# Sound problems in Vista **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 10, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-problems-in-vista/462943 "2008-09-10T14:43:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-problems-in-vista/462943/1 "2008-09-10T14:43:14Z")
The reason I’m placing this post in MPSIMS rather than general questions is because although I’d love to discover the answer, (and if any doper does have the answer, don’t be shy) I just want to express my frustration in not being able to find the answer. I have Vista ultimate on my laptop, with the service pack downloaded. Since day one, I’ve had problems with the sound. Whenever something else is happening on the computer, the sound stutters briefly. This can include something as minor as opening or closing a window. I have googled this problem, and just by entering ‘sound stutters Vista’, it will bring up 77,500 results. Various solutions have been suggested, and I have tried some, but with no success. This is obviously a major problem, faced by many people. It is a basic requirement of a modern computer to be able to play music, so I am amazed that no definitive solution has been found. I appreciate that by the time you have included, as possible causes that I have seen suggested, all the various drivers, power management operations, the under and overclocking of CPUs, wireless networking options etc, there could be a variety of solutions. But I find it hard to believe that so many different components can interfere with Vista’s ability to be able to produce sound smoothly. I just suspect, from a totally non-technical point of view, that basically Vista is crap. Yes, I do think that Vista as an operating system does leave an awful lot to be desired. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-problems-in-vista/462943/2 "2008-09-10T23:43:55Z")
Hm. I have Vista on a laptop (Thinkpad T61) and haven’t run into that problem at all. What I do find, though, is that sometimes when the computer is unplugged it has some problems (flash pages cause the computer to hang sometimes when running on battery power). Plugged in there are no issues. One setting I have set in the Advanced System Properties \> Advanced \> Performance \> Advanced, specifically to improve audio in/out, is the ‘processor scheduling’ set to ‘background services’. I read somewhere that that would help the occasional hiccups I was getting using my firewire audio interface for recording (and it did). ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-problems-in-vista/462943/3 "2008-09-11T07:31:35Z")
Yes. I too had this problem. I installed a sound card. Motherboard sound chipsets are usually pretty poor anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-problems-in-vista/462943/4 "2008-09-11T10:20:46Z")
Can you hear anything? Maybe you’re deaf. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-problems-in-vista/462943/5 "2008-09-11T12:17:04Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > One setting I have set in the Advanced System Properties \> Advanced \> Performance \> Advanced, specifically to improve audio in/out, is the ‘processor scheduling’ set to ‘background services’. I read somewhere that that would help the occasional hiccups I was getting using my firewire audio interface for recording (and it did). This is what is so amazing about the Dope. I googled this till I dropped, and no-one came up with this solution. (So far - because I’m a pessimist) it’s now working fine. **Eonwe** - if you’re female, a big wet smack on the lips; if you’re male, a manly slap on the shoulder. Many thanks. You’ve made an old man very happy. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-problems-in-vista/462943/6 "2008-09-11T12:18:09Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Can you hear anything? Maybe you’re deaf. What?! What?! Speak up and stop mumbling. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-problems-in-vista/462943/7 "2008-09-12T03:26:01Z")
> [@NineToTheSky](#): > > This is what is so amazing about the Dope. I googled this till I dropped, and no-one came up with this solution. (So far - because I’m a pessimist) it’s now working fine. > > **Eonwe** - if you’re female, a big wet smack on the lips; if you’re male, a manly slap on the shoulder. Many thanks. You’ve made an old man very happy. (I’m a guy, so I’ll take the shoulder slap :)) So did that work? My understanding is that it puts a priority on processes that are running in the background (audio, video, I/O, stuff like that).