GA-MA790GP-DS4H & SPDIF stuttering problem

[Guest]

Hi,

Just installed the motherboard and all that is required. Downloaded the latest chipset and audio drivers and connected the MB to my receiver via the onboard SPDIF-out. Issue seems to be that the sound is intermittant. Hence it does produce sound, however it keeps pauzing/muting every few seconds.

Changing settings in the Realtek or Microsoft software does not give any solutions. When changing though I can see that my receiver picks up the change when going from 2.1 to 5.1 or Dolby DTS. The receiver also worked with my previous board, so not assuming that is the issue.

Any solutions or suggestions?

Specs:
MB: Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 5050E
Memory: 4x 1 GB 800 Mhz
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit
Audio chip set: High quality 106dB SNR ALC889A HD audio

Regards,
Emile

 

[bilbat]

If you got the drivers from GB, you might want to try the set here:
http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/productsView.aspx?Langid=1&PFid=28&Level=5&Conn=4&ProdID=173

 

[Guest]

Hi,

Tried those, but no luck

 

[bilbat]

Do you have anything running in the background, (perhaps you're not even aware of it - it seems like every d^&ned thing one installs these days launches some POC or other at startup...) that might be 'stealing' interrupts? I have audio stuttering problems with media center if I allow CorelIOMonitor, any Nero component, the LightScribe driver, or HWMonitorPro (which, BTW, ticks me off especially, as I use an ESA fan controller on a non-nVidia board, & need HWMonitor to set my case fan speeds - they seem to be the only ones on the planet to whom nVidia has entrusted the 'keys' to support of the supposedly 'open' ESA standard...) to run in the backgound. Windows is already poor at handling the interrupt queue, and lots of programmers seem to exacerbate this failing by writing interrupt service routines that take FOREVER!!! I do industrial control, and, when you're running some machine at five pieces per second, it's: BANG BANG, service your interrupt and MOVE ON - or everything comes to a screeching halt (or, even worse, a screeching crash)!

 

[Guest]

Just checked that. Closing all processes (got Zonealarm & iTunes running as additional services) that are not relevant (and preventing them from respawning as well).

Then just starting any application..... stu- stu- stuuuu stutter. Playing a MP3 in WMP does not get the CPU cores above 35 - 40 % in total. Biggest resource claimer: Non-active system processes.

 

[bilbat]

I'll hunt around - sometime in the past couple months, I've seen a pointer to a program that shows the pending interrupt queue depth and, I think, displays it as a graphic - what I can't recall is whether it identifies the culprits; what I'm still pondering is, now that most CPUs are at least two, and mostly four cores wide, why can't the thread handler (or, for that matter, the BIOS) 'hand off' interrupt service requests to an otherwise idle core? Bah - "if I were KING... "!!! GNYAH-HA-HA!

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the effort already bilbat. Just checked the IRQ settings: the audio chip uses 2 IRQ's: 16 & 19 which are both shared.

IRQ 16 is shared with the "Standard openHCD USB-controller"
IRQ19 is shared with the "Standard Enhanced PCI to USB-hostcontroller"

An option would be to disable the USB hubs, however I don't have a PS/2 keyboard or mouse available so I might be able to disable them, but not to enable them

 

[bilbat]

Ah HA! Finally found the little ah heck - try these:

http://www.thesycon.de/eng/free_download.shtml

 

[Guest]

Nice tool . Ran it under different circumstances and while using different apps. Sometimes it shows some correlation between the latency of the DPC's, but sometimes not at all.

Tried basically the same with ProcessExplorer and yes sometimes it shows the correlation between IRQ and DPC handling.

However, mind the "sometimes". It's not always. The stutter also occurs and the tool tells me max latency is 350 microsecs. Whereas the tool says anything over 500 is a minor obstruction.

Also tried disabling all non essentials devices, short of system, storage and USB. No avail and retested.

Just got the feeling the blasted thing should just work.

 

[bilbat]

Give it a good thump, & threaten it with a Windoze7 install DVD - that'll get it back into line...

 

[DonEmilio]

Hi Bilbat,

Just got it sorted last night. Stupid me, but nothing's seems to be wrong with the motherboard or the drivers. The optical SPDIF cable however I banged into place in the cupboard a bit to harsh it seems. Reconnecting the cable made all the stutter disappear.

On the bright side, I learned a lot again

 

[bilbat]

and isn't that (ultimately) the point of forums in the first place? ;=)

 

[Guest]

Ah HA! Finally found the little ah heck - try these:

http://www.thesycon.de/eng/free_download.shtml

THANK YOU!!!!!!!! I had extremely severe audio stuttering, and this tool showed me just how BAD my latency was (~75000 us, completely off the scale!). I was like OH CRAP, I have some severe hardware bottlenecking somewhere in this rig that I built. Spent a lot of money on it, dual gfx cards, 8 hdds, etc.... Most extreme system I ever built. As it turns out, the culprit was this stupid hwmonitor temperature reader tool. After shutting it off, I'm in the green now! :lol:

ROFL!!