Sound Lag Issue
 

So my dads computer isn't that new, in fact its a P4 system.
It was pretty much just bought to do daily computer tasks like send email and the occasional youtube. Was put together around 3 years ago. It has about 768mb RAM 2.4GHz (i think) CPU...built in videocard (missing driver) and a newly bought Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 7.1 sound card.

Heres the problem, last week he bought new logitech speakers. When I replaced his old speakers (which worked fine just bad quality) the computers audio began to lagg (it originally ran on the stock sound card). So i bought him a new sound card thinking it would solve the problem.

HOWEVER, after install anthe sound car and everything, the problem still persists. The sound (ie. music, videos, msn log in...even the ding you get from testing the volume) laggs like HELL...like it will be all choppy and slowed down. It is especially slow when the computer is doing something like starting up a new program ect.

How can I solve this? is it because theres no display driver causing the computer to lag? the display does lag somewhat but not a problem. what else can be causing this lag?

any help is appreciated!

Changing analog speakers will not cause the problem you describe. How long is the delay? Something may have happened that causes system resources to be used up thus causing the delay. I would try watching Performance for any clues.

ctrl + alt + delete

go to task manager, and check the performance tab
see how much ram is being used up and if or not the processor is at max load

report back :P

well did you try putting the crappy old speakers back before you bought a new sound card?

when sounds play, the CPU usage goes up to like 77% ish but when its not its just like normal around 10-25%...X_X

ya its the same...the speakers work fine on anything else :/

The CPU usage at 77% is your problem. It should be under 10%. Go the Processes Tab of the same window and sort by "CPU". Watch to see which process is using up the CPU. The next step is more difficult. You need to find a way to reduce this usage. Try a Google search on the process to see what it is.

Since you mentioned the videocard drivers are missing (and they aren't hard to install)...I might as well ask:

Are the sound card drivers installed properly? Or did you just throw the sound card in and hope for the best?
Check out Creative's website for drivers.

unfortunately, most of the high usage (some are over 50K) is essential stuff like explorer.exe and svchost.exe and some stuff like firefox and msnmsgr...does this mean the computer is too slow to do these simple tasks? is the only way to solve this an upgrade?

its weird cuz it used to run fine before :/ not sure whats causing this excess CPU usage...would uninstalling useless apps and doing a defrag do any good?

yep i installed the soundcard in properly and installed the driver...i hv custom pc assembly experience so im pretty sure its in correctly :P...the video driver is motherboard built in and i can no longer find the driver disk :/

^
use cpu-z to find out the motherboard model, then dl the videodriver from the site

I hope I didn't offend you, but it was worth asking.

Are you familiar with IRQ sharing?
Try moving the sound card to a different PCI slot, which should force a different IRQ....some components don't like sharing IRQs with each other
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have you tried going back to the onboard audio?

haha i know the gist of it and ya i tried 2 slots...it might be worth a try to try the 3rd?...should i uninstall driver before moving to try another slot?
haha and nope its ok :thumbsup:

hmm...went back to onboard and switched the source on the comp but now the right channel is cut out...not completely just super quiet...damn this computer is full of fail :mad:

make sure the jack is clean/it's plugged in all the way?

yes..drivers should be uninstalled before moving