Latency problems! Need help!

[sanjoa]

Hi, guys! How you doin'? I've got latency problems while playing music. I've tried with old drivers of my two sound cards (Sound Blaster Audigy SE (PCI card) and REALTEK HD (on-board)) but that did not fix the problem. Checked all pheripherial installed and the problem coud not be solved. Used ASIO4ALL and no solutions. What do you recommend guys?

edit: I'm using Win7 Ultimate x64

[myidisbb]

is this the same computer that you always asking about??? joking. when you say latency you mean the music stops and goes? did you have this problem when you first had it? if not fresh install maybe?

[sanjoa]

I have never had this problem before. Music do that sometime. It is a fresh install.

[HX1]

Found this...

Well, I don't know why am I doing this, because it should be Microsoft guys job, but anyway. Dissfigured gave you a solution already, me too, so instead of whining and complaining why don't you try to follow the steps we gave before and see if it works? Then, if it does work, come back and say thanks (or at least "it works!"), and if it doesn't, come back and say "not for me". Otherwise it's like nobody is reading, just coming here and whining. And almost nobody is saying which sound card they have, for example, which makes it very difficult to find an specific solution. So, there we go again.

- Step 1, download and install (uninstalling the old ones first) the latest drivers available for your sound card, if possible, from the manufacturer's site.

- Step 2, it's very important that you change the Control Panel view from "Categories" to "Large Icons". You'll see why later. A couple of captures in case you don't know where to look. My W7 it's in spanish, but i'm sure the menus are in the same place.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/tricky2k/Captura.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/tricky2k/Captura2.jpg

- Step 3, go to Control Panel-Sound and click on "Recording" tab (or right click on the speaker icon at the systray and choose "Recording devices"). Look for the line-in or mic giving trouble and double click on it to open its properties window. Then click on the "Listen" tab. Once there, uncheck the "listen to this device" box and make sure that you've selected the default playback device.

http://www.kombitz.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/w7-sound-2.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/tricky2k/Captura3.jpg

- Step 4, click on the Playback tab and make sure that your sound card is set as default playback device properly. For instance:

http://www.sevenforums.com/attachments/sound-audio/36116d1257899013-most-mysterious-5-1-issue-w7-48000-dvd-quality.png

- Step 5, click on "apply", "ok" and get out of there.

- Step 6, open the Control Panel and try to find your sound card audio manager. That's why is so important to change the view from categories to large (or small, anyway) icons. In the categories view you will never find it, but in the large icons view should appear. In my case, if you look again at the second image, it appears under the name "Administrador de sonido Realtek" (Realted audio manager). I also have a C-Media sound card and its audio manager is there too. So I guess that, whatever sound card you have, the audio manager should be there. Double click on the icon to open the sound card audio manager. First of all, click on the "device advanced settings" and select "separate all input jacks as independent devices", as Dissfigured already said. The manager window will fade for a few seconds and then you should be able to configure every device separately, line in or mic, and adjusting the recording and playback volumes for each. Then click "Ok" and that's all, folks.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/tricky2k/Captura4.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/tricky2k/Captura5.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/tricky2k/Captura6.jpg

For the C-Media sound card it's even easier, because everything can be configured in the same window.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/tricky2k/Captura7.jpg

And that way, I got rid of the lag in both sound cards with both line in and mic, playback or recording. The problem persists, although, if your mic or line in device is USB, because the sound card doesn't recognize it (unless your sound card have a USB connector) and the only way to configure it is by W7 audio manager, so welcome back lag.

this..

On a ventrilo forum a user said that he knows what causes this, He said that Microsoft removed from windows 7 the HARDWARE ABSTRACTION LAYER (HAL) for the DirectX APIs, and that a DLL needs to be copied into the applications directory with a .INI file containing some parameters used by the DLL. Creative has a utility called Alchemy which fixes sound related isssues. Unfortunantly I have Realtek, and could not find a similar fix.

So back to WHY ISN"T MICROSOFT FIXING THIS PROBLEM, which it appears that they caused in the first place!!

To those of you who can use this, try;

http://connect.creativelabs.com/alchemy/default.aspx

.. and several more These are mostly about musicians and there devices.. BUT it seems to be the same issue relative to the same devices or companies... so it may be of use... still looking.. and thinking.. Playback IMO can have something to do with this areas as well.. so this why I am posting up these solutions.. the long one solved the issue for many..

EDIT:

Check which sound driver u are using. In my case i was using Realtek AC'97. Download the vista driver (also check if it is for 64 bit or for the normal 32 bit). Go to Device Manager and locate the sound video and game controller option.

Right click and select the options that says Browse my computer for driver software.

Browse to the driver that u have downloaded earlier ( make sure that u have unzipped the file after download).

you ll get a list of drivers to choose from - select according to 64 bit or 32 bit .( almost all the drivers in the list works ).

during installation u ll get messages like the driver is not digitally signed . click continue anyway for all such pop ups.

after installing , restart the computer.

1) Go to your sound card mfg's site and download the latest driver. On some sites they label these " codecs ". Download the file (.exe, or maybe in .zip format). DO NOT OPEN FILE FROM WEBSITE. Opt to "save file".

2) If you downloaded a .zip file, extract it. I use WinRar and always choose "Extract to here". Of course, if you downloaded the .exe file, there's no need to do this. Next, right click on the setup .exe file and click "Run as administrator". The installation will be a 2 step process. 1st step: The installer will first uninstall your previous drivers. After this uninstall, REBOOT your computer. When your computer comes back on, it will say the new drivers are being installed but this is a little misleading. 2nd step: After it says " new drivers installed" or "drivers updated", go BACK to the .exe file and "run as administrator" again. This will install the actual new drivers (I have no idea why the process is that misleading, but anyway....) This part of the process might take about 5 to 10 min. After this new install takes place, REBOOT again.

3) After your computer comes back on, go to control panel and select large or small icon view to verify that you can see your sound card or audio manager.

4) Almost there! While in control panel, click on "Device Manager" and expand the "sound, game and video controllers" tree. You should see your sound card by name in this tree. Right click on your sound card in this tree and select " Update Driver Software" and then "Browse My Computer for Driver Software." After this install, guess what ? REBOOT AGAIN. This process is necessary for Win 7 to recognize your new sound card drivers. I hope they install a patch to this or a bug fix in their next WinUpdate.

5) When your computer comes back on, go to "Sound" from the control panel and double-click on whatever you're using for audio input ( Microphone or Line in, I used line in, myself ). Make sure "listen to this device" is UNCHECKED.

One more.. From MS this time.. :o

Vote

Hi arseoniotall,

Welcome to Microsoft Windows.

This should be a driver issue. The driver update may not be installed properly. I suggest that you remove the driver, and then run Windows Update to install it again.

How to remove.

1. Click Start. In the Start Search box type "devmgmt.msc" and press Enter.

2. Expand "Sound, video and game controllers", double-click on the entry of the sound card.

3. Click the tab "Driver", click "Uninstall".

4. Click Start. In the Start Search box type "appwiz.cpl" and press Enter.

5. Remove the entries related to the display adapter.

Then, I suggest that you temporary disable the anti-virus, then run Windows Update to install the audio driver.

Also open the recording audio troubleshooter and check if it fixes the problem.

Open the Record Sound troubleshooter by clicking the Start button , and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type troubleshooter, and then click Troubleshooting. Under Hardware and Sound, click Troubleshoot audio recording.‌ If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Please check this link for information on recording audio troubleshooter:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Open-the-Recording-Audio-troubleshooter

Please refer this kb article for fixing sound problems:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Tips-for-fixing-common-sound-problems

[sanjoa]

This did not work for me.

[HX1]

Yeah actually latency is sort of like a delay.. for instance you press a key to beep.. and it has a delay of 1 sec or so before its is actually played.. and n some cases has echoes..

Does this occur when you have done a fresh boot with no other programs running? Particularly monitoring programs which poll to HD's, Temp, CPU Usage .. so on..

BTW.. Google Updater isn't running is it?

[sanjoa]

Yes it happens when I done a fresh without monitoring programs running in the background.

Google Update has been deleted a long time ago :P

[HX1]

Yes it happens when I done a fresh without monitoring programs running in the background.

Google Update has been deleted a long time ago :P

I hope your sure about that...like trying to remove cancer.. any other kind of odd pauses or spikes in usage? when this occurs... scanned your system for infections and spyware/adware? Sometimes can be a sign of a pretty bad infection running n your system in the background.. especially notable if you just got through re-installing everything.. sometimes we use and clean you know..LOL

My poor little computer will do this when I start several applications that have high resource usage or are using them at the same time.. The Google Updater... used to spike enough to cut into the processing of Winamp.. and it would start and stop...

Have you run a performance test to see if anything is noted there? ( through windows I might add ... can show you.. )

[sanjoa]

Performance test? With what tool?

No virus, adware, spyware, :shit: ware found

[mara-]

If you need a problem on your computer, just call José... :lol:

Cheers ;)

[HX1]

LOL.. mara-... bad hacker.. baadd hacker.. baad .. no ... :lmao: ( read my mind )

Jose' - StartMenu > Search > "Performance" - Select Performance Information and Tools - Windows Opens > Select Advanced Tools >Generate System Health Report...

Next you will need to read through and see if you find any problems..

Also if you have SpyBot, open t and go to Startup an see if any miscellaneous DLL's are in there.. of any kind..

Did you ever check the Event Viewer to see if there were any warnings or errors presented.. possibly relative to this? and maybe even irrelevant if its something not initializing and causes issues..

[sanjoa]

I've found trouble with the PCI sound card at Event Viewer.

[HX1]

Have you researched the issues and found a solution? Mind posting it..

[*dcs18]

Good-bye