Keyfer Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 Hi everyone, I have been searching this site as well as the internet for hours and hours over the past week or so. I have contemplated posting here, but I wanted to be as sure as I could that I had searched to the best of my ability. If I have misses a topic on this site or anywhere else that has information pertaining to my issue I apologize for starting another thread on this. it seems that most of the issues reported on the internet relate to people with Tiger, external USB/Firewire audio devices, using a Macbook or running Windows. I have/do none of those. Now that I've rambled I'll get to the issue I am having I am using HK Soundsticks and a Logitech Clearchat Headset. Both are USB. I get popping, crackling and slurring audio from my speakers. It doesn't happen all the time and here's a list of instances where it does and doesn't. - System alerts have no issue or distortion. - DVD's have a periodic pop or click and split second audio loss. Video is perfect. - CD's seem to play fine. Haven't noticed anything strange playing through iTunes. - Playing song previews from iTunes music store are perfect. - Playing movie trailer's from Apple's site are perfect. Audio as well as video. - Youtube video's are horrible. the video is fine, but the audio gets choppy, poppy and crackly and even cuts out. - World of Warcraft: Video is amazing, but the audio is terrible. I have turned off the external speakers, but the headphones will also crackle and pop. Something interesting happened the other day that may have something to do with it (For those of you that are familiar with WoW) I was in Terokkar forest messing around and was having very very little to no audio issue. As soon as I got close to Shattrath or even panned toward it when it was just in view the crackling started. When I panned back toward the forest it stopped. I also noticed the frame rate drop a lot (normal for the cities). Not sure if those are linked in some way or another, but it seemed to happen when my FPS dropped below 35 or so. Probably a coincidence. I have tried removing my USB2/FW400 card in case that was the trouble and still had the same problems. I have used both headphones and speakers one at a time and nothing changed. I have no clue where else to look or what to investigate. I think I have used every combination of keyword searches on here and in Google and have come up with nothing. There's been plenty of posts on audio issues , but nothing I feel is too similar to what I am experiencing. Thanks in advance for any information or advice you might be able to give me. Keyfer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolied Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 USB speakers/headphones can put quite a load on the CPU. Coupled with a CPU-intensive situation (such as the city areas in WOW) the sound is sure to suffer, it's basically the audio equivalent of graphical hiccups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyfer Posted October 5, 2008 Author Share Posted October 5, 2008 Hi and thanks for the info. After all these years of using USB the CPU strain it causes was something I didn't know hehe. After I read your post I Googled a bit and found tons of articles and discussions concerning it. Not that I didn't believe you of course I just wanted to look into it some. I ran a test and had my USB speakers, Headset and external drive all connected and used Activity Monitor to see what was going on. When I played WoW with the music turned on and voice party chat enabled the CPU usage with all the items connected and being used (save transferring dat to/from the external USB drive) fluctuated from 65 to 75%. Some processes that started and ended briefly caused large spikes to near 100%. I'm sure when Time machine started backup it got worse. When I was done with that I tried a couple of other things. I shut down the computer and disconnected all but the External speakers and played a Youtube video. Then I used only the headphones (had the keyboard still connected) Both times the audio popped and crackled badly. The CPU usage only ranged from 35 to 40%. I'm not sure what to do still. I can't use any less resources short of having no sound at all and thats no good. Thanks again for your info. Keyfer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerSpaRi Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 Hello, i have the EXACT or very very similar problem to you. i have dualcore E6750 ( 2.66ghz ), 2gb ram, 8800 GT 1GB etc.. not a complete piece of {censored}. and i have been having sound issue's with my computer since i first got it year or so ago. i've reformatted 3 times since then. no luck sound always "breaks / cracks / lags" whatever you want to call it. when i play cs source + ventrilo + music it sorto runs fine. occasional hiccup. which drops fps drastically from 140-220 down to 40-60. now recently ( today ) i purchased Far Cry 2, being a avid cs Source player. i havnt played any CPU hungry games. and it is now that i have Far Cry 2 that i notice the sound problem is F*cking frustrating and is ruining my gameplay. on high settings on FC2 im gettin 43-55 fps. low settings 100+ fps BUT when i get my sound hiccups it drops to 14 fps. and makes the most annoyin sound which echo's on and on. i have looked at every possible solution im capable of finding/trying and to no luck. quite simple i have given up and hope for when i can buy a COMPLETELY NEW COMPUTER, i wont use a single piece from my computer for my future computer in fear of this TERRIBLE sound issue. yours sincerly PerSpaRi. ( dejavu_isle_jabba@hotmail if u want to chat P.S if you find a solution Please reply back here or email me THX. i'll continue searching for a fix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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