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Question

Audio Device Distorting Audio Freezing Videos

Apr 6, 2017 11:34PM PDT

Hello, I'm experiencing a playback issue. So far, it occurs when watching videos or playing music in any web browser or iTunes. I encounter it most frequently on YouTube and Netflix. Sometimes it's a distorted fuzz; other times it sounds like stuttering, or like someone's turned up glissando in an audio filter – like there's latency or a feedback loop. In some instances, the video or song will continue to play uninterrupted, but the audio will get “stuck” in a distorted state until the track is paused and restarted or started from a different point. It almost sounds like the computer is struggling to process the audio or there's some kind of conflict or interference. It can sound like a radio station only partly tuned-in.

In other cases, this problem tends to increase in severity until the program playing the audio freezes and can't play the video track at all. Other elements in the browser will work fine, but video and audio won't load. By this point, the problem can't be solved until the program playing the video is closed and restarted. In fact, even if you open a different browser and attempt playback, it will encounter the same issue until the browser that originally failed to play is closed. Then, the new browser will play audio and video. I use Firefox 64 bit (it also happens in 32 bit) with some add-blocking extensions, but these extensions are not present in other browsers wherein the problems still occur. I have turned off audio enhancements.

I don't suspect any of my hardware is deficient. I have a fairly capable processor and plenty of RAM. I even have a decent sound card for some reason. I've done the rounds updating drivers and browsers; Realtek is not on my PC and I don't have WIFI set up, which are some causes of similar problems I've read about. This seems to be an issue with a process getting gummed up and needing to be restarted. There's a registry error somewhere or a value is set wrong – some sort of memory issue that's software-related. I can't think of anything notable that was changed, installed or updated when the problem first started occurring; it's been happening for so long, but it seems to be getting gradually worse. Any advice would be appreciated.

Edit: Here's a very interesting bit of information that might help: When the distortion gets bad enough, it will stop a YouTube video from playing altogether, and the player will just show a spinning loading icon. At this point, disabling and re-enabling the Sound Blaster Audigy playback device will cause the video to resume playing, and with normal sound. What does that mean? The audio device is failing and the player is actually stopping the video playback to wait for it. I feel like I'm on to something, but I don't know enough about computers to put it together...

What I CAN tell, just as someone very right-brained, is that it just sounds like some kind of limit or cap is being reached. There's a struggle, a drag, latency, whatever you want to call it. Something is getting gummed up or overwhelmed. That just doesn't make sense to me. The machine has twelve cores and 64 gigs of RAM. There should be boundless space for whatever is happening. Something is reaching some kind of "virtual" limit. Am I being too existential?


OS: Windows 10 Pro
RAM: 64GB
CPU: Intel i7-5930K @ 3.5GHz
GPU: GTX970
Audio: Sound Blaster Audigy 5/Rx
PSU: EVGA 850W
http://speccy.piriform.com/results/0WaPsdfJY7AfNNuy7635dQu

Discussion is locked

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Answer
maybe 2 a/v's
Apr 7, 2017 8:04AM PDT

are screwing thing's up ?
ZoneAlarm Free Firewall Firewall Antivirus and Avast ?

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Answer
If this was mine.
Apr 7, 2017 8:17AM PDT

1. ZoneAlarm would be gone as there is a firewall in W10.
2. The sound card would be removed and onboard used because....
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733-19.html
3. ADFENDER has a LOT of connections to the web in this report.
I'd toss that out.
4. I'd use 8.8.8.8 and/or 4.2.2.1 for my DNS. Long ago I learned to not use 192.168.1.1 (or the router.)
5. BIOS is very out of date. CHECK MY WORK HERE.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty%20X99M%20Killer3.1/?cat=Download&os=BIOS notes microcode updates and more.

And most of all I see a 4K UHD DISPLAY on what appears to be HDMI so it's limited to 30FPS.
Try setting the video to 1080p and let the display upscale. You should get back to 60FPS and have a lower GPU load.

As we know, it takes a lot more GPU to drive 4K than what's in this box.

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Answer
Disable Sound Blaster
Apr 9, 2017 9:10PM PDT

If you disable the sound blaster, use the integrated realtek audio, the audio distorting missed?

At first, solve the audio stuttering or distorted error:

https://www.driverdr.com/windows10/realtek-audio-stuttering-after-upgrade-to-windows-10/

Update the Audio drivers, disable audio enhancement and try different audio formats.

Of course, you need to solve the sound blaster device error by update it again. Try to update the motherboard/chipset driver at the same time.

https://www.driverdr.com/windows10/fix-sound-blaster-no-sound-problem-in-windows-10/