Music flickers/crackles in Windows Media Player when browsing the Internet

This is interesting (sort of):

1. My onboard Atheros AR81 nic is enabled and a PCI-based Realtek RTL819/810x installed.
2. I'm using the Atheros nic for internet.
3. After a couple of hours of use, I start to see DPC latency spikes.
4. I move the Ethernet cable over to the Realtek nic - now I see no DPC latency spikes.
5. I move the Ethernet cable over to the Atheros AR81 - now I see high DPC latency spikes.
6. I move the Ethernet cable over to the Realtek nic - now I see no DPC latency spikes again.

This shows that the problem is worse for some nics than it is for others. I've tried several, and some show spike immediately after the system starts (and therefore the audio is bad), whereas others will run for an entire day before showing spikes. The PCI-based Realtek RTL819/810x so far is the best I've tried, but it too requires a system reboot each day to avoid the sound problems.

Someone please tell me this isn't something in how Windows 7 is handling sound? Do you really need to install a dozen nics to find one that won't interfere with audio?

Darryl Gittins

Hi Darryl,

Those are certainly interesting results. It seems there are some compatibility issues with your machine and Windows 7. We have some performance tools we can run on your machine and then analyze the results. I don't have them setup for end users to run though. If you have a retail copy of Windows 7 please contact support (http://support.microsoft.com/select/Default.aspx?target=assistance) and ask them if they have any scripts setup for our performance tools. These are the tools I'm referring to. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/performance/cc825801.aspx. If they don't have anything setup, I can try and get something setup for you to run.

Thanks,

Chris

I can try to talk to them, but the small computer shop that built the system isn't likely going to know how to run these tools. I guess I'm hosed. I should have stuck with a name brand system rather than try to support a small business.

It seems odd that Windows 7 would be so fragile with respect to standard, off-the-shelf components.

Thanks Chris, for considering the problem.

Darryl Gittins

So they installed an OEM version of Windows 7? Yes, technically they are supposed to provide support then. Let me see if I can get a script together.

Thanks,

Chris

I have an MSI 975X (last known BIOS update 7.9 from 11/3/2008 ) motherboard that I just upgraded to Windows 7 (64-bit).  I was using Windows XP previously with no audio difficulties and now I'm getting similar glitches/stutters as described above.  I'm using onboard audio/NIC:  A chip integrated Realtek ALC882M (R2.43, latest driver from Realtek as of 2/25/2010, available from http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsview.aspx?langid=1&pnid=14&pfid=24&level=4&conn=3&downtypeid=3&getdown=false ) and an Intel 82573L NIC (latest driver available from Intel:  http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18713&lang=eng).  If there are any diagnostics I could run to help resolve this, that would be excellent.  This hardware was manufactured on the eve of the release of Vista, so I would hope it's not too dated to expect a resolution.

It seems to be storage-related also...I'm transferring old files from one old IDE drive to another (the new drive is SATA) on the same machine and there is especially a lot of stuttering with even choppy mouse movement and delayed entry of text when typing. Maybe this will resolve to an extent when I get rid of one (or both) of the IDE drives. The more random stuttering was occurring above, however, with relatively little to no data transfer between the IDE storage devices.

Ah, that Resource Monitor is quite useful...I see that when network usage rises, so does CPU utilization and disk activity falls (which is when the audio, mouse and typing are the most stuttery).