Tick...tick...tick...

[Gregor Samsa]

I just finished over an hour of troubleshooting a computer audio problem I was having. I was hearing a steady tick...tick...tick out of my computer audio no matter what I was playing. It came a very regular interval, metronome-like, about once per second (that should have been my first clue). I run a Toslink from my Toshiba Qosmio, which has a Toslink out to an optical input on my NAD T752. I first heard it listening to Pandora, but it persisted when I used Media Monkey, then Foobar, then dbPoweramp, then WMP. I changed the output in Media Monkey from ASIO to wave out to direct sound. Went in to the control panel - both "Sounds and Audio Devices" and "Sigma Tel". Changed every setting there. No change. I unplugged the Toslink from the laptop and plugged it back in. I did the same on the NAD. I switched inputs on the NAD. I turned the NAD on and off. I rebooted the Toshiba. I used a Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Amigo instead of the optical out on the Toshiba.

 

I finally made it go away by, of all things, shutting down Firefox. Huh? Fired up the browser again and tick...tick...tick... So I systematically close down tabs and open them, one by one. I finally find the offending site. One of my tabs was the home page of...COMPUTER AUDIOPHILE!!! It seems that there's this REALLY BIG THING coming, and it's SO BIG that there is a clock that ticks down, like it's the #$&^%#@^$ Millennium, the seconds until it occurs. It's SO BIG that mere visual cues are not enough. No, it's got to tick, and tick it does. When any audio is playing. Even when I've clicked on another tab!

 

Yes. What was causing my unbelievably annoying computer audio problem is the @(*$%$%#%# site that is supposed to help me learn how to improve my computer audio sound.

 

Thank you for wasted time and frustration.

 

PS My preview of this post tells me I'm posting on December 31st, 1969.

 

[flatmap]

Simply by navigating to CA your computer audio sound has been upgraded, you see. Or that was navigating away wasn't it? About the same in any case, and no charge for the upgrade.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

WOW, I feel so bad. I've actually caused computer audio problems!

 

At any rate, I've disabled the ticking sound because others have made comments about the annoyance. Fortunately nobody else has wasted an evening troubleshooting their audio because of Computer Audiophile!

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Update: Safari users will have to empty their Safari cache because Safari caches Flash animation.

 

[Audio_ELF]

This mate the first time I've been glad the iPhone doesn't support flash ...

 

Eloise

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Thank you. My sanity has been restored.

 

I really do like the site.

 

[souptin]

If you don't already have it, you can install Adblock Plus via the Tools/Add-ons menu in Firefox. It comes with presets which eliminates a lot of annoying ads from your browsing, and puts a little translucent 'Block' button at the top right of Flash content.

 

I admit I was caught out as well by the countdown ticker. It looked great, but the ticking was kinda spooky.

 

[shenzi]

The Camino browser on the Mac also blocks adverts and any unwanted animation.

 

At least no one tried to sell an upgraded USB cable to filter out the ticking.