Nobody Special. ([info]luckyckljw) wrote in [info]debian,
@ 2008-01-16 19:03:00
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Sound and lagging issues
First off, thanks for all the help with my wireless issue; it is resolved. (Hooray!)

New problem, however: I'm not sure what's causing it, but lately my computer has started flipping out about two programs needing to make noise at once (e.g., playing a game and I get an IM at the same time; sound hiccups/freezes like it can't figure out what to do). This is a fairly new problem, and I don't know if it's just that my sound card is going bad or what. Also, after cleaning up (read: deleting) a bunch of files, my computer's started lagging something fierce. Iceweasel has a hard time switching between tabs (especially if one of them is YouTube playing a video, in which case the sound also does the freezing thing), and in general I have a hard time switching between open windows. I don't run 30 programs at once, either; we're talking just Iceweasel and Gaim (did this with Pidgin, too, when I used it). Do I need to defrag or anything like you'd need to do in Windows? Did I miss something? I deleted the files completely, and didn't just send them to the trash.

For what it's worth, I think this could just be an issue with my computer in general being on its last legs and needing replacement, but I figured I'd ask you guys first.

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[info]themusicgod1
2008-01-17 04:44 am UTC (link)
what soundcard?

alsa? oss? jack?

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[info]luckyckljw
2008-01-17 06:47 pm UTC (link)
To be honest, I haven't a clue. I'm using a Dell Inspiron 5100 that's probably 4-5 years old.

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[info]themusicgod1
2008-01-17 10:32 pm UTC (link)
Then you probably are using one of
i810_audio.o, ac97_codec.o as your soundcard driver(does it have two kinds of sound or something?). You'll want to see if there are any issues on those...but I think the looking to see what 'top' says is probably your best bet at this point as per below.

Also; what files did you delete?

You don't need to defrag, defragging is something particular to the windows fat/ntfs filesystems.

Edited at 2008-01-17 10:33 pm UTC

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[info]luckyckljw
2008-01-18 07:15 am UTC (link)
I didn't think so (re: defragging), but just wasn't sure what else would be causing it. (I'm really showing my newbie-ness here.) The files I deleted were all .mp3s and the associated album art files that were just taking up precious space.

Thank you for the link; that's far better information than any of my previous searches unearthed.

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[info]themusicgod1
2008-01-18 07:26 am UTC (link)
In other words, unless your hard drive is dying(possible, especially for an old laptop--those things aren't meant to last longer than around 3-4 years), the 'deleting files' part may be ignored. Has there been any 'seek' errors at all that you've found?

Anything noticeable on top yet?

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[info]themusicgod1
2008-01-18 07:31 am UTC (link)
Is there any audio program that you can use that isn't affected by this in any way?

Just so I'm understanding correctly, when the two audio streams try to play at once it just stops playing for awhile? And if so, what happens when you open a shell up and type
(CAUTION: turn your speakers down before trying this)

cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp

(/dev/dsp might be something different)
Does it give you white noise?

Have you tried rebooting your laptop?

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[info]luckyckljw
2008-01-18 07:28 pm UTC (link)
Nothing noticeable yet on top; though after I made this post, it's been behaving rather well.

Either of the sound programs I use typically will have this issue (Rythmbox and Totem) if I'm listening to music and messaging. The sound doesn't quite stop, it's more akin to a CD skipping- it sits, stuttering before figuring out how to move on. The second sound (interrupting sound) also does this, as though the sound card isn't quite sure which to voice. Rythmbox will, when interrupted at the end of a song, halt playback and cede use of sound entirely to the other program (in that case, usually an online JAVA game). Mildly annoying, but nothing major, really.

I think I'll go ahead and find something else to do for a bit and restart, then try your suggestion. Thanks!

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[info]mattcaron
2008-01-17 02:39 pm UTC (link)
When your computer is being slow, what does top say?

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[info]luckyckljw
2008-01-17 06:49 pm UTC (link)
I didn't know there was a way to check that; I'll keep an eye on it and let you know. (I'm still fairly new to Debian, so I'm learning some of the ropes still.)

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[info]mattcaron
2008-01-17 07:01 pm UTC (link)
I think you'll find that top works most places which aren't Windows. :-)

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[info]luckyckljw
2008-01-17 09:33 pm UTC (link)
Gotcha. Thanks for the tip. :D

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