Clicking noise

-=al=-

When i play any music fiels on the comp i get this clicking noise every so often, its very annoying, the mic works fine, but once i play back any music i get this - http://www.freewebs.com/alanmckenna/clicking%20noise.mp3

(right click save target as if it doesnt work)

just a teeny clip... *


anyone know whats goin on? i have to get songs recroded and this aint helping anything

when i use headphones it sill happens so its not the speakers

Beecher

Sounds like your ASIO latency is set too low.

Eoin Madsen

Yeah, increasing the buffer size in the ASIO settings is the first thing I'd suggest anyway.

-=al=-

ive no idea what ASIO is! but i just isntalled fruity loops and i increased the buffer size to the max in to audio settins and clicked a few buttons here n there

it only really happened since i installed it,



i uunticked the "use polling" tihng and seemed to have helped a bit, but it still happens every so often, the cpu usage sometimes spiked when im using that program

Eoin Madsen

Are you recording into Fruity Loops?

-=al=-

Nope, Cool edit pro, it doesnt seem to have a problem when im recording onto it, just when i play it back sometimes it comes n goes i tried closing all the backround running programs too

but ti started since i installed it, i also put 200mb worth of durm samples on the comp at the same time, but ive 140GB free... =/

Eoin Madsen

Are the clicks happening consistantly or randomly in the playback? Does it happen during playback in all applications or just Fruity Loops? What sample rate are you recording at?

What speed is your CPU, how much memory do you have, and what speed is the harddrive (ATA-100/SATA-150 etc)? When did you last defragment the drive? And do you have a soundcard or is that the onboard one you're using?

-=al=-

Lotsa questions...

randomly clicking every so often sometimes it may not for a while.. and its any music file in a program, itunes, media play, realplayer etc...

16 bit 44khz

Got the comp 6 months ago and its a compaq precario... 512MB. athlon AMD 64 processor, 256mb graphics, 160GB hard drive and the soundcards onboard - realtek AC97 Audio

and ive 138GB free, havnt defraged it i dont it once before on my old comp and completly ****ed it up



and the OS is Windows Xp

cornbb

Your computer looks fine, except maybe for the soundcard. Might be worth investing in a new soundcard if you plan to do any serious musical stuff. Onboard soundcards are usually crap. At the very minimum, I'd buy a Creative Audigy 2, if you are recording with "proper" mics and need phantom power then you should spend upwards of €200.

If you don't want to spend money, you could try getting ASIO4ALL drivers for your current soundcard. ASIO (audio stream input/output) is a protocol developed by steinberg that allows for more powerful and flexible audio drivers. ASIO4ALL is a universal ASIO driver that supposedly works on all soundcards, even the low quality in built ones. Using it might be the cheapest way to solve your problems but aint guaranteed to work

Eoin Madsen

-=al=- wrote:

and ive 138GB free, havnt defraged it i dont it once before on my old comp and completly ****ed it up

Defragmenting is good. **** happens sometimes, but your computer or HDD can die at any moment for a half dozen reasons , so forget about it and get back to taking care of your HDD.

I'd imagine the onboard sound is the problem anyway, whether through a driver issue or a hardware failure. They tend to be unreliable either way. Last time I saw "Realtek AC97 Audio" I was hearing clicks and pops as well, but I never bothered to troubleshoot it too extensively. I'd recommend you buy a new soundcard. The Creative Audigy is a good suggestion.

mike65

If all music files prompt random clicks then its not going to be the software. The realtek chip is junk frankly.

Rather then go for an Audigy have you thought about a M Audio card? High quality 24 bit and good drivers.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496-main.html

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile192-main.html

Mike.

-=al=-

k so its def the onboard sound, im half way thru recordings songs, so i think ill really consider changing it afterwards

but for now is there anything i can change around to help it a bit?