Sound stuttering after Mountain Lion install

Considering the longevity of this problem, Apple apparently has not found the common thread that unmasks the culprit. I rarely watch video streams or listen to audo anything. My first aquaintance with this issue happened with missing type to display and stalls when changing windows.

Since that time I have expanded my search to find other events that coincide. Stored audio and video and well as video streams all fit that coincident criteria. Each have exhibited common traits such as synchronized occurance with this stalling issue.

It would be nice if design flaws would limit their tenacles of influence. Its my experience as a hardware and software designer that such form fitting flaws rarely occur. We must fix the simple problems first, the difficult problems will disappear.

Stalling is common characteristic of multi tasking. Knowing the depth and girth helps to pin point the possible causes.

Most designers can explain their design devoid of flaws until a symptom is known. In this case stalling is the problem. The problem seems to be independent of hardware. Many with a wide array of hardware configuations are reporting the problem. The problem follows OSX versions. There seems to be an expanding list of ways stalling is experienced, iTunes being one of the first observations. Since that initial report the breath of stalling reports is expanding.

We know OSX versions is common to all these reports. Its possible that we can patch iTunes to get around stalls with iTunes and not have fixed the core issue? Historically we can cite such experiences.

@jimoase - For me, I can type without any stutter. I typed a few sentences in TextEdit and Page without any delay or stutter. On my Mac, I am not sure when the audio stutter occurs... I was thinking it was when I was browsing, but I then again, I was just watching a video (from my computer, not the Internet) and it stuttered twice... It's just annoying.

Mostly I find the sound cutting out on iTunes. However, the problem is intermittent. Sometimes, I will go an hour or so with no problems and other times, the sound cuts out for second or so periods every couple of minutes or so.

In addition, as I've said before, I've had pauses when typing text. I notice this first on Mail, when typing an email. I'd be typing and then the letters would stop appearing, there would be a pause, then four or five letters would appear on the screen at the same time. While the pause was taking place, the cursor would change to the spinning beach ball.

I've also seen this pause when typing in a text box in Safari - same symptoms.

And, I've seen a short delay and the spinning beach ball when selecting a folder in the Finder browser. I click on the folder and instead of seeing the contents in the browser, I see the spinning beach ball. After a second or two, the folder contents appear. These effects happen only seldom, but when they happen it is clear that something is not right.

All of these problems began (on my 2009 iMac) when I upgraded from 10.8.2 to 10.8.3.

I do have the latest distributions of Flash Player and Java added to my system. I wonder if either of these, interacting with the system, could be the culprit.

In any case .. message to Apple: Put a few trainees on the computer for a few days and I'm almost certain someone will report a problem, especially if they are on different hardware configurations.

Tom

Can't confirm.

Thanks for taking the time to look into this.

My experience is that I can often type continuously for long periods and not experience a stall. Then after a pause or delete or something that changes routines a stall will occur. So far I have not been able to find a predictable routine, only tendencies.

When typing stalls, keystrokes don't immediately appear on the display, in that case most times something else, audio or video, will stall.

I have taken to listening to audio just to get a audio feedback of a stall as a predictor of a keyboard entry stall or visaversa. The sychronization of these events is extremely high, kind of like catching a movement out of the corner of your eye. Not always sure what happened.

Key entry stalls often lead into the beachball appearing. I have not seen that happen with video or audio stalls alone. I have seen, although rarely, video or audio stalls not recovering untl the application is restarted.

In time a pattern will appear. In time someone familar with the tasking routines will see a link between that pattern and process flow.

Has anyone experienced longer periods before stalls after clearing caches?

I was attempting to implement a completely ridiculous (temporary) workaround by connecting my iPod to the Line In on my Mac Pro, so at least I could listen to music through my computer speakers without skipping... (using LineIn app from Rogue Amoeba)...

Well, that didn't work. THANKS APPLE (sarastic)! It skips too. This is ridiculous. I can't listen to music on my Mac or watch videos without the stupid skip (and I wasn't even doing anything else when it occured... just playing music).

I submitted a bug report for it (instead of just feedback) and tried to call Apple Care (I got disconnected so I still have to call back, but I highly doubt they will be able to offer a solution, as this appears to be a software glitch in Mountain Lion)...

Is there any other way to get Apple to fix this other than playing the waiting game, or downgrading back to Snow Leopard... or maybe I should go back to using a boombox, at least that didn't skip. 😐

"Is there any other way to get Apple to fix this other than playing the waiting game...."

Competition gets things fixed.

Microsoft did a lot more with Windows when Apple begin to make real inroads into their pocket book.

Right now Apple is void of serious competition.

Well I haven't been following this thread for a long time...

I installed the update they issued which was supposed to fix the problem.

The problem is not fixed. Watched a movie on iTunes last night, studder all over the freakin' place. A total mess.

I though people who had downloaded the update illegally said it fixed the problem? Sure as **** didn't fix it here.

I don't think I've ever seen this thread before, despite having researched the topic for over a year. I trace the stuttering problem back my upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion. I'm still on Lion (on an older MacBook) and the problem occurs much as it is being described here by others.

I've taken to using iPhone and iPad for as much audio as possible and I never have the problem when doing that.

But in the absence of a Flash Player in iOS 6, I'm sometimes forced to watch/listen in Mac OS, where the problem is ever present or lurking behind some indecipherable process or piece of hardware.

I haven't read about the so-called update, but I'll try it soon.

You've given me hope.

Late 2009 Macbook Pro here. I have had problems with audio stutter for the longest time. I thought it was Mountain Lion as well, but I have recenlty downgraded back to Snow Leopard and I'm still getting stutter in iTunes 11. Performance in every other area, however, has increased by 100% (if anybody else is having performance issues with their pre-2012 MBP running mountain lion, i'd advise you to go back to the operating system that your computer was shipped with.) Anyways, just thought i'd share - this is NOT only a Mountain Lion issue. Hopefully somebody finds a fix cause it's extremely annoying!

the same for me....in my macbook pro 2009 i've returned in snow leopard but the stutter till there..probably the problem come from efi update..i don't know what is the problem...

Just an update - it turns out that my sound cut-out problems were the result of a failing hard drive, not something inherent in OS X. I had one of the defective Seagate drives installed in 2009 iMacs. The drive began reallocating blocks and this reallocation activity caused a lot of problems, most notably sound cut-outs. The Apple Store replaced the drive and now sound (and disk access in general) is normal.

Tom

We have an iMac (2011) and my MacBook Pro (2011). Both have hard drives, both have stuttering problems.

I wonder which Macs have exhibited stalling?

Gleaning this discussion we have heard reports from

MacBooks several vintages

iMacs

Minis

Mac Pro

Some with hard drives, some with solid state drives, some current models, some at least 4 years old.

There seem to be more people with MacBook Pros reporting problems.

I am using an almost maxed out iMac 27 inch and I am experiencing the same issue from time to time. I also noticed a small delay when you type, whether it's in a browser or in a text editor. I don't use too many applications simultaneously, however sometimes it does help closing some of them, like Steam. Nevertheless it does not work as a permanent fix and the text input delay along with iTunes stuttering still exists. My 2 cents.

Can't confirm.