Author Topic: Sound stutter and also low FPS (Read 27830 times)

DarioB · « **on:** January 17, 2014, 12:24:38 pm »

Ok so in the last few days I have been having the following problem, and it would only happen for these things:
My game Guild Wars 2 suddenly became completely unplayable, it would actually show FPS to be around 12-13, but in reality it's more like 2-3. Also, if I turn the sounds on, it is just weird, constant electronic stutter loud thing, hard to describe.
Also the sound would stutter on Windows startup (Windows 7 32-bit)
Also it would stutter every few (maybe 10) seconds when playing a YouTube video.

My other game (Dota 2) works just fine. However, just before this problem occured, my PC crashed, I got a blue screen with some letters, some bar quickly filled to 100% and my PC restarted. This happened when I closed the Dota2 game (while song on YouTube was playing). But! I had similar problems with Guild Wars 2 only without stuttering sound 2 months ago, and installing different graphics card driver version solved it (until the next restart, then I would have to choose another version, so I could even keep switching 2 versions).

But, I seriously tried everything now. Every combination of sound and graphics drivers, I even decided to download windows updates. I ran your system restore, it didn't help. Antivirus, everything really. The only thing I haven't tried is Windows reinstalling which I can't do because I don't have a Windows CD. I also never set up a system restore point so sadly I can't do that. I am really desperate and have no idea what to do, I think I spent 20 hours just trying different things, researching different forums to see people who had same problems, but none of their fixes worked for me. Please help me.

Shane · « **Reply #1 on:** January 17, 2014, 12:48:48 pm »

Could be a number of things.

Bad hardware, bad drivers, bad windows, very slow hard drive or heavy heavy page file usage.

I play guild wars 2 myself. But the problem isnt the game since you have problems outside of it.

So first lets find out what caused that blue screen. Use this program and it will tell you what might have caused the last blue screen and lets go from there

http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

Shane

DarioB · « **Reply #2 on:** January 17, 2014, 12:56:07 pm »

Crash dump directory: C:\Windows\Minidump

Crash dumps are enabled on your computer.

On Thu 1/16/2014 3:30:34 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: hal.sys (hal!KfLowerIrql+0x61)
Bugcheck code: 0x8E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFFFFF8329C065, 0xFFFFFFFFA3A68BD4, 0x0)
Error: KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a kernel-mode application generated an exception that the error handler did not catch.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: hal.sys .
Google query: hal.sys KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One crash dump has been found and analyzed. A third party driver has been identified to be causing system crashes on your computer. It is strongly suggested that you check for updates for these drivers on their company websites. Click on the links below to search with Google for updates for these drivers:

hal.sys

Is this the file I should download and install? Or is it some other? http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?hal

Shane · « **Reply #3 on:** January 17, 2014, 01:04:58 pm »

hal.sys and that error code means a drive caused the crash.

So a drive will only cause a crash if it is installed wrong or corrupted OR the hardware that the driver is for will cause it as well.

I had a laptop that made the same kind of odd sound noises, then one day the sound just stopped. When I first turn it on I get a horridly loud screech from the speakers and then nothing. Bad sound card.

So the easiest test, if you have the part that is, is to try another sound card.

If your computer is a tower and it is on board sound you can disabled it in the bios and then throw in a pci sound card. Sound problems go away? You have a bad sound card. Problem stays? Then you have either something wrong in Windows or bad sectors on the hard drive.

You can get a pci sound card on new egg for $7, but those are very low end crap ones.

A low end but still good as the board sound would be something like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102003

Then of course cards get better and go all the way past $200. But those sounds cards sound amazing if you have the right speakers.

For me? I use the on board sound on my system with great speakers and my games sound awesome lol

Shane

DarioB · « **Reply #4 on:** January 17, 2014, 01:12:56 pm »

My computer indeed is tower. However, I don't have an extra sound card, and it would probably take a while for this to ship. If I disable this sound in bios without having a new sound card would that at least confirm the problem? If the problems go away when the sound card is disabled then that was it, and if the problem stay it's something else? Or not?

However, I'm still wondering why Dota2 for example has no problems with sound or performance at all.

DarioB · « **Reply #5 on:** January 17, 2014, 01:17:07 pm »

Oh also, it might not be important but I'll mention it. I used CPU-Z and it says that link width is x1 and maximum supported is x16. Could that also be a problem? I don't know...

Shane · « **Reply #6 on:** January 17, 2014, 01:17:33 pm »

Quote

My computer indeed is tower. However, I don't have an extra sound card, and it would probably take a while for this to ship. If I disable this sound in bios without having a new sound card would that at least confirm the problem? If the problems go away when the sound card is disabled then that was it, and if the problem stay it's something else? Or not?

You would have no sound at all so no way to tell, but you could see if the FPS in GW2 gets better then that would tell you if it is it as well.

Quote

However, I'm still wondering why Dota2 for example has no problems with sound or performance at all.

Perhaps it is accessing the sound card in a different way where most games connect to the sound through directx and some can connect directly to the sound card. It is also possible that the game is connecting using a different version of directx which could explain that. Another test you could do as well, download ubuntu
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

You can run the OS right off of the dvd drive, then when it is up you can see how the sound works on it. If you have problems there then it is a bad sound card, if you can play music and videos with no problem then we know it is a problem in Windows

Shane

Shane · « **Reply #7 on:** January 17, 2014, 01:18:55 pm »

Quote

Oh also, it might not be important but I'll mention it. I used CPU-Z and it says that link width is x1 and maximum supported is x16. Could that also be a problem? I don't know.

Link width has to do with the video card. Do you have on board video or do you have a video card? And if you have a card is it plugged into the top pci express slot or one of the lower ones?

The lower ones are slower speed while the the top is 16x.

Shane

DarioB · « **Reply #8 on:** January 17, 2014, 01:24:04 pm »

Quote from: Shane on January 17, 2014, 01:17:33 pm

You would have no sound at all so no way to tell, but you could see if the FPS in GW2 gets better then that would tell you if it is it as well.

I think I will try this first, as GW2 is my main problem right now. Stupid question but how do I disable it? And then enable it again after testing.

Shane · « **Reply #9 on:** January 17, 2014, 01:26:44 pm »

You should be able to disable it in the bios.

Shane

DarioB · « **Reply #10 on:** January 17, 2014, 01:35:46 pm »

I am not sure what exactly to disable: these are the ones under onboard devices:

Onboard PCIE GBe LAN
lan option rom
serial port a address
parallel port address
parallel port mode
exp mode dma channel
parallel port irq

Shane · « **Reply #11 on:** January 17, 2014, 01:37:43 pm »

None of those are sound. What motherboard do you have?

Shane

DarioB · « **Reply #12 on:** January 17, 2014, 01:40:16 pm »

ASUS P5KPL-SE

Shane · « **Reply #13 on:** January 17, 2014, 01:47:22 pm »

South bridge settings

Shane

DarioB · « **Reply #14 on:** January 17, 2014, 01:54:58 pm »

I did it and GW2 had exactly the same problem, nothing changed. What should I do now?

Shane · « **Reply #15 on:** January 17, 2014, 02:02:36 pm »

Go to start and run and do dxdiag and see if any errors are reported.

Shane

DarioB · « **Reply #16 on:** January 17, 2014, 02:07:09 pm »

On each tab it says no problems found

Shane · « **Reply #17 on:** January 17, 2014, 02:09:32 pm »

The game pulls graphics and sounds from the hard drive so if the hard drive is under a heavy use it will stutter.

Use my program here to keep an eye on the current drive usage
http://www.pcwintech.com/drive-speedometer

Also as a test try disabling your page file and reboot and then try.

Shane

DarioB · « **Reply #18 on:** January 17, 2014, 02:21:38 pm »

Hard Drive read and write were quite low. How do I disable page file?

Shane · « **Reply #19 on:** January 17, 2014, 02:34:07 pm »

-Open the Start Menu and go to Control Panel
-Click on the System icon
-Select the Advanced tab
-Under Performance, click Settings
-Go to Advanced
-Under Virtual Memory, click Change
-Select No Paging File and then click Set
-Click OK in all the menus
-Restart

Shane

DarioB · « **Reply #20 on:** January 17, 2014, 02:58:04 pm »

I tried that, everything is still the same.

Shane · « **Reply #21 on:** January 17, 2014, 02:58:46 pm »

What video card do you have installed and what driver version?

Shane

DarioB · « **Reply #22 on:** January 17, 2014, 03:02:05 pm »

GeForce GT 220 Driver version: 332.21

Shane · « **Reply #23 on:** January 17, 2014, 03:15:06 pm »

Sometimes you need to completely remove and yank the old drivers out.

I would do that for the video and the sound. here is one for the video
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/550192/geforce-drivers/display-driver-uninstaller-ddu-v10-1-released-01-07-14-/

Then also uninstall the sound driver program from add/remove programs.

Shane

DarioB · « **Reply #24 on:** January 17, 2014, 03:27:26 pm »

I will try that. What should the sound driver approximately be called? I think there is realtek and nvidia.
Also, after deleting all those, should I install the newest ones again?