sound is crackling in XP

[jd1204]

I've seen a lot of post about the speaker problems but the thing I keep getting is an intermitant crackling from the speakers (don't have any headphones to try)when in xp (not osx though). I haven't found anyone talking about this. It's a MBP, I just got it and everything is up to date. I've reformatted and installed the whole thing a second and third time with slightly varying results. On the second time from scratch I reinstalled the driver cd and that seemed to work til the next day when xp would lock up a minute or so after booting. I couldn't find a way around the lockups so I reformatted again and started from stratch. Third install had same bad crackling sound so I tried reinstalling drivers again. this time the driver cd displays an error message part way in (can't locate file in C:/docs&settings/apps/jd/local/temp/etc). don't know what thats about. Anyway, I'm rather frustrated. Any thoughts anyone?

[jd1204]

Actually, I have just discovered the lock-up problem is continuing... As happened before, the machine can be shut down and restarted fine shortly after installing xp, but now that its a day later, I start up and the curser and keyboard lock up after about 30 seconds. AAAARGH

[piercehan]

yeah i have the same issue ... i installed xp several times to no avail ... i gave up and just listen to music in OSX

maybe someone else has a solution

[jd1204]

my new solution is this: return the MBP to apple and get a pc. when no one is supporting the problems it's not worth the trouble. Maybe in another year or two...

[Gooner44]

I've got the same issue. The weird thing is that it doesn't seem to effect the audio in games. I'm wondering if it has something to do with a system process that gets suspended while in full screen mode. Anyone have any other ideas?:confused:

[simOnius]

same problem here... found no solution to solve...

[McoreD]

Same problem. Sound is glitchy/cracking. Seems like a driver issue. Using a MacBook, very newly bought: got it yesterday.

[ruskiwi]

My problem started just recently - only one speaker on my MBP works in XP, but both work fine in OSX. Tried reinstalling the drivers but didn't make any difference. Everything has been fine up til now. :(

[bjp]

My 1.83 macbook's audio stutters/crackles in XP, it's really noticible on the xp startup sound, as well as when playing music.

I also record audio on it (in SONAR 6), and found that every 10-20 seconds while recording, the audio would stutter and stuff up my recording. By disabling wireless, all problems with stuttering while recording were fixed, and music seems to run fine too.

EDIT: Since setting the page file to a fixed value (min: 1024, max: 1024), music has ran fine, with wireless on... so far...

[sgwood]

same issue here with MacBook Pro 2.1 Ghz.
Fortunately, it only happens once or so every 10mins.
On startup it can also be heard. Hope that it is
dealt with in the next Bootcamp release

[iPaz]

The sound seems to be very unstable. It stops and repeats the same note for ten seconds (the whole computer is blocked too).

It should be interesting to investigate whether the problem is about the new MCB models (I mean the Core 2 Duo 2.33 Ghz 15 and 17 inches).

if that is the case i think we have to wait for the new BC release in order to have it fixed.

Cheers, iPaz:rolleyes:

[dakkanity]

Hey guys,

I've been dealing with this problem also, but I'm quite handy with audio so I thought I'd offer my take on what the problem is. I'm on a MacBook, by the way.

You are all indeed right that the problem is with the drivers, but no one has been able to specifically pinpoint what the exact problem is.

After some investigation, I am pretty sure that the problem has to do with sample rates. If you open up the Sigma Tel control panel, there is an option that says "Sampling Rate" and it is set by default to "Dynamic." Changing it to a manual setting will give you some interesting results, usually ranging from sound decode error messages, or just flat out no sound.

I believe there is a problem in the audio driver that is causing the card to incorrectly detect sample rates in certain very specific scenarios (such as iTunes, system sounds, etc.), thus, the card is unintentionally upsampling or downsampling, causing the crackling/distortion, and (as I have discovered in some cases) audible change in pitch (very noticeable on the "Windows Startup" sound).

But alas, all this is just personal speculation, and the end result is still the same: The only solution is for us to wait for Sigma Tel/Apple to release fixed drivers. I will try to submit some feedback to Sigma Tel and Apple about it soon, although I'm sure their audio techs are well aware of the problem and are working to fix it. It seems like your normal beta bug ... we'll just have to ride out the storm until it passes. :)

[iPaz]

Hey guys,
But alas, all this is just personal speculation, and the end result is still the same: The only solution is for us to wait for Sigma Tel/Apple to release fixed drivers. I will try to submit some feedback to Sigma Tel and Apple about it soon, although I'm sure their audio techs are well aware of the problem and are working to fix it. It seems like your normal beta bug ... we'll just have to ride out the storm until it passes. :)

That seems very wise. Thank you for your reply. I am absolutely aware of the fact that I have to waut (no prob for this). I was only curious to know whether the problem I have is the same problem with audio that other people are experiencing.

Does the cursor pointer stop when the audio "goes to a loop" (the same note is repeated for at least 10, or even 20 seconds.

Can someone tell me if they have the same problem of mine?

Cheers, iPaz

[iPaz]

Hi guys,

time passes but I still have the problem with my MacBookPro 2,2 15''. If I try to use wuth some games, the sound has still the same problem. I am not able to understannd whether it a problem of the sound hardware (and softare as weel) or a more general problem, that is the cursor seems to freeze for a few seconds (and so the sound), then it restarts.

>> The sound seems to "loop" on a single note for a few seconds and the cursor stops <<

I am pretty sure it is a problem with the very last generation machines... like my MBP2,2 15'', since I didn't found it listed in the forum (the "long debated" sound problem is related to the absence of sound, not to my problem).

Can someone tell me if he's experiencing the same problem with the last generation machines...?

Cheers, iPaz

[zarmanto]

Well, my Core2 iMac is almost as new as your MacBookPro; introduced just under two months before the Core2 MacBookPros, it seems to me that the most significant difference between the two is the form factor. But none-the-less, I thought I'd respond just to add one more subtle factor to the equation... I have not experienced any problems at all with sound under Windows; I've enjoyed perfect audio from all of the games I've installed -- though, I must admit that's pretty much the only thing I do when I'm running Windows on my iMac... for everything else, I reboot to Mac OS X. ;)

Thus, it's entirely possible that the problem is unique to the laptops. Does anyone else have additional evidence one way or the other?

[selui]

Hi all,

Having almost the same problem (symptom) on my new MacBook Pro 2,33 GHz 15".

After installing XP via BootCamp (currently 1.1.2 beta version) I experienced the sound repeating (like if some sound buffer were continously repeating) as I logged first time into Windows, but the system didn't crash, only freezed for a while.

The same thing occours from time to time, not only in login screen, but into some apps.

I think that this "sound crackling" is not caused by sound card or sound driver, but by some system low-level driver that does "something" and takes full control of the machine's processor (or chipset) for a short period of time, and when it finishes, the system returns to its normal state. I suppose that "something" may be:
- change processor speed (based on system load)
- access to any device

My problem is not only with sound. The system is completly freezed and no need to have any sound playing.

I've downloaded Sysinternals' Process Explorer, and I advertised that, while the system is freezed, the DPCs (Deferred Procedure Calls) CPU History goes very high.

Some interesting details:

- When I use Nero to burn a disc, it takes more time than normal, and it seems that is using only one core of the CPU.
- The system goes unstable (mouse slows down) when accesing DVD for reading (or writing) at high speeds.
- The system freezes more often if I have a ExpressCard pluged in (in my case I have a Sony Vaio Memory Card Adapter, model VGP-MCA20 that is recognised by both Windows and OSX).

I hope that future versions of BootCamp would fix this issues. In the mean time, I'll try to find the problem using some debugger.

Greetings,

Jose Luis Garcia