Audio keeps cutting out.

Any help with this one??? I start my computer and can play audio for a short time then the sound shuts down... we've tried using other speakers in other ports but have the same trouble. I'm wondering if this has anyting to do with a conflict in software somewhere, but I don't know where to look to find out.

[Josh Harrison]

To narrow it down to a software problem, boot off something like Knoppix, and test sound in that. If it stays on and behaves - it is a software problem. If it doesn't stay on, then it is hardware.

If it is hardware, your only real option would be getting a seperate sound card and installing it.

If it's software, the first step is replacing your sound card drivers. Look under your device manager under sound,video and game controllers. Go out and find the drivers for your particular chip, and then uninstall the drivers from the device manager by right clicking on them, and hitting uninstall. Restart, then install your downloaded drivers.

I have a soundblaster xi-fi gamer, and i have tracked the problem down to eigther the actual sound card, or the driver software, i can reset the sound, by switching to entertainment mode and back to gaming mode.. it fixes the problem at least for a while, but thats about it... btw, I only have that problem with 2 games so far, Crysis and Hellgate: London, which since they are very advanced games, it leads me to believe that the Xi-Fi series has a coolant problem...

[Richard Reichenbacher]

Originally Posted by Shamrann

I have a soundblaster xi-fi gamer, and i have tracked the problem down to eigther the actual sound card, or the driver software, i can reset the sound, by switching to entertainment mode and back to gaming mode.. it fixes the problem at least for a while, but thats about it... btw, I only have that problem with 2 games so far, Crysis and Hellgate: London, which since they are very advanced games, it leads me to believe that the Xi-Fi series has a coolant problem...

Crysis and Hellgate are advanced graphically, not necessarily audibly. I play it with the intel integrated hd card and it sounds fantastic. With a quick google search I haven't found anything that would lead me to believe there is an issue with the X-Fi and cooling. It doesn't take a whole lot to cool a sound card, no matter how advanced it may be.

You problem is more than likely a driver issue. Go to the creative website > go to support > driver downloads > select your region > select your product and download and install the latest driver for it.

from me doing part time repair jobs this is quite comman. however i lernt how to fix it. it's smiple. it's heat.

The sound card in comptures are transition metals meaning if they get hot the propates change . so as your comptures temp. rises the sound card becomes less conductive.

Ideas to fix the problem (for good):
1) use high qualltiy sound card.
2) add a fan (lowers temp by about 23% each)
3) clean your compture (romve the dust as it holds heat well)
4) change north or south bridge heatsink. (this is where sound card normally passes, only gameing pcs have south bridge heatsinks)

My sound plays all choppy about ever 15-20 sec it cuts out and then keeps on going will do this all the time what can i do?

[Aaron Walker]

First, try playing audio from some other location. If you've been using iTunes, then open up a YouTube video and see if the sound is still choppy. If you find out that it's just a particular program that's giving you problems, uninstall and reinstall it. That will more likely than not fix the problem. If they're not fixed, then follow these three easy(-ish) steps:

1: Check that your speakers are functional by plugging in another set of speakers/headphones directly into your computer. If you don't get the choppiness with the new setup, then your actual speakers may have a short. If the speakers are the culprits, you should replace the speakers. If you have a laptop and the faulty speakers are inside, you should call the manufacturer, because doing replacement work on laptops can be difficult and time consuming. If you're under warranty, they'll likely fix it for you, and often for free.
If the problem is not solved, then:

2: Reinstall your audio drivers. Drivers are instructions that let your sound card play audio. Often they can get corrupted or become out of date with system updates, so getting and installing the newest ones is often a good solution.
I'm not sure what kind of system you're running, but if you Google how to reinstall drivers for "Windows __" or "Mac OS __" you should find a pretty detailed walkthrough. Google the model number of your computer, and you should find out what the audio chip is. If you scroll down this page, you'll see "Realtek High Definition Audio Driver." This is my laptop manufacturer's page, and you can see that the drivers are 1.5 years old. If you Google "Realtek High Definition Audio Driver," though, you come up with Realtek's website, where the drivers are only a week old. These have been updated, typically, to rule out old bugs the audio drivers have had, so installing new drivers could fix your problem.
To be clear--you probably won't have this sound card specifically. I'm just giving you an example of how you might find yours.
If this doesn't work:

3: If reinstalling drivers has failed, your sound card might be bad. You should call the manufacturer of your computer and see if it's still under warranty. If it is, they will try to troubleshoot your audio problem for you, and if they don't come up with any solutions, they will likely fix it.

If none of these steps work, post here again with your computer's model number so I can try to help you further. Also, you can schedule an appointment to come into our 24/7 tech support to get your problem troubleshot. It's free for all university students, so don't be afraid to take advantage of it.

Hope this helps!
-Aaron

I was having a similar issue with my sound until i unplugged the connectors for the front panel audio from the x-fi...now my sound is perfect. Hope that helps.

I'm having problems with my audio as well. Whenever I play a video (avi, DVD etc.), it's hit or miss whether the entire file will play fine, or if the sound will cut out after anywhere from 10 seconds to five minutes of play. I shut down the video file, restart it, skip to where it cut out and it will play fine (again for anywhere from 10 seconds to five minutes or more) before cutting out again. Rinse and repeat. Sometimes it WILL play an entire video file start to finish with perfect audio but more often than not, I'm sitting here restarting it over and over again just to get through the show/movie.

I've got a Gateway PC, running XP Home edition.