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[datdude]

I am running Vista Home Premium.  I have a large 24" monitor which generates quite a bit of heat and I have my power options set to auto turn it off after 5 minutes of no use.  EVERY TIME I turn the monitor back on, the Audio skips in MC, iTunes, and WMP.  It even happens when going out of my screen saver.

I have a new computer so I can't imagine it is for a lack of specs.

What could be the issue?  Anyone else hear this happen?

[benn600]

Vista just plain sucks...sorry but it's true.  I was running it (24" & 21" LCDs) with the Audigy2 (Premium, Pro, whatever mine is) and the audio skipped horribly.  Finally I found a good driver and the issue stopped.  I think I still had skipping from time to time, though.

When skipping is noticeable I often wonder if it could ever lower the sound quality without notice...?  So I go to all the effort to store FLAC and something out of my control could potentially be destroying the quality gain.

My monitors generate a ton of heat as well but luckily they are almost 10 feet away from my desktop, which is a heater...more and more upsetting as temperatures raise.

[JimH]

Maybe the power draw does something?  Is it plugged into the same outlet?

[Frobozz]

Some ideas:

Make sure the computer isn't going into sleep mode or hibernate mode when the display turns off.  Type "Power Options" in the Start Menu search box to get to the power options settings.  Disable options that put the computer to sleep.  Disable advanced options that put the computer in sleep mode or hibernate mode.

Disable the feature of UAC that does the "fade to black" secure desktop when the UAC prompt is displayed.  That switch to the secure desktop can cause audio to skip or pause.  This blog post explains how to disable that feature of UAC without completely disabling UAC.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=436

Make sure you have the latest drivers for your audio card or audio chip.

[datdude]

Thanks for the suggestions.  Already have UAC disabled, and all it takes is simply turning the monitor off manually then back on that causes the stutter.  I updated the drivers and tried putting it in a different outlet in a different room, and that did not work.

[JimH]

Is the power supply big enough?

[datdude]

I think  you mean in the PC?  I will check.  What is recommended?

[Frobozz]

What is recommended for a power supply depends on whether you have generic power supply or a premium well engineered power supply.  With a generic power supply you may have to significantly overspec it in terms of wattage in order for it to meet the necessary power needs.  With a premium power supply you can get away with using a much more frugal power supply with no problems.

SPCR has a good power supply fundamentals article.

I've had power supplies fail and when that happens you end up feeling lucky that the failing power supply didn't take your hard drives and other components with it as it gave it's last gasp.  After that experience I stick with premium power supplies like Seasonic.

It is conceivable that your graphics card may be powering down when the monitor is powered off.  If that is the case then the video card powering up again would put demands on the power supply.

Another possibility would be IRQ sharing.  Maybe the sound card is sharing an IRQ with other components.  Figuring out how to get the sound card on its own IRQ might improve things.

You can also try running the DPC Latency Checker.  Run the latency checker as you turn the monitor on and off.

[benn600]

Are you using some sort of UPS?  Perhaps the power draw is causing AVR to kick in and it isn't working properly?

[DarkPenguin]

Try updating your video driver.  It is clearly doing something blocking in the kernel when that monitor is turned on.  I believe the sound stuff is in user space these days.  (Where kernel stuff can interrupt it.)

List of useful Vista things I've discovered so far...

1. Neato search.
2. Better management of monitor profiles.
3. Actually finds things on my network that Xp couldn't.  (Like my NAS.)
4. Actually tries to recover from some errors before blue screening just like always.  (The few seconds of hope are nice.)

That is all.

[datdude]

Still haven't solved the problem.  I tried the DPC latency Checker and it shoots up high in to the 'red' when I turn the monitor back on and it tells me there is some sort of driver problem.  I tried disabling just about every thing to if it went away but that did not help.  I have updated my video and audio drivers to the latest and tried rolling back to the originals as well, but no luck.

I then called up HP they even took control of my PC and spent 3 days researching the problem ultimately saying they have no idea will give me a new PC.  That's cool but it's pretty much brand new and I'm pretty sure the issue has been happening since I got it about 2 months ago.

I am thinking of restoring the computer to factory settings and see what happens.  If it is still there, then I'll just get the new PC.  Is there anyway to do that and keep my current partition OS as it is?

[Frobozz]

I am thinking of restoring the computer to factory settings and see what happens.  If it is still there, then I'll just get the new PC.  Is there anyway to do that and keep my current partition OS as it is?

Yes, that is possible.
What you do is make an image of your C drive.  Save the image file on an external hard drive.
If you have a D partition on the same physical hard drive as C then make an image of your D drive also.  Some manufacturer restore programs end up wiping the D drive as well when you restore back to factory defaults.  I'm not sure if HP does that or not.  Better safe than sorry, to make sure to have a backup of D or any other partitions that are on the same physical hard drive as C.

Make the disk images using DriveImage XML: http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm
It's a free program.  A disk image is a big file that is like a picture of a partition.  Making a disk image, reformating the disk, then restoring the disk image will leave you exactly where you were before.

Make a bootable DVD using Vista PE: http://www.vistape.net/vistape.html
Vista PE includes DriveImage XML on it.
Since OEM computers don't come with a Vista DVD you'll need to use the Windows Automated Installation Kit option when creating your Vista PE disk.  The Vista PE web page explains that and contains a link to download the kit.
If you know someone who has a Vista install DVD you can use that DVD to make your Vista PE disk.

To restore your C drive you will boot using the Vista PE disk.  Run DriveImage XML to restore the C drive image.

Before doing the factory restore make doubly sure you can boot the Vista PE disk and run DriveImage XML from the Vista PE disk.

DriveImage XML also has the option to restore individual files from a saved image.  That will allow you to, for example, restore just your Documents folder if you end up with a new machine.

[DarkPenguin]

I love HP.  Completely incompetent tech support that will replace equipment at the drop of a hat.  They didn't fix my printing problem but they sent me $250 worth of ink in the replacement printer.

Are your drives spinning down?  And do run SP1 if you are not already.  Lots of crappy little fixes.

HP machines (at least from BBY) come with some horrible anti malware product that should be disabled and replaced.  AVs can cause some odd things, too.  If you haven't disabled both for one monitor on test you should give it a try.

Also, there might be a driver for your specific monitor.  Might want to look for that.

More random things to try as I think of them.

Oh!  Don't forget to sort through the event logs.  Sometimes those events are helpful.

[datdude]

Ok.  I did update my monitor driver and it did not help.

So I decided to switch from HDMI to VGA via the dvi adapter.  Turn my monitor off and on during this mode and no hiccups.  Switch it back to HDMI and the problem returns.  I have no idea what this tells me though other than my computer does not like it when it has to boot up the HDMI source.

Note that my audio is coming out via standard mini rca plug from the motherboard.

[datdude]

I used DVI and the same issue happens, though the stuttering is slightly less pronounced but lasts just as long.

[lexluthor]

Make a bootable DVD using Vista PE: http://www.vistape.net/vistape.html
Vista PE includes DriveImage XML on it.

You say that VistaPE included DriveImageXML.

I don't see where DriveImageXML is included anywhere in VistaPE.

Could you please assist as to how I get DriveImageXML loaded on a VistaPE CD?

Thnaks!

[protocol1]

I am having the exact same issue that datdude has, same card (8500 GT) and same audio hiccups. I ran DPC Latency checker and see major spikes during this time. If I let the DPC Latency Checker run, while the HDMI is unplugged, then plug in again to view the results latency looks good. DatDude, did you solve your issue?