Sound stutters in Vista using Realtek drivers

[da.Guvna]

Does anyone else here have issues with sound stuttering in Vista when using the latest R156 Vista-compatible Realtek HD Audio drivers?

I've been monitoring my CPU/RAM usage, and yeah, it spikes every now and then depending on what I'm doing, but it doesn't seem to corellate with the stutters I'm getting.

I'm running it on a Fujistu-Siemens Amilo Xi1546:

Intel Core Duo T2500 (2x 2.0GHz)
ATi Mobility Radeon X1800 (256 Mb RAM /w turbo-cache)
2 Gb PC-5300 RAM
2x 100Gb SATA in RAID0 config.

Vista Home Premium.

I didn't have any stuttering before using the default MS drivers, but I only got audio output on the right speaker, so stuttering seems to be the lesser of two evils.

I would be really interested to hear if anyone else is experiencing anything similar, or knows of a fix?

Cheers!

[Neo_VR]

Ive noticed im getting some random pops and splutters from my audigy in vista since installing the latest Nforce4 vista drivers (which i removed because it broke my NIC)

[da.Guvna]

This is really irritating me now. Realtek have launched some new drivers (R158), but I'm still getting stuttering

[TheAnimus]

what type of audio do you have to play to get the poping, if you play some WAV files in sound recorder do you still get the popping?

[da.Guvna]

Yep, happens in WAVs, MP3s, games, you name it.

In my searches, I've come across a lot of threads from the beta stages mentioning the exact same issue with Realtek sound hardware. They overcame it by installing XP drivers for the soundcard, or by downgrading their PATA/SATA drivers. (contrary to what I said above, CPU usage seems to drastically increase the stuttering.)

I've got all the latest vista drivers for my soundcard, SATA drives, and RAID controller.....but it's still stuttering. I managed to make it less frequent by turning the sample rate down within the Realtek software app, but it's still there every now and then.

There must be someone else here who uses a Realtek device and can comment? I just want to know if it's unique to me or not.

[notsobig]

Yep, I had this same problem while I was on Vista with realtek ac97 onboard. Not always but for a short period of time, say 5 minutes after booting up my pc. I think it's either a realtek driver problem or conflict between this driver and something running in the background. Anyway I got so fed up with it I am back on XP again

[this_is_gav]

Standard Realtek drivers working fine in x86 with my Core Duo (not a Core 2 Duo)

[da.Guvna]

Hmm...I might have to contact Realtek/Fujitsu tech support and see if they have any driver recommendations.

I could put up with the sound easily if I knew for certain that it would get fixed in the future, but I hate the idea of this being a permanent affliction

[Dreaming]

This is really irritating me now. Realtek have launched some new drivers (R158), but I'm still getting stuttering

I'm using 159 and all fine here...

[da.Guvna]

Cheers for letting me know

I'll give them a go. Did you have stuttering beforehand as well?

Update: Well, I just downloaded the R160 drivers, and still get the same issues.

Crap

[michigantoga]

Go to the Device Manager and update or go to Realtek and download the Vista driver. Then smiles everywhere.

[michigantoga]

I'm using 159's & it's smiles overhere also!

[this_is_gav]

Deja vu... it seems we have a man with some serious problems

[Snookieboy]

Mine only stutters when my PC is having one of those 100% cpu resource moments during say Half Life 2. Other than that no problems with the latest drivers from their website :\

[TheAnimus]

I would have a look at the interupts, make sure nothing is sharing with the sound.

But its unlikely it will be this. I think this is just a simple broken driver (sorry!).

Does the sound-card have digital out (spdif)

[Creature]

did anyone find a solution to this problem?

usen my plantronic headphones i have no probs but playing wow or HL2 i get the same
problem as the first poster