Another Win 8 sound problem - music stutter

I upgraded from Win7 to Win8 (both running the MS Media Center) and it's created a problem with music playback . It used to work fine, but now I get random stutters. Sometimes it goes 10 or 15 minutes without any problem, but often it's more frequent than that - and it's very, very annoying. The system runs an AMD A8 APU, Gigabyte A75M UD2H motherboard, 4 GB of RAM and Win 8 Pro with MC. I use the audio on the motherboard (Realtek HD audio) and output is via SPDIF to a dedicated DAC (brand is Rega) and then to a Denon amp. I've had no problems with audio from DVD/Blu-Ray, TV (via TV tuner card) or when streaming TV programs via the internet. Has anyone else had this problem? Anyone got a solution? Music is my prime use for the media center, so it's driving me mad!!

By the way, I've tried upgrading all the drivers I can, eg downloaded latest drivers from Gigabyte website, AMD website, Realtek website, Linksys website (for WUSB600N wireless network adapter). There is a newer driver for my TV tuner card (KWorld PCIE dual tuner PE310) available via MS update but last time I tried updating drivers for that card via MS update I lost all my TV channels and had to roll-back and re-scan them to recover.

I have an older MC system (running an Athlon 64 ) which I also upgraded from Win7 to Win8, and it seems to have no problem. It uses analogue audio out to an external amp.

I've read a few posts suggesting Win8 has DPC latency problems and that can cause audio stutter. I downloaded some software which measures the latency, and it was showing a consistent value, in the "yellow" range - which seemed to mean it was slightly higher than ideal but shouldn't have been a problem. Unfortunately I can't recall the name of the software now, or where I found it(!!).

Any help greatly appreciated!!

As you have a Gigabyte motherboard, do you have the Gigabyte "Easy Tune" installed? That can cause major latency spikes. I mistakenly installed it on my new system, with a Gigabyte motherboard, that I use for my recording studio. After uninstalling Easy Tune, my latency was very low and no spikes.

The program to check is the DPC Latency Checker DPC Latency Checker

I had an issue with my previous PC with some spikes that were caused by Google Chrome's updater.

Thanks for your suggestions, Firebird.

I don't have Easy Tune installed. I've had it installed in the past, but I uninstalled it long ago (I wasn't using it for anything).

I have run DPC Latency Checker. Most of the time it records just over 1000 (ie. just in yellow range) but there are occasional spikes. Most spikes are relative small (about to about 1200) with occasional higher ones (highest just under 1700). Interestingly, the spikes don't seem to correspond to the audio stuttering (although maybe it's not as simple as the spike immediately corresponding to a stutter??).

The stuttering is a real problem on my system. Question is whether to go back to Win7, just wait and hope that a new driver/Windows update fixes the problem (I'm up to date with Windows updates as of today), or try a clean install of Win 8. I just don't have much time to spend fiddling with these things! Of all the possible problems I thought could come up with a move to Win8, a problem with music playback was not one of them!

The DPC latency checker is not applicable to Win 8. According to their site they are working on a version for Win 8, as some functions are handled differently in Win 8. Thus the spikes may not be real.

Stuttering has been a problem for a long time, not something just with Win 8. One suggestion, uninstall the sound in the Device Manager (do not uninstall the driver) then Restart the PC and when Windows starts it will reinstall the sound. Sound is on a shared IRQ (Interrupt) with a higher priority device and sometimes the higher priority device can cause interruptions (stuttering) and the uninstall/reinstall sometimes will put it on a different shared IRQ and help the problem.

In the Device Manager, RIGHT click on the entry for the Sound to highlight it and then LEFT click "uninstall". Restart the PC.

I just registered to thank you fireberd!!!
I was having this problem for some time now, already formated and reinstalled 8 (I kind of like it ) a couple times and couldn't find what was the cause of the problem. But this just solved it... not 100%, it still stutters sometimes, but not near as frequent or as bad as before. Almost unnoticable.

Raiden74, thank you.

See my system spec's if needed;

I Have the same problem with the Stuttering I did the reset in the device manager and it dd not help. This did not start until about 3 weeks or so ago when I first installed W8 there was no problem. I had a old SB Audigy SE sound card when this started it's 3.5mm jack for the coaxial digital output failed, and I replaced it a week ago with the Recon 3D card using it's Toslink output to my Onkyo receiver. As grist for the mill here is something not mentioned by others, I can listen to the music, and Video's on by system in 3 different ways. Through the SC's Toslink connection, from a USB port, or via my network using my DLNA enabled Onkyo AVR. There is zero stuttering using the USB, or the ethernet connection, only when I actually use the sound card do I get the stutter. I have not tried the new sound card's dedicated headphone amp to see it I can hear the stutter there. I suppose I could change the resource priority of the sound card to see if that helps.

Edit: I did not mention the old SB Audigy SE sound card used an IDE rail, the new SB Recon THX 3D uses an PCI-e slot and I have stuttering with both.