Choppy/out of sync video/audio

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Moonyju
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Choppy/out of sync video/audio

Post by Moonyju »

Hi hi!

Ok.. so... for a little while now, any video I watch on my computer has the audio out of sync (you know, watching someone get punched 2-3 seconds before HEARING the punch...). And now videos are a bit choppy/skippy, which sometimes reduces the out of sync, sometimes increases it. And this is for ALL videos, whether streaming (on any site) or watching a DVD (and I tried various players).

I've also had A LOT of blue screens and in an attempt to help fix those, a tecchy friend of mine suggested I try updating motherboard and other drivers. Now, this model of motherboard is discontinued and so most recent drivers date back to 2011 on the ASUS website... and I don't really dare installing more recent ones I found on other sites, unless someone tells me, sure, it fits, go ahead. So, updated a few drivers (got the latest audio driver, graphics card driver), updated Flash Player and Java. Tried turning on and off hardware acceleration.

Now, as for the bluescreens, said friend reviewed some debug files I sent him, which all pointed to a Kaspersky driver being faulty. To test if it's the AV software itself being faulty or some error on the disk that Kaspersky points to, I've uninstalled Kaspersky and got another AV software (AVG). Been a couple days now... we'll see how it goes!

Over the weekend, I've noticed the graphics card temperatures spiking to 90C from 65C in less than 2 minutes while being idle in NWN. So, shut it all down, unplugged the machine, opened it and did a thorough dusting. Now temperatures are smooth and stable between 60-65C at all times! (yay!)

..... but. Videos are still choppy and audio is still out of sync. And I'm running out of ideas, short of formatting and reinstalling Windows, which I'd like to consider as a last resort. :)

I've searched the Web, did some checking following tips from forums. One of them (this post) said he looked in the registry and deleted some Master/Slave files and that did it, but not sure I want to play in there without being sure it won't completely screw up my machine (in which case, my last resort solution would likely be my only solution!).

Virus scan comes up clean.
Defrag is good.
Scandisk is good.

Also of note, maybe -- the same streamed video skips and is choppy like nothing else on Chrome and Firefox... but near half way through (when I stopped as it was late), it went smoothly on IE. *scratches head*
Now that confuses me to no end.

So. Thoughts? Ideas? Cookies?
Moonyju
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Location: *points up* That's Yana and Zunya (GMT-5/-4)

Post by Moonyju »

Alright...

It was suggested I post the motherboard and graphics card models I have.

Mobo is an ASUS M4A77TD
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M4A77TD/#overview

GPU is an nVidia GeForce 9600 GT
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop ... ce-9600-gt

The only significant changes I can think of about the time I noticed the choppy/out of sync issue is when I updated some drivers for the motherboard. I noticed it after that -- though it may not be related.
nVidia driver is up to date.

Computer runs on Windows XP SP3.
Still plenty of room on the HD (a good 400GB free).
4GB RAM.
The whole system was built from scratch with brand new hardware about 3 years ago.

The out of sync/choppyness started a few weeks ago, maybe around Easter. Before that, other than the blue screens, I didn't have any trouble with either streaming video or watching dvds (and I've been doing a lot of that lately).

Blue screens have been appearing on and off for a long while now, but increasingly more frequently in the last couple of months.

If anyone has ideas or if more info is needed, let me know! Some info might have to wait for me to get home from work, though! :)

Thankie!
Zombie
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Post by Zombie »

OK. The first thing I would do is download and run Double Driver
http://boozet.org/download.htm
This will allow you to back up your existing drivers, just incase. It is a great way to save time if you decide to do a reinstall of XP as you can just restore the drivers all at once or one at a time.

Next boot up in safe mode (hold down F8 when you see the Windows splash screen) and see if you have the same problem. You proably wont, which would tend to indicate a driver issue.

The blue screens may be important so follow these setps to stop your computer rebooting on BSOD (assuming it is)
http://malektips.com/windows_xp_0007.html
Google the BSOD code and see what sort of error it is. It may give some hints, but proably isnt related. Still it would be foolhardy not to investigate.

Driver wise I would go here and run the wizard to check if you do have the latest mother board driver.
http://www.asus.com/support/Wizard
A similar link for graphics
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Scan.aspx?lang=en-us

My gut feeling is that it is one of those two and im leaning towards Graphics. You may need to install an older driver.

Do you have a problem playing audio CDs?
Fire up NWN and play a cut sceen. Does it playback fine?
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Moonyju
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Location: *points up* That's Yana and Zunya (GMT-5/-4)

Post by Moonyju »

Alright... thanks Z!

Didn't get around to downloading Double Driver last night as I ended up working (way) late and wanted to test games/CDs and such.

My computer doesn't restart after a BSOD and so far, from what tecchy friend could see (when I can get a hold of him!) using both the codes and the debug (minidump) files I've sent him, it points to some issue caused by/linked to the Antivirus software I had. I've uninstalled it (yay for paying monies for an AV...) and installed another, see if that might help. It's only been a couple days, but so far so good. *knocks on wood!*

Also, as my PSU fan is being noisy at times, he said that that, too, could cause BSODs. So looking to get a new fan for that.... but that's been going on way longer than my sound/video issues! :)

I'll run the driver wizards from both the ASUS and nVidia sites tonight!

I played all the videos I had available in NWN and it played smoothly. Videos were great, sound wasn't skippy and was in sync. I don't know about IG sounds, I rarely play with sounds on.
Tried other "big" (though still old and small compared to what's done today :P) games (realMYST, Sherlock Holmes, NWN2) I had installed and all seemed fine.
However, smaller games (for instance Tumblebugs), although playing smoothly, had a small delay in sound effects. Like, I'd click on an icon or click to shoot a ball and I'd hear the "click" well after clicking.

Played a couple audio CDs, sound was clear and smooth. Nothing choppy that I noticed.
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