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Sound stutter on Inspiron 9400

post #1 of 16
2/10/06 at 11:04pm
Thread Starter 
I have this really annoying sound stutter thing going on in all my games. Every time a new sound is played i get delays in graphics lasting 1-2 secs. Ive tried everything i can think of to try get rid of this problem but nothing seems to help. Its really annoying since this 9400 was supposed to be my gaming machine, but with this stutter, its far from perfect. It reduces my gaming experience quite a bit.

Anyone have any suggestions on what i can do to solve the problem?

So far i have tried to reformat a couple times, tried a few different display drivers and also tried to install the program 'notebook hardware control' which some people recommends in another thread concerning similar problems. But whenever i try to start this program, my Inspiron 9400 simply reboots instead.

Any help would be appreciated.
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post #2 of 16
2/11/06 at 1:06am
That must be very frustrating. You should really poke Dell tech support about it. Did it do this with the stock configuration with all the default drivers too? Or did you reformat first before trying your games out?

Are you using the correct drivers? Such as
SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio driver
Intel Mobile Chipset driver
etc etc.
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post #3 of 16
2/11/06 at 1:50am
My E1705's audio stutters when opening it while music is playing. Also the screen doesn't always come back on I have to close it again and open really slowly. Is any of this normal or not?
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post #4 of 16
2/11/06 at 2:36am
No, it's not normal. The only time that my music will stutter is when I have expand windows media player's visualization art to full screen. Other than that, i've never heard it skip a beat on anything.
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post #5 of 16
2/11/06 at 2:38am
Could it be a 5400 rpm drive not being able to keep up?
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post #6 of 16
2/11/06 at 3:34am
Its streaming XM Online, that is the only time it stutters I can be downloading multiple files and it never stutters. So I would think the 5400 drive is not the case. I am going to perform a reformat if I ever get the MCE Disk, Dell Next Day'd it Thursday and didn't come Friday errrr. Then if this doesn't go away I'm assuming I should call Dell and possibly replace? or just hold out and see if it gets worse....cuz what if I get a screen with worse Light Leakage....this one is very unoticable.


Oh another problem not having a lot to do with the music stuttering but it might have to do with the problems with the screen. When I'm listening to music and close the lappie then use the volume controls or play, stop, next, previous, the screen turns on and stays on until I open it again. Any idea if this is normal or not....someone else please give it a try thanks
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post #7 of 16
2/11/06 at 6:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigmo
Also the screen doesn't always come back on I have to close it again and open really slowly.
Actually, that's happened to me a couple of times - where it went into standby or screensaver mode or something, then it wouldnt wake up unless i closed and opened the screen again.

More of an annoyance than anything. Maybe you can try a reformat and see if that helps anything (regarding Bigmo's sound issues).
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post #8 of 16
2/11/06 at 11:35am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the response guys.

The drivers im using are:

Sigmatel R114075
Intel Mobile chipset drivers R114079

I have a Fujitsu 80 gb 5400 rpm harddisk
1 gb 667 ram
GF 7800 GO
2 Ghz pentium Duo T2500

Even in old games like Quake2 i get this sound stutter, so I doubt its a memory issue, where the game needs to use a page file on the harddisk.

I still tried to remove the page file, tried to lower the hardware acceleration too for the sound. Nothing helps. And this on a brand new Inspirion 9400, completely reformatted for bloatware from dell.

Its really frustrating.
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post #9 of 16
2/11/06 at 1:32pm
You have the correct drivers installed - and you've reformatted a couple of times already, so there's a decent chance it's a hardware issue. I've heard the fujitsu is a slow drive, but that's most definitely not the cause of it.

There should not be these problems on a fresh install or stock install - poke Dell about it to send you a replacement (or if you dont want to go that far yet, what ideas they have to resolve the issue).
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post #10 of 16
2/11/06 at 2:16pm
You can try runnning a diagnostic on your sound card.
If you have the same problem during diags, then it could be that you need to have the mobo repaced
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post #11 of 16
2/11/06 at 2:45pm
Your supposed to install the drivers in this order.

SYSTEM SOFTWARE
CHIPSET
VIDEO
SOUND
NIC
MODEM
WLAN CARD
TOUCHPAD
QUICKSET

If you install it in the wrong order you can expect problems.
Phone Dell tech support to verify this info.
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post #12 of 16
2/11/06 at 4:26pm
DEFINITELY try a reformat.

my games were stuttering as well w/o the reformat.
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post #13 of 16
2/11/06 at 10:09pm
Thread Starter 
I have installed my drivers in excatly the order you wrote dlinkin. I have formatted 4 times also. Didnt help.

Guess ill contact Dell to get replacement.
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post #14 of 16
2/11/06 at 10:21pm
Please tell us how you come out with Dell. I'd be interested to know what they think is going on.
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post #15 of 16
7/26/06 at 3:23pm
I'd also like to know what happened.. Please give us an update...
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post #16 of 16
8/22/06 at 4:15pm
I have been having the same symptoms as well, ever since i updated a lot of my drivers, including chipset, bios, video, etc.

I have an Inspiron 6000 with the X300 card, and both the video and sound now skip. Even when i scroll my mouse across the screen you can notice it.

I have since reformatted the computer and that didnt seem to help, although it is now intermittent. I've had the laptop for over a year now, so i'm hoping it is not a harware issue...

Any updates??
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