[inEarNest]

I'm running 10.2.3 on a GigaTiBook, and my various system sounds are often delayed. One example is dragging stuff into the trash...I'll dump it in, then I'll hear something like the speakers 'turning on', then I'll hear the sound eventually. It usually takes about 4-5 seconds for the whole action. If I dump several items in a row into the trash, by the 3rd one, the sound happens at the right time.

I did a search on several forums and found some other people with the problem, but nothing was said about solving it. Any help? It's not a major promblem by any means, but makes me curious none-the-less. Thanks.

-sae

[Colonel Panic]

Originally posted by inEarNest:
I'm running 10.2.3 on a GigaTiBook, and my various system sounds are often delayed. One example is dragging stuff into the trash...I'll dump it in, then I'll hear something like the speakers 'turning on', then I'll hear the sound eventually. It usually takes about 4-5 seconds for the whole action. If I dump several items in a row into the trash, by the 3rd one, the sound happens at the right time.

I did a search on several forums and found some other people with the problem, but nothing was said about solving it. Any help? It's not a major promblem by any means, but makes me curious none-the-less. Thanks.

-sae

probably the system has powered down the sound circuitry in your laptop to extend battery life and it needs to turn it on again before playing the sound...(?)

[Toyin]

Search version tracker. There's an application called KeepSoundAwake. It basically plays a sound (you don't hear it) every few seconds (you can customize it) so that the sound never goes to sleep.

[cgc]

I have the same problem on my G4 Tower. Kind of annoying.

[wtmcgee]

yea, apparently the sound system goes to sleep if there's no sound for some time.

i wish they'd put an option, maybe in power mgmt., to let you customize when, if at all, you want to turn off your sound. this may be a good idea for laptop users, but why do i need my sound system powered down on my iMac?

[RooneyX]

Quartz is at it again. It takes so much of system resources that if you don't use system sounds for a while the sound system goes to sleep allowing everything else to take CPU time. An excellent example of how badly out of synch the GUI and system sounds are is in Xounds. I have the latest version. It works great if you keep using the menus and other widgets that use sounds but if you don't for a while and then click on the menus there is a lag before the sounds appear and the GUI sometimes pauses for the sounds to catch up.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by RooneyX:
Quartz is at it again. It takes so much of system resources that if you don't use system sounds for a while the sound system goes to sleep allowing everything else to take CPU time. An excellent example of how badly out of synch the GUI and system sounds are is in Xounds. I have the latest version. It works great if you keep using the menus and other widgets that use sounds but if you don't for a while and then click on the menus there is a lag before the sounds appear and the GUI sometimes pauses for the sounds to catch up.

I fail to see what Quartz has to do with the audio hardware switching off after an idle time.

But wait, it has to be Quartz - no, Carbon! - no, the debug code! - no, ....!

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
I fail to see what Quartz has to do with the audio hardware switching off after an idle time.

But wait, it has to be Quartz - no, Carbon! - no, the debug code! - no, ....!

Because it isn't audio hardware switching off. It looks like the CPU is making the GUI it's priority and thus doesn't keep graphics and system sounds in synch. Sometimes if I keep iTunes playing and do not use menus and widgets for a while the lag still occurs even if music plays continuously so it can't be audio hardware switching off.

[stew]

It's not Quartz' fault. If anything besides the audio hardware sleeping, then it's the scheduler. This is a latency problem, which has not much to do with any task sucking up lots of CPU. With a good scheduler and smart priorities there will be no delay, no matter how maxed out the CPU is (compare BeOS).

[dfiler]

<pure speculation>
This could be a memory management and HD sleep issue. If your system has run out of memory and started paging stuff to disk, then a sound might have to be loaded from disk prior to being played. If the HD has spun down, then you'll have to wait for it to spin back up, load the sound into RAM, and then the sound can be played.

Sure, you can blaim it on quartz... but is more accurate to say that sounds are not being cached in an efficient manner.
</pure speculation>

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by stew:
It's not Quartz' fault. If anything besides the audio hardware sleeping, then it's the scheduler. This is a latency problem, which has not much to do with any task sucking up lots of CPU. With a good scheduler and smart priorities there will be no delay, no matter how maxed out the CPU is (compare BeOS).

Possibly you're right. I've noticed OSX has always had problems running several things at once. If you've got the MIP patch/Beta Dock you'll notice how often the Force Quit symbol turns up when doing things such as launching or switching between several apps. There's quite a few latency problems in the GUI and obvious system sounds would be part of that.

[mkummer]

I notice the described effect only on my iBook, not on my G4, so I am quite sure, its cause is in power management, i.e. getting the sound into "sleep" to save power.