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Sound stuttering after Mountain Lion install

Dear community,


after having installed OSX Mountain Lion my sound startet stuttering whenever there is rapid movement on my screen.

This includes e.g. window movement, scrolling through image loaded websites or video playback (flash player, quicktime).

A restart didn't help. I'm using stereo output, not digital.


I have connected a second monitor but the problem persists after disconnecting it. Movement on the second monitor also causes the sound to stutter.

My GPU Diode temperature is at 85°C (there is some bug that keeps the GPU under load while a second monitor is connected AFAIK), but I guess it was the same under Snow Leopard.


In Snow Leopard the sound output was always perfect even under heavy load or heavy HDD I/O.


Any ideas?

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Jul 28, 2012 5:48 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 28, 2012 3:22 PM

I am also having this issue as well.


I opened Activity Monitor and noticed that during the stuttering, coreaudiod jumps in CPU usage, often past 5%. I have also noticed graphics lag when this occurs if I'm doing something like watching full-screen video or gaming.


I'm currently experiencing this on mid 2011 iMac 27" as well as a 24" iMac 2009 model I use at work.

1,223 replies

Dec 7, 2012 9:23 AM in response to tttxx

An update appeared today for June 2012 MacBook Pros which I've just downloaded with the hope that it might solve the problem but the stuttering is worse than ever - taking over 20 minutes to play a 5 minute song!


Plus now frequent lock ups (with beach balls) and an age to switch applications.


I'm glad to hear that those of you with 2011 iMacs seem to have the problem resolved with the 10.8.3 beta but I've had the problem with a different machine and graphics driver - is there anyone on the beta with a mid-2012 MacBook Pro who had this problem and, if so, can you confirm if everything's working well?


Apart from the fact that my Mac is unusable, I'd just like some assurance that there is a light at the end of this particular tunnel.

Dec 7, 2012 9:24 AM in response to FrederikY

I have the same issue since I've installed Mountain Lion on my iMac late 2009 27" i7. I'm Apple user for quite some time now and paid a lot for all these devices and this is the first time (also including that I can't reset my security questions) that I'm really frustrated. I use this machine for sound production and it's unusable since 2 months now. I hope they will release 10.8.3 as soon as possible because I don't want to use torrents as I don't have anything illegal on my machines and I don't want to start with it because of this.

It's not only the sound stutter, my iMac is so hot that I can use it to heat my whole aparment.


I never want to go back to windows my history is: DOS, Windows NT, 95, 98, 98SE, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, 7, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion.

Leopard and Snow Leopard was the greatest thing ever to me, but also Lion gave me a lot of issues (WIFI connection loss), they really need to start getting back on track with OSX.


Here's my latency log:

delays < 10 usecs 24631 62905

delays < 20 usecs 3309 2776

delays < 30 usecs 107 845

delays < 40 usecs 45 299

delays < 50 usecs 37 206

delays < 60 usecs 20 153

delays < 70 usecs 295 92

delays < 80 usecs 52 99

delays < 90 usecs 13 176

delays < 100 usecs 6 24

total < 100 usecs 28515 67575



delays < 200 usecs 3 24

delays < 300 usecs 0 0

delays < 400 usecs 0 0

delays < 500 usecs 0 0

delays < 600 usecs 0 0

delays < 700 usecs 0 0

delays < 800 usecs 0 1

delays < 900 usecs 0 0

delays < 1 msec 0 0

total < 1 msec 3 25



delays < 2 msecs 0 1

delays < 3 msecs 0 0

delays < 4 msecs 0 0

delays < 5 msecs 0 0

delays < 6 msecs 0 0

delays < 7 msecs 0 0

delays < 8 msecs 0 0

delays < 9 msecs 0 0

delays < 10 msecs 0 0

total < 10 msecs 0 1

Dec 7, 2012 10:42 AM in response to Chris Vice

OK wow: IS THIS A DREAM?

Mac OSX 10.8.3 really fixed our issue! I can run Minecraft, Xonotic, Xcode, Motion, iMovie… AT THE SAME TIME and get 0 stutters in EyeTV and 0 stutters in iTunes!

This is so mamzing! Thank you very much!


But hey, this updates comes half a year too late^^


And to top it of: The machine seems to stay a bit cooler than in 10.8.2…(you can touch it without burning your hand^^)

User uploaded file

Dec 9, 2012 4:02 PM in response to tttxx

Just adding my experience to the stew: I very cautiously upgraded my mid 2009 MBP 13" from SL to ML this week and have been very pleased with the results. It's actually made my computer faster, which was a huge relief after all the CPU lag/fan issues people have been having. So I stand as proof that a mid 2009 MBP w/ 8GB RAM & a hybrid drive works great. That is, until last night: iTunes has started stuttering. Total drag. It's not terrible, but it's happening, especially when I'm using Mail. I'm glad to hear the 10.8.3. BETA has been fixing this for people.


Apple, release the bats! I need my iTunes like the babe needs the teat.

Dec 9, 2012 6:26 PM in response to FrederikY

that's all well and good but I don't have access to 10.8.3 and apple's support has been completely unhelpful. I just had a rep last week tell me to use capture data and he said he was going to call yesterday but I got no call, no response to my voice mail, and I sent another email today which also got no reply.


the last time I brought my computer to the apple store they were pretty rude to me and gave me back my computer with chipped glass (which I still haven't bothered to fix since it will cost me $50 to get my computer to the apple store and back in a cab). they also said I had no sound problems and basically called me a liar.


needless to say I am extremely frustrated and would have ditched this machine for windows if it were feasable to do the work I do without using OS X (it isn't)

Dec 9, 2012 7:41 PM in response to bms82

I agree bms82, that is the reason why I havent' reinstalled ML and taken my iMac to the Apple Store, it's too big to take on the bus, I'd have to use a Cab!

And once again, shutting the iMac down for a while and restarting seems to cure the Audio Problem, unless it is running for about an hour or so, then the sound problem is back! I doubt I'll get anyone patient enough to listen to my machine for that long! It will sound great for a while, but when I get it back home and get past 1/2 hour of a TV show, Movie, or Music, then the problem will return!

I truly hope this possible update is going to fix this problem, we have had enough waiting around with our big iMacs and all the great potential the possess, just to have the new OS make them sound like a cheap AM radio getting bad reception!


One other interesting thing, If Apple doesnt' want to acknowlege there really is a problem with our machines and the problem software, why is there on-going editing of this discussion?

How many times has someone seen their posts deleted?


Let's get this 10.8.3 ready, and Fix Our Problems! my iMac is far too powerful to have to be relegated to the last OS just so everything works properly, when all I want to do is use the newest most up to date version!

Why does my i7 iMac with 2GB of video power and a 1 TB drive choke on Mountain Lion when it is perfetctly fine on Lion and Snow Leopard?

-_-

Sound stuttering after Mountain Lion install

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