CPU Spike and Audio Distortion When Streaming

[gidgiddonihah]

Hi all. I just got a new Dell XPS 15 for my birthday, but it has this nagging problem when streaming media. It will be fine for awhile, but then the CPU usage will spike to 100% and the audio will get distorted. I have noticed it happening when listening to Spotify and watching Netflix or Lynda (Been brushing up on After Effects). Its driving me insane and nothing I do fixes it. I changed the power settings so when its plugged in (keeping it plugged in for testing), there is no drop in CPU frequency and changed it from passive to active.

Any help would be appreciated.

Dell XPS 15
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
Intel i7 2760QM 2.2GHz
8GB RAM
Nividia GT 525M

 

[hpfreak]

What kind of processes are runnning in the background?

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Normal windows process with Google Drive (was happening before I installed Drive) and Spotify.

 

[hpfreak]

Do you have an anti-virus? Are you using McAfee? If you're using it, uninstall McAfee and try using like.. Microsoft Security Essentials for a while to see if McAfee is the problem (known to have those kinds of issues).

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Actually my protection ended today and I am planning on going MSE when I get home. Ill update to let you know if that was the problem.

 

[hpfreak]

Interesting.. Let me know how it goes.

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Installed MSE about 6 hours ago and things are running great. I haven't really tested the system other than watching a few shows. I will post in a day or two with results. If it keeps doing it we'll go from there...

 

[hpfreak]

Great, hopefully that was the solution!

Keep me updated.

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Played Spotify for some time without any problems. Think the issue is fixed; I have never used a paid-for security suite and I think will stay with MSE from now on.

 

[hpfreak]

Personally, I use AVG, found it to work best. But what ever runs is okay. MSE is pretty basic security. But you shouldn't need anything stronger unless you want to do a lot of heavy web browsing.

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Still running great. Still amazed that a paid piece of software would do that. Reminds me why I stopped paying for AV.

 

[hpfreak]

Yeah, as I said before. McAfee is known for that.. Just as long as you don't use McAfee, or some of those other Memory hogging AVs, you should be good.

As it says in your sig: Remember to select a Best Answer, even if its not me!

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Best answer selected by gidgiddonihah.

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been closed by Maziar