Sound keeps cutting out

greedy123 · 26 Aug 2011 at 20:19

Hi

Having a problem with the sound on my desktop. Its started cutting out during playback for some reason and I can't work out what's causing it.

I've noticed the problem both on iTunes and VLC though not on any games as of yet. What happens on iTunes is the sound just cuts out mid way through a song and the track time stops though it says its still playing. I tried pausing and replaying but that doesn't do anything. However, if I stop the play, flick to another playlist and back and play the same track again it plays again. It doesn't start if I click another song on the same playlist, I have to change playlists/libraries to get it to start again. This leads me to think its a software issue rather than hardware. On VLC the sound cuts out in the same manner but video playback continues. If I stop the video and then play it again the sound comes back and I can skip back to where I was.

Needless to say this is has getting annoying. It maybe does it once every couple of hours and I'm not usually doing anything on the computer at the time so can't find how to duplicate the issue by choice, it seems very random.

Any ideas what to do?

Spec:
Win 7 64 Ult, Asus P8Z68-V, Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz, 16GB Ram, Vertex 240GB SSD, Evga GeForce GTX 570, Creative SB X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty 7.1 Champion Series, Coolermaster Real Power 850w

3dcandy · 26 Aug 2011 at 20:23

latest drivers for the soundcard? They are notorious for having problems like this under 64-bit windows...

greedy123 · 26 Aug 2011 at 22:09

The driver is up to date it says. I've been using the same driver on 64bit for a year now with no issues so not sure why it would have started acting funny. Maybe I could try reinstalling.

3dcandy · 26 Aug 2011 at 23:10

I've had an issue after upgrading to SP1 with an audigy - checked and there was a later driver...

greedy123 · 26 Aug 2011 at 23:35

Just been on their website again and found a new beta driver which I'm gonna install to see if that fixes the problem.

3dcandy · 26 Aug 2011 at 23:40

good luck - you may need it!

greedy123 · 27 Aug 2011 at 12:34

Well I installed it (it reset all my sound settings annoyingly so will have to and tweak them again). So far working without the error in the last hour. Fingers crossed!

greedy123 · 27 Aug 2011 at 13:11

Nope, it just did it again annoyingly. Any more suggestions?

3dcandy · 27 Aug 2011 at 14:16

move slots?

MarkA · 28 Aug 2011 at 10:24

Open task manager > performance, resource monitor and check if there is anything unusual with disk usage/memory usage while your listening.

kedge · 28 Aug 2011 at 11:20

greedy123 said:
Creative SB X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty 7.1 Champion Series.

I use one of the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium fatal1ty Champion series soundcards in Windows 7 Home premium 64-bit. The driver is XFTI_PCDRV_LB_2_17_0008, this was downloaded from Creative's singapore server (website) and is not a beta driver and can be used with your sound card. I have had no problems with the card or drivers or creative's software in win 7 x64 os. But i don't use any of their software other than the creative audio control panel which gets installed by default. But i do disable Sound Blaster enhancements, i disable EAX and X-Fi CMSS-3D and XiFi Crystalizer through windows 7 sound properties, i use Game mode for Games and Audio Creation Mode for VST/DAWS (recording and sequencers). The default Windows 7 format in Speaker properties is set at 24,Bit 48000 Hz (Studio Quality) when running in shared mode. SPDIF is disabled in Windows 7 Sound Playback.

EDIT: Also forgot to mention that i installed the Product identification Module - File Name : PID_W7PCAPP_US_2_11_01.exe which Resolves the hardware/device detection issue in Creative Software AutoUpdate running on Windows 7.

greedy123 · 7 Sep 2011 at 12:24

Ok I tried that driver too but still having the same problem. The issue is occurring more frequent now and I just had total sound cut off for 30 seconds on all applications with intermittent static sounds.

There was nothing unusual on usage, I've not tried a different slot yet though.

3dcandy · 7 Sep 2011 at 18:14

I'd go with the change a slot then...

greedy123 · 8 Sep 2011 at 18:41

Ok i swapped slots, will see how it gets on now.

greedy123 · 8 Sep 2011 at 19:15

sound just cut out so problem still there

3dcandy · 8 Sep 2011 at 19:31

might be time to bite the bullet and get a new card or use onboard then mate...

greedy123 · 8 Sep 2011 at 19:43

ffs this one cost £140 2 years ago...

the new one costs £160! Do they sell the card on its own with the I/O panel connector so I don't have to buy a new I/O panel too?

This is the version of the card I have:

Isn't the same as the new Titanium one so I don't know of the I/O connector has changed.

3dcandy · 8 Sep 2011 at 23:03

I would be looking away from Creative, maybe a Xonar or something. Lot's of problems with Creative's drivers, some that just can't be fixed like you're experiencing.

greedy123 · 10 Sep 2011 at 14:56

Well I use the headphone socket and phono input on the I/O panel a lot and have speakers connected to the back of the sound card. Do asus make a card with an I/O panel? I use the card to record my guitar so quality is important to me.

3dcandy · 10 Sep 2011 at 20:12

well the creative sure isn't the best to record stuff like guitar, especially if you're looking at other music composition uses. The ASIO drivers suck compared to someone like m-audio etc. but it's a difficult call as I still find that for a mixed use pc Creative's cards tick all the boxes. I don't think Asus do a card with a front bay...but I could be wrong!