Sound stutters on Pavilion dv4 1120us

[ejaurand]

I got my Pavilion dv4 1120us for christmas and got it set up. It is running Vista Home premium and has SP1. I noticed that every so often when playing sound it slows down and stutters for a few seconds, and then usually catches back up. It did this both hooked up to external speakers and through its own speakers. The condition seems immune to changes in peripherals. I noticed that no particular application is responsible either. It occurred when streamming from myspace and playlist.com, when watching a dvd in both the included windows media center, wmp and VLC, while playing CDs, and while playing a game (total annihilation.) I also noticed that the problem persisted even when I wheedled down the number of process running from 80 to 60 something.
     I thought the problem might simply reside in Vista and the bloat-ware that came on the computer. Today I inistalled ubuntu to dual boot and the problem is continuous, plus the headphone jack and speakers only switch with Vista (i think that is merely a driver problem...) i would like to know how to fix the problem at least with Vista, and with the linux as well would be nice. Thanks for any help.

[Bigdaddycastle]

I just tried this solution and after listening 3 songs I want to believe is fixed, hope ot helps you too. Original Post

Searching around even more lead me to a few forums and eventually to use these steps:

1 - Go to Control Panel -> Device Manager
2 - Click on Networks Adapters
3 - Double click on the wireless card
4 - Go to the advanced tab.
5 - Select from the list "Disable Bands"
6 - Select the "a band" from the list on the right side.

I followed these steps and the problem disappeared, everything plays just fine. These steps were originally used on a Dell XPS m1210 and I used it on an HP dv4-1120. Hopefully this info will help save someone a lot of time.

Here is the original thread http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/showpost.aspx?postid=1373474&siteid=1&sb=0&d=1&at=7&ft=11&tf=0&page...

[rasheed]

in my pc some problam is one it will off it will what happan

[Jeanhid]

Check this link..you will find the solution there. I also have a dv4-1120 and it worked for me. I reinstalled th WLAN drivers.

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/board/message?board.id=General&message.id=107&query.id=165041#M107

[ejaurand]

Thanks, I had the sound fixed, but had to send the thing into HP when the whole board went up. I am having problems fixing the sound under linux. Can't find the stuff I used before...Any ideas? I am using  Ubuntu 8.10, & have given up on Vista.

[ejaurand · Accepted solution]

just a note to anyone who wants to run ubuntu on the any hp, sound fixes for those with HDA audio can be found at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1043568.   Thanks for all the help.

[AVarandas]

I have HP Pavilion dv4-115se with IDT audio drivers and Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bits. It had a terrible cracking sound following each music played. I went through tons of forums, a lot of people said that it was the microphone/webcam combo that comes built in. Some people said it was Vista, Some people said that it was the IDT drivers. HP asked me to return the notebook to USA to repair it. Finally I've discovered this forum and the correction  was the same Bigdaddycastle is advicing.


1 - Go to Control Panel -> Device Manager
2 - Click on Networks Adapters
3 - Double click on the wireless card
4 - Go to the advanced tab.
5 - Select from the list "Disable Bands"
6 - Select the a band from the list on the right side.

Problem fixed.

Thanks Bigdaddycastle. You avoid my notebook return back from Brazil to USA to have the problem fixed.

Message Edited by AVarandas on 03-26-2009 04:43 PM

[Stinkfist]

 HELP,HELP,HELP.I just bought a pavilion dv7 1245dx with some what of the same issues, my notebook music skip/stutters or the background music, anything having to do with audio whats worse the stuttering even starts with little music tone u hear when you start up I've sent it back to HP twice in which  there was no repair all that was done  was a reformat of the hard drive I've done so much troubleshooting with the online techs  theres no light at the end of the tunnel basically I'm stuck with a lemon HP wants it back for a 3rd. time but for what??? maybe they need more paper weights  that's how i feel the techs handle the repairs that arrive there no through troubleshooting. So I have Opted to this forum hopefully there is some one more smarter than those i talked about for i use this puter in my work and i cannot afford $$$$ to let it go away again.

[ejaurand]

I know this thread has been buried for awhile, but I thought it might be worth mentioning a few things.

For several months I have been running Windows 7 on my hp. The sound problems are almost completely gone, without having to got to measures such as disabling the a-band on the wireless card.

Apart from the sound being better, if you plan on using one of these with Windows 7, you can expect to have most things work. I know that a few drivers have not been written, but I found I did not need them. Overall a good experience. While I am now in the process of switching my machine back to a dual boot system with XP and Ubuntu 9.04, I would recommend 7 for anyone who needs a decent 64bit OS with drivers available. The new OS is mostly a reskining of Vista, but it does perform slightly better, especially on startups and shutdowns.

If and when I find out more about this computer and sound problems I will post back.