Aluminum MacBook Vista Sound Problems

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Level 1

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Aluminum MacBook Vista Sound Problems

Has anyone else with the Alum MacBook loaded Vista and experienced sound glitches when playing any sounds? My machine will have sound stuttering lasting 3-5 sec occuring every 2-3 min. Works fine in OS_X but never in Vista. I,m trying to decide if I need to return or exchange the machine. AppleCare is clueless on the problem other than blaming the drivers. I have reloaded Vista Home prem 32bit, BootCamp 2.0, Updated 2.1 BootCamp drivers, changed the realtek driver in Vista, updated to 1 month old realtek new driver, and lastly disabled the onboard audio and installed a new Creative external USB sound card ALL to NO Avail. I have 5 days left to return the notebook, but otherwise I love the new MacBook. Any other thoughts or experience appreciated.

MacBook Alum, Mac OS X (10.5.5), OS X/Vista

Posted on Oct 28, 2008 11:42 AM

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Answer 1

jcweiss

Level 1

0 points

Oct 29, 2008 5:10 PM in response to GeirNess

Hi there,
first of all please disregard my english which isn't the best.

Today I got myself the MacBook Alu 2,4.
I also installed Vista (Business) with the latest ServicePack 1. I too have the sound gliches when playing music, and only in Vista, not in Mac OS.

Therefore it has to be a driver problem. Funnily, it isn't the audio driver which is causing the problem, it is the driver for the wireless card.

If you turn off the Wireless Network Card in the Control Panel, the sound gliching should be gone. Please try that and let me know.

If you can tell me where to get newer drivers for the wireless card which hopefully would solve the problem, please let me know.

J.

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Answer 2

AlexP08

Level 1

0 points

Oct 30, 2008 1:42 AM in response to GeirNess

I analyzed and fixed the audio problem. This fix also improved the MacBook battery life. Take a look here: http://alexpopovich.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/macbook-rev-f-audio-skipping-in-vis ta-analisys-and-solution/

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Answer 3

akinsey

Level 1

0 points

Oct 30, 2008 2:39 AM in response to AlexP08

Thank you. For those of you unclear on how to change kbdMgr.exe to run on 1 core and have a idle priority:

Open taskmanager right click on KbdMgr.exe then set Affinity. Uncheck the second core. Right click on it again, then set Priority, set the priority to low.

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Answer 4

Pancenter

Level 6

14,788 points

Oct 30, 2008 2:57 AM in response to AlexP08

AlexP08 wrote:
I analyzed and fixed the audio problem. This fix also improved the MacBook battery life. Take a look here: http://alexpopovich.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/macbook-rev-f-audio-skipping-in-vis ta-analisys-and-solution/

You make several mistakes and assumptions about Windows that are totally incorrect.

It's simply a poorly written or incorrectly configured Apple driver that's causing the problem. Windows streams audio perfectly well, even on an average or below average PC. Do you remember the Apple airport update that messed up audio with glitches and garbled sound? Apple had raised the task priority of Airport such that it would steal interrupt cycles and cause audio to glitch.
Same thing... OSX is not a real-time OS either, that's why MIDI timing was better when drivers could directly access the hardware.

pancenter-

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Answer 5

Nov 1, 2008 3:55 PM in response to AlexP08

I'm having the same issue, but this fix didn't work for me. I'm still experiencing the issue.

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Answer 6

Nov 2, 2008 8:09 AM in response to MattC1414

I found a solution for the sound "cracking" issue. It's less than ideal, but it does work: The application "Vista Anti Lag", while running, completely prevents the problem from happening. It can be downloaded here: http://www.codecase.de/en/vista-anti-lag

It's not entirely clear to me exactly what the application does, but from what I can gather, it prevents the scanning that the wifi adapter does every 30-60 seconds or prevents it from causing an issue. Why the wifi adapter's scanning would cause an issue in the first place is beyond me, however... Clearly it's a matter of another poorly-written driver.

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Answer 7

Nov 3, 2008 5:43 PM in response to jcweiss

Hello:

I have had the exact same issues as you; garbled audio and glitches in Vista, but not in OS X.

Yup, the cause you describe seems to be 100% accurate. I turned off the wireless adapter and sound glitches were gone. Just to troubleshoot, and out of curiosity, I tried installing the other Broadcom drivers that come on the Apple install disc. The XP installed, but the garbled glitches still come back. The Vista 64 driver wouldn't let me install it on my Vista 32 bit system. Broadcom or Apple, please get us new drivers!

Does anyone know the link to the Apple feedback page? Please, everybody, send your comments to them and a link to this thread!

Dan

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Answer 8

Nov 3, 2008 8:11 PM in response to GeirNess

Hello. Me again. I had pretty good results by following the workaround suggested by Flying Dutchman here:

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8374502#8374502

Distortion, pops, glitches and garble is not 100% eliminated, but reduced significanly by anywhere from 95%-98%. Definitely makes it waaaay more acceptable.

My guess is that Broadcom or Apple will soon (hopefully) release a real driver update for the wireless-n adapter, but in the meantime, this is a HUGE relief.

Thanks, Dutchman!

Dan

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Answer 9

Nov 6, 2008 9:27 PM in response to GeirNess

im having the same problems.
hope apple release a fix for this

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Answer 10

BOSKMD

Level 1

8 points

Nov 25, 2008 3:14 PM in response to superjeff

I've had the same issues as well. I have also notified Apple...unsurprisingly to no avail.

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