Explorer.

Thanks.
Masood

 

[JS]

Tip.
When using Process Explorer:
In the taskbar select View and check 'Show Process Tree' and 'Show Lower
Pane'.
This will provide the detailed info you need.

JS

 

[M. Kh.]

Hi!
I did what you suggested with Process Explorer. I checked the details
of all the processes and they all seem to be legitimate. However, there
is this process called "Interrupts" (Description: hardware interrupts)
which takes up a lot of resources, sometimes up to 85%, while firing up
a program during a music playback. I'm no Windows guru, so I can not
say whether or not this is a normal behavior.
As always, thanks for any comment in advance.
Regards,
Masood

PS: I did a thorough virus check with my Norton 2004, updated of
course. Nothing found.

 

[JS]

Fresh out of ideas, however if you are playing music from a CD then try
copying the music files to the hard drive and see if the problem still
exist.
Also Norton is a known problem on some systems causing slowdowns, disconnect
you PC from the Internet, disable Norton and try your music again.
Don't forget to turn on Norton before connecting to the Internet.

JS