I bought a G56JR and I'm having problems with the sound

[zpedro]

Hi,

So first of all I know that the G56JR is not a much liked machine around here because it's a new pc with an old gpu but let's get that out of the way. I was looking for a N550JK/JV but for the price I got my G56JR it was worth it for my needs. 😛

So I got the G56JR and immediately I had to have it replace at the store because it wouldn't recognize any speakers.

The unit was swapped and this one has a slight problem in the sound.

Whenever I play youtube videos, play music from spotify or play a movie (so it's not related only with streaming) on my G56, from time to time and randomly the sound sort of stops for milliseconds. Think of it like a cd you are playing on a cd player and you bump the player. The sound will somewhat stutter.

What should I do? Maybe install the sound drivers? I did nothing besides windows update until now...

Do any of you had any sound related problems before? Is it a thing on these G56?

Thank you in advance

[zpedro]

I was streaming most of my content over wifi. My G56 just reached 10% battery and with the warning that comes up, the sound stuttered again. So even windows sounds suffer the issue.

I've tried updating all drivers specific for the G56 before and had no luck solving this issue.

I've searched for the ones for N56JR which mine is based on and it has the same v6.0.1.7161 version...

I'll try and use the G750 ones and report back later.

[hmscott]

zpedro wrote:
I was streaming most of my content over wifi. My G56 just reached 10% battery and with the warning that comes up, the sound stuttered again. So even windows sounds suffer the issue.

I've tried updating all drivers specific for the G56 before and had no luck solving this issue.

I've searched for the ones for N56JR which mine is based on and it has the same v6.0.1.7161 version...

I'll try and use the G750 ones and report back later.

zpedro, it sounds like it could be the WLAN wifi driver needs updating - stuttering audio/video over wifi indicates a network issue rather than an audio issue, but it wouldn't hurt to update the Realtek drive from v6.0.1.7161 to V6.0.1.7235.

If you can plug in an ethernet cable between the laptop and the router or switch, you can see if the stuttering happens on wired vs wifi, that would rule out an audio problem, and make it a network problem.

Try updating the Wifi WLAN driver to the latest one available via the links I posted, and see if that solves it.

If it it keeps happening on Wifi, but not on wired ethernet, then you will need to look at the router settings for Wifi.

The G750 ones, drivers, and the drivers listed in the Notebook WLAN / Audio locations are all for the same chipset - they aren't specific to the laptop but are specific to the parts in the laptop, which are used across many models.

[zpedro]

This isn't a network problem since windows sounds just like turning the volume up and down and low battery notice also stutter...right?

Even so, I think I said before that I already updated all available drivers and the problem seems to be here anyway.

Now with the G750 drivers for realtek the problem is still here. Even when I uninstalled the sound drivers and it was running on windows sound drivers it had the problem. =/

[theclaw37]

hmscott, the stutters have nothing to do with the operation of wlan/lan, and i'm 100% sure of it. As i have said before, this is most probably a hardware interrupt / CPU load problem. The priority of the audio driver within Windows is pretty low, and when other processes tend to use the CPU more, the kernel drops Audio in favor of them.

Zpedro: This is a long shot but you can try it - On my old N55SF i had the same problem once. (It was the ASIO drivers). But using some Microsoft tool that analyzes your cpu usage (far more detailed than the task manager) i found out that the LAN driver was acting up, even though i wasn't even using it. So, as for the "long shot" try this: Disable your Wlan AND your LAN drivers from device manager, so Windows won't even see them anymore. Then play some music/movies from your computer and see if the problem persists.

[hmscott]

zpedro wrote:
This isn't a network problem since windows sounds just like turning the volume up and down and low battery notice also stutter...right?

Even so, I think I said before that I already updated all available drivers and the problem seems to be here anyway.

Now with the G750 drivers for realtek the problem is still here. Even when I uninstalled the sound drivers and it was running on windows sound drivers it had the problem. =/

theclaw37 wrote:
hmscott, the stutters have nothing to do with the operation of wlan/lan, and i'm 100% sure of it. As i have said before, this is most probably a hardware interrupt / CPU load problem. The priority of the audio driver within Windows is pretty low, and when other processes tend to use the CPU more, the kernel drops Audio in favor of them.

Zpedro: This is a long shot but you can try it - On my old N55SF i had the same problem once. (It was the ASIO drivers). But using some Microsoft tool that analyzes your cpu usage (far more detailed than the task manager) i found out that the LAN driver was acting up, even though i wasn't even using it. So, as for the "long shot" try this: Disable your Wlan AND your LAN drivers from device manager, so Windows won't even see them anymore. Then play some music/movies from your computer and see if the problem persists.

One of the things I thought of, but didn't put in yet, is to try downloading the music to the G56JR and play there to see if the problem happens there.

The low battery stutter might be unrelated, as I have heard this distortion on lots of laptops over time, the alert interrupts whatever is going on to alert you and can result in audio distortions - but if it sounded similar, that could be a clue - something else is interrupting.

It has been a long time since I have seen a system unbalanced enough to have load effect audio integrity... did you try with headphones plugged in the jack, or perhaps use Bluetooth or USB wireless headphones - to find an unaffected audio output path. Might be worth experimenting, it might help focus in on the exact source of the problem, and give you the side benefit of a work around.

You shouldn't need to worry about this...you are probably going to have to debug with Asus to figure out if this is a hardware or driver problem.

When you file the Technical Inquiry the real challenge will be to write this up so it is understandable to someone with English as a 2nd language - and still include all the details. The potential for miscommunication will be high - take your time writing it up and review it a few times after a couple of hours / day.

Let us know what you find 🙂

[zpedro]

theclaw37 wrote:
hmscott, the stutters have nothing to do with the operation of wlan/lan, and i'm 100% sure of it. As i have said before, this is most probably a hardware interrupt / CPU load problem. The priority of the audio driver within Windows is pretty low, and when other processes tend to use the CPU more, the kernel drops Audio in favor of them.

Zpedro: This is a long shot but you can try it - On my old N55SF i had the same problem once. (It was the ASIO drivers). But using some Microsoft tool that analyzes your cpu usage (far more detailed than the task manager) i found out that the LAN driver was acting up, even though i wasn't even using it. So, as for the "long shot" try this: Disable your Wlan AND your LAN drivers from device manager, so Windows won't even see them anymore. Then play some music/movies from your computer and see if the problem persists.

I will try that when it starts to act up again, thank you for you input once again.

This is a really difficult problem to replicate so I have to be ready to record a new video or try something new every time it pops up.

hmscott wrote:
One of the things I thought of, but didn't put in yet, is to try downloading the music to the G56JR and play there to see if the problem happens there.

The low battery stutter might be unrelated, as I have heard this distortion on lots of laptops over time, the alert interrupts whatever is going on to alert you and can result in audio distortions - but if it sounded similar, that could be a clue - something else is interrupting.

It has been a long time since I have seen a system unbalanced enough to have load effect audio integrity... did you try with headphones plugged in the jack, or perhaps use Bluetooth or USB wireless headphones - to find an unaffected audio output path. Might be worth experimenting, it might help focus in on the exact source of the problem, and give you the side benefit of a work around.

You shouldn't need to worry about this...you are probably going to have to debug with Asus to figure out if this is a hardware or driver problem.

When you file the Technical Inquiry the real challenge will be to write this up so it is understandable to someone with English as a 2nd language - and still include all the details. The potential for miscommunication will be high - take your time writing it up and review it a few times after a couple of hours / day.

Let us know what you find 🙂

So if I didn't said before, this problem happens if I stream from Spotify, watch on Youtube and EVEN playing video/sound from the computar.

I was able to caught one of the moments that I was playing a video available in my desktop on vlc: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4q5f92cavbweozt/2014-05-28%2022.32.40.mp4

You can find the problem at 0:04, at 1:01 when he says "we can hack into" and again at 1:45 when he says "hired by UPS".

This is why I say that this might not be a wlan/lan problem. If it was, maybe other models like the N550Jk, which has the same wireless adapter as far as I now, would have it as well...

The low battery stutter I reported last time was heard when no other sounds were playing. So it wasn't like the one you report that distorts other sounds already playing. Also, at times changing the volume from the lower right corner of windows also replicates the problem even if no other sound is on. This is why I assume it comes from the same issue...

I did try it with a pair of standard headphones and the problem persisted...I will try a Bluetooth headset as well as soon as I can. thank you for the idea! 😉

Regarding Asus Tech Support...I talked to them on the phone reporting the issue. I told them what I told you, that I updated all available drivers and the problem persists.

They asked for the videos I was able to capture of the problem. Today, after they reviewed them they asked for the laptop for further investigation at their lab.

I just bought this model a few days ago as you are aware. Having to send it to warranty so soon worries me. =/

I'm not sure if I should do so or if I'd be better with trading for the N550JK at the store I bought it for a money adjustment of 50€! If I sent it to warranty I lose the ability to trade the machine in store as I only have about 14 days after purchase to do so in my country.

[hmscott]

zpedro wrote:
...I'm not sure if I should do so or if I'd be better with trading for the N550JK at the store I bought it for a money adjustment of 50€! If I sent it to warranty I lose the ability to trade the machine in store as I only have about 14 days after purchase to do so in my country.

zpedro, that's a tough choice, but if you like the N550JK, that will be the quickest solution - and you get a newer 850m GPU, I guess the only thing to verify is whether you get an i7 or an i5, according to the spec on the product page, it comes both ways:

https://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/N550JK/specifications/

What about the G550JK? Seems like a more natural upgrade, but has about the same components as the N550JK:
https://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/G550JK/specifications/

Let us know how it works out 🙂

[zpedro]

I would only have to choose a N550JK with the same i7 as the G56JR and the newer GTX 850M but DDR3 and not DDR5 as the GTX 760M is. The G550JK is not available in my country...

Some say it's best to go with the DDR5 not to bottleneck the system with the DDR3... I'd have to pay more 50€ and that's what's keeping back though! =/

I tried installing just now the G550 audio drivers for realtek ( V6.0.1.7213) ...let's see how those handle and we'll go from there.

It's weird is that nobody else seems to notice this issue on this G56JR model...Both mine had it so I assume they all have but how big is the chance I am assuming wrong? xD