choppy sound on DELL Dimension 3000

[3dells]

dell 710..dell gave me a new hard drive..they even had me send them the computer when that did not work to get a new mother board with sound card..that did not work..

any suggestions?

running windows XP...Parkk,sorry that your fix did not help me.. I did the ide check thingy and nothing was in pio

thanks, anyone......

[vevebris]

YEP, thanks for this VERY useful information
just to make this clear to ignorant users like me...:


INSTRUCTIONS are:

My Computer>Properties>Harware tab>Device Manager>expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers">uninstall Primary and Secondary IDE Channels by right-clicking on them. reboot. WIndows will then find the new hardware with automatic updates. reboot again, and you're done.


if you are really lost:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7625
but instead of going into Properties, go to Uninstall.
My computer was in DMA mode all the time BUT i gave it a go anyway and it worked, thanks again PARKK.
------------------

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-----------------

Originally Posted by parkk

I found this post and used the fix on my ide controller channels and it has evidently corrected the slow performance and choppy audio. I changed the settings a few minutes ago but all choppiness is gone and programs are running faster like it was new. I went into the ide primary and secondary channel and under advanced settings, it showed that both channels were running in pio mode (which I really have no idea about). I uninstalled both channels, rebooted, and after windows automatically reinstalled the channels, they were in ultra dma mode 5 (again, no clue) and all the choppiness is gone. According to the post below, windows downgrades the channel based on errors received. I have seen where some people have the choppiness come back. This is probably because windows is once again downgrading until it is at the slow mode of pio??

I also have a laptop running xp and have the same problem. I can't wait to see if that is the issue. (It is at home)

Hope this helps everyone. I have been ticked off at this issue for darn near a year and this seems to fix it.

Good luck!

problem solved
Hi again,

For your information, i finally found a solution for my skipping sound problem!The problem turns out to be an automatic 'feature' of Windows XP, as explained on this MS Windows Platform Development Web Site:

-----------
For repeated DMA errors.

Windows XP will turn off DMA mode for a device after encountering certain errors during data transfer operations. If more that six DMA transfer timeouts occur, Windows will turn off DMA and use only PIO mode on that device.

In this case, the user cannot turn on DMA for this device. The only option for the user who wants to enable DMA mode is to uninstall and reinstall the device.

Windows XP downgrades the Ultra DMA transfer mode after receiving more than six CRC errors. Whenever possible, the operating system will step down one UDMA mode at a time (from UDMA mode 4 to UDMA mode 3, and so on).
------------

So I uninstalled the Secondary IDE channel and rebooted. Windows XP reinstalled the IDE drivers and redetected the Cd-rom drives. The drives came back to UDMA Mode 2 with no choppy sound anymore!

A+
Frank

[Lance1]

Originally Posted by parkk

I found this post and used the fix on my ide controller channels and it has evidently corrected the slow performance and choppy audio. I changed the settings a few minutes ago but all choppiness is gone and programs are running faster like it was new. I went into the ide primary and secondary channel and under advanced settings, it showed that both channels were running in pio mode (which I really have no idea about). I uninstalled both channels, rebooted, and after windows automatically reinstalled the channels, they were in ultra dma mode 5 (again, no clue) and all the choppiness is gone. According to the post below, windows downgrades the channel based on errors received. I have seen where some people have the choppiness come back. This is probably because windows is once again downgrading until it is at the slow mode of pio??

I also have a laptop running xp and have the same problem. I can't wait to see if that is the issue. (It is at home)

Hope this helps everyone. I have been ticked off at this issue for darn near a year and this seems to fix it.

Good luck!

problem solved
Hi again,

For your information, i finally found a solution for my skipping sound problem!The problem turns out to be an automatic 'feature' of Windows XP, as explained on this MS Windows Platform Development Web Site:

-----------
For repeated DMA errors.

Windows XP will turn off DMA mode for a device after encountering certain errors during data transfer operations. If more that six DMA transfer timeouts occur, Windows will turn off DMA and use only PIO mode on that device.

In this case, the user cannot turn on DMA for this device. The only option for the user who wants to enable DMA mode is to uninstall and reinstall the device.

Windows XP downgrades the Ultra DMA transfer mode after receiving more than six CRC errors. Whenever possible, the operating system will step down one UDMA mode at a time (from UDMA mode 4 to UDMA mode 3, and so on).
------------

So I uninstalled the Secondary IDE channel and rebooted. Windows XP reinstalled the IDE drivers and redetected the Cd-rom drives. The drives came back to UDMA Mode 2 with no choppy sound anymore!

A+
Frank

Hi all!

I tried uninstalling the secondary IDE then reboot but the UDMA was not there! I still had choppy sound. I went into the BIOS and found the UDMA was on but the secondary IDE slave was not seeing the CD\ROM so I set it to auto. I also set the IDE hard drive Acoustics mode to Performance. I booted to Windows and checked the IDE and UDMA 5 is now enabled and the system is a fare bit faster now as well. My sound is flawless. Thanks parkk, and a great post that solved a problem I have been living with for months.

[angelnbray01]

Hello all, I too had this problem. I , however, do not have a dell notebook. I have a gateway. I tried the fix where you uninstall and reinstall your IDE 'S and the problem went away. my CPU is also running much better. Thank you for the awesome advice!!!!!

[javajunkie]

Hi, good thread. I found it while trying to solve a new choppy sound problem on my Dell Optiplex GX620. I realize this thread is keyed to the Dimension 3000 machine, but I hope someone can provide insight for my related situation.

My machine does not have a Secondary IDE channel. It does have two Primary IDE channels, and both are set to "DMA if available". This is not an option for the Serial SATA and Ultra SATA controllers. That is, there is no "Advanced Settings" tab in the properties.

I tried uninstalling and rebooting to reinstall the audio driver, but, as expected, the choppy sound problem persists. Since I can't even see DMA options for the SATA controllers is DMA even an option?

Would uninstalling them help? Suggest doing so with the start up volume too?

Alternatively, I'm considering reinstalling Windows XP Pro SP2 from my Dell disk on top of my configuration, in hopes that it will fix any corruption and reset any DMA settings.

Feedback appreciated.

[snowmonkey]

Hi javajunkie,

Can you please specify when is the sound choppy ! while listening to audio coming from your DVD / Music CD or when you listen to music file from your PC / streamed video or Audio from the net.

Cheers

[javajunkie]

I haven't tried CDs or DVDs. It happens with audio software like ReadAudio or CoolEdit and audio files on either of the internal hard disks. System sounds such as a beep my switch box makes also sound garbled often.

I tried a system restore, no help.

[snowmonkey]

I'll look around to see if I find any help for you but for your case removing the IDE channel will not make any different........choppy sound issues with Internal IDE devices can be fixed by reinstalling the IDE controller.


Cheers

[snowmonkey]

Hey javajunkie,

Just do a quick check for me.

Go to start and type in "dxdiag"....and find out what version DirectX you are running, plus go to Sound TAB / DirectX Feature section and check to see if Hardware Sound Acceleration Level is set to maximum of not.


Cheers

[javajunkie]

Hi snowmonkey, thanks for your interest in this problem.

I did as you asked.

1. version: Directx 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
2. Acceleration level is set to max. Always has been.

In another wrinkle, my computer is having more and more trouble starting. As I think was described by others, the computer was slow to start at first, so I had to shut it off manually, and go into safe mode. It's booted okay several times, but two days in a row now I've had to insert the Windows CD to fix missing or corrupt files.

The first one was system32\config\system, and today it was system32\ntoskrnl.exe.

Luckily, just inserting the disk lets the system automatically copy the file (or so it seems), with no other action on my part.

But all this makes me wonder if I'm not in for a system reinstall regardless of what other issues I can solve. I'm reluctant to do that because of possible app reinstall hassles.

I'm really curious what would cause this cascade of symptoms.

[DidaDragonfly]

Same choppy sound problems on my father's computer!! I am trying to find an answer for him and really don't know where to begin. His computer is older, but was working fine, and now all of a sudden the sound is terrible! Haven't tried any CDs but all sounds from internet radio and Windows Media Player...choppy and skipping...ANNOYING!!

Any help would be Hugely appreciated! If you need system info, let me know. BTW, for getting System Information I stumbled on this AMAZING freeware program SIW...tells you EVERYTHING about your computer, except unfortunately, how to fix it...

here's a link http:www.gtopala.com

Thanks!
DidaDragonfly

[javajunkie]

I can at least temporarily fix the sound issue by uninstalling the driver as described earlier. The problem came back once or twice, but the same fix took care of it.

Now I have a clue why DMA might have gotten affected on my system, causing the sound problem. My main drive is going bad.

This explains the fact that my computer does not always start properly. I took the drive out and hooked it up via USB to another system. I noticed that it made a clicking sound and would not show up on the computer. After a few tries, the clicking stopped and the drive showed up in the Explorer. Intermittent failure.

So, your father may have a failing drive, like mine. Fortunately, my Optiplex is under warranty here in Thailand, and I'm getting a next day replacement of the drive after calling support today. Better support than I've gotten via the US Dell support team.

[WheresTheAnyKey]

Alright folks, I've had a similar problem including slow overall system performance. For everyone that has the DMA/PIO problem, I believe I have the fix. Resetting may work for some, but notice how it eventually lowers the DMA mode and/or switches back to PIO? It's the IDE cable!!! It's garbage! I opened up the case, swapped out the cable for the secondary IDE channel (the one that's hooked up to the CD drive) with a brand new cable and VIOLA! If anyone else tries this and it is the end-all fix, please share so everyone knows it's the way to go!

[jamshaidalipak]

Yes parkk, I agree with your solution. But the main problem that lets windows to go for PIO only is something with the logical problem with hard drive's partitions.

I'll explain it to you and will try to provide with the solution as well.

I have the same configurations as the first post's person has. But my system is not branded, I assembelled it myself. having an 80 GB Seagate hard drive.

Few weeks ago I had a problem of system crashing and slow down like having more than a minute to go to the logon screen. I went on for searching the internet for solutions but found nothing that what was letting it slow down to knees. But then, I thought of transfering all my hard drive's data to another computer and re-format it. When I tried to format the drive E:, it formatted drive F: assuming drive E:. I was shocked that why it did like this.

I went to the partitions manager by booting the system with a windows 98 CD without CD-ROM support, fdisking, I found that instead of showing four partitions, it was showing only 3 partitions, C: with primary and D: and F: with secondary. What a logical error.

Anyways, I transfered my C: and usefull other data to another computer at my home. re-partitioned my HD, and re-trasferred my data back to hard drive.

The booting went fine with less than 30 seconds, which was better than before but some slow downs even existed.

Your solution came in front of my eyes before in a search but I never bothered because I thought that IDE channels stuff as a hard drive driver's stuff. But this time when I saw your solution, I found it in simple steps and went through. Now my system is running like I just bought it.

parkk, you deserve a thanks from our side.

[kirks]

I'm new to this forum so bear with me here. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to reply to this post instead of starting a new thread. If I'm wrong, pls don't yell at me!

Anyway, I am also a victim of choppy audio and I want to make sure that I am clear on what to do to fix it. If I screw it up my wife will kill me, especially if I lose any pictures or anything off our computer. I installed a second hard drive on my Dimension 3000 in order to store all of my audio files and video files from our hard drive camcorder. Everything had been saved on the C drive before and of course slowed it down to the point that it was frusterating even to be on it. I bought the second hard drive and the tech guys from my work walked me through how to install it and partition it. Windows recognized the second drive so I thought I was home free. I transferred all of my audio files to what is now classified as the 'G' drive. Back up a bit, I also have Itunes installed. When I repopulated Itunes with my audio files and tried to play them the audio came out very choppy. I got frusterated after a while and uninstalled Itunes then tried to play the audio files on other programs like Windows Media, still choppy. I transferred a few files back to the C drive and played them and they worked fine there. Now of course my wife absolutely refuses to let me transfer any of our pictures or video files to the 'G' drive until I can prove to her that I have things fixed. I'm pretty much computer illiterate so any help I can get would be very much appreciated.