AirPort Express issues

[DMBand0026]

I just got my AirPort Express this morning, and I've had some problems with it already. The biggest of which is that every few seconds it "skips". I have it connected to my stereo with an optical cable, and it's not acting as my basestation right now. When I first started up iTunes everything worked fine, but than it started to cut out every few seconds. I also noticed that the first second or so of the songs is cut out. I watched in iTunes and the music actually stops, it doesn't pause iTunes, but the "elapsed time" counter stops, and I get no music. A few seconds later it will start again, but than it skips again.

I'm running 10.3.5, with the latest versions of all the software (AirPort and iTunes), and I can see the AirPort Express unit from my computer, so it's not a reception issue. I have a PowerBook 12" 1.33, 768MB of RAM with AirPort Extreme card.

Any help with this would be great. Thanks guys.

Edit: The skipping happens a lot less when I'm not at my computer. But when I do use it, it's pretty bad. Thanks again for the help.

[FFL]

I've only done the AirTunes streaming setup once thus far, for a friend, and I had the same "skip" (more of a pause, really) problem 3 or 4 times. It was intermittent, and random, and I have no clue what caused it or how to fix it.

It reminds me of streaming "rebuffering", but again, I have no concrete info.

[DMBand0026]

Yeah, I was half expecting the "rebuffering stream" window to pop up, but I got nothing, just a skip.

[Paul]

any kind of peak in CPU use? have you monitored it at all?
what about network usage, does the skip result in a gap in the transfer of the data?
(if you need information on how to check these things post back, I reccomend using menu meters (http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/))

[DMBand0026]

Thanks for the tip. I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary that would cause a high amount of CPU usage, and just to be sure I used the top command in terminal, and I was correct. The total usage is hovering around 20%, and that's with "top" running (and taking a good 10% CPU time when running). iTunes CPU usage is normal, and it works just fine when not streaming to APExpress.

As for the network, the "skipping" is indeed being caused by a loss of data transmission. When it is working correctly (according to Activity Monitor) the data being sent is somewhere in the area of 125Kbps. When it skips, it drops to 20Kbps or so. Sometimes as low as zero, depending on what I'm doing on the computer.

Edit: As I said before, I'm not using this as my basestation now, so it has no effect on my internet access, which is working just fine. :confused:

Edit #2: After watching Activity Monitor for a while longer the data/sec rate out has jumped as high as 250-300Kbps.

[DMBand0026]

Edit: Please disregard most of this post, because the APExpress has decided to discontinue the apparent fluke it had going on and not work again. So any suggestions as to how to fix this are more than welcome. Thanks again guys.

Edit#2: It has now stopped working entirely, iTunes won't play at all when I'm sending the sound to the APExpress. Nothing seems to make it work, but it was working fine earlier. Help!

I may have fixed the problem, thing is...I don't know how I did it. It now works, but only after I picked up my PowerBook and set it down in order to get a CD that had slid under there. And like magic, it works flawlessly, no data transmission rate drops, no skips, no pausing of the music, the first second or so of the songs is cut out, but I can deal with that in the absence of the skips.

My first thought was that I was sitting in one of the APExpress's dead spots, but that seemed unlikely as I had moved the actual unit around quite a bit in troubleshooting the problem. So I didn't think moving the computer would do anything.

The ability of AirTunes to work correctly isn't based on the computer's AirPort signal strength, is it? That seemed unlikely as my signal strength is consistently exactly half, except for at night when it jumps up above 3/4. And my signal strength did not improve when I moved the computer.

So I don't know what happened, or why it works, but it does now.

But if anyone could answer the two questions I have now: The ability of AirTunes to work correctly isn't based on the computer's AirPort signal strength, is it?

and

Does anyone use using APExpress to stream music get the first second or so of their songs cut out?

Thanks again for all your help everyone, even those who didn't help, I know you were with me in the spirit of the Aldo Nova. ;)

[DMBand0026]

Sorry to bump my own thread so soon, but I'm having more problems today than I was yesterday. Anyone who has any ideas, that would be great. Should I just call Apple and see what they think?

[Maciej]

Sounds like the closest you'll get to a solution, and the quickest. Unless you will have to pay for it, then just e-mail them, or try taking it to your Apple Store. Tho I'm sure you have heard that a million times.

[FFL]

I'd call Apple first - be prepared with your Airport Express serial number. If that doesn't work, take it to the Genius Bar of your choice.

[piwozniak]

I use it all the time, optical cable as well.

Streaming both AAC and loseless, no problems whatsoever..

Im my case i have AE BS + 2 AE all in WDS.

If you have BS, try setting up your AE as a client instead of WDS.
Or try to set everything in "b" mode.
Or use airport client monitor app to see how much noise, and how strong your signal is, them choose the best spot for AE.

It never skips in my case, there's a delay at the biginning, but silky smooth after that.

Again, if you are using it in WDS, make sure your BS and AE are well in range of each other.

hth

[washngtnrjdc]

I am wondering if you figured out the skipping!!!

I am using 2 BSE, 4 AE w/WDS... the AE enabled for music sharing is in the same locations as BSE wds relay. It is configured ethernet only into BSE lan port as client only. It is using 10 BaseT duplex.

regardless of where i log into the network with my powerbook it skips... intermittantly...

[Franz Josef]

Sounds like you have a dud AE - I stream to mine regularly and have never had intermittant cut out. As the man says, you should give Apple a ring.

[mudphud]

I have an AE with a RevD 12" powerbook and I have also noticed skipping when using Airtunes. I was using the AE for networking speakers in an apartment and my powerbook was about 8 feet from from the basestation.

One thing I noticed was that I have a 2.4 gigahertz digital cordless phone on my desk next to my powerbook and that my skipping happened whenever the phone changed channels. I recently moved the AE closer because I wanted to network my printer (it is now about 4 feet away) and I noticed that the skipping has decreased.

[bazooka15]

I just bought an airport express and I can't figure out how to play my itunes on my computer speakers without directly connecting them to the ibook. My internet and printer worked immediately once I plugged them in to the airport express, but for some reason I can't figure out how to connect my speakers. Any suggestions?

[Mister Black]

Plug your speakers into the audio jack on the Express. If you can print to it you can stream music to it also. To actually get anything to come out of those speakers you have to use the newest itunes. There should be a selection box in itunes at the bottom that lets you choose between "Computer" and the "AE Name". This is your output switch. If you don't see this box, look in itunes preferences -> audio -> make sure the "look for remote speakers connected with airtunes" box is checked.

[bazooka15]

Thanks a lot! I'll try that when I get back home.

[spastic]

Hi i seem to be having a similar problem, my music keeps skipping when my Airport Express is setup connecting to my exising wireless network - i have been playign around with it lots trying to work it out and when i dont' connect my AE to my existing wireless network then it works fine and doesn't skip - but thats no good becuase i can't use the internet then. I have a D-link DI-614+. Iv tryed changing the network channels and everythg i can think of. the only times it works is when its setup as its own base station and my iMac connects directly to it and disconnects from my current wireless network, or when it is plugged in directly with an eithernet cable and i disable the wireless. I have a few computer on my network both macs and PCs(xp professional)
Any suggestions at all??
Thanks

[DMBand0026]

I have a good solution, one that eventually worked for me but I really need to go to sleep now and I work a 24 hour shift tomorrow so send me a private message and remind me to post the solution here.

[DMBand0026]

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you.

The best solution I've found is to get the Airport Management Tools (http://download.info.apple.com/Mac_OS_X/061-1087.20040419.AptmG/2Z/AirPortManagementTools.dmg) (a .dmg will download when you click that link, it is directly off of Apple's website, check here (http://www.apple.com/support/airport/) if you want the original link...it's about halfway down the page on the right side under "additional resources")

Mount the disk image, copy both Apps into your Utilities folder (HD/Applications/Utilities). Open up Airport Management Utility. You'll see a list along the left size, click on "Rendezvous" and your AirPort Express name should show up on the right side of the window. Select it and click on the "configuration" tab along the top.

Using the up/down arrow on the right of the window, do this:

• Turn Interface robustness on
• If you have another router and you're just using the AirPort unit to stream music, change the channel to one that is as far away from your router's as possible.
• Change the multicast rate to 5.5
• If you have another router and you're just using the AirPort unit to stream music, change the Radio Mode to 802.11b only

This should do the trick. Mine now works nearly flawlessly (a few random dropouts of no more than a few seconds every week or so. I've done a lot of reading and research on this and I've found that this works for a lot of people, but not for everyone. Feel free to PM me or continue posting in this thread if this doesn't work for you or you have more questions.

Hope this helps, sorry it took so long to get back to you.

Edit: Almost forgot...when you're done with all that you'll need to hit the "Apply" button in the bottom right of the window. After that you may need to reconnect your AirPort to your computer using the AirPort Setup Assistant in your Utilities folder.

[spastic]

Hi, thanks for the info. When you had your problem did you have an existing wireless network that you were connecting to and causing the problem. Or is the Airport Express the only wirelss adapter you had? Because after goingn through your instructions - it still skipps :(
because with me, the airport express works fine when i set it up as its own network. but as soon as i try and connect it to my existing network, that is when i have the problems. I have called apple tech support but they were totaly useless and after talking to 3 differnt people and after about an hour and a half, they pretty much told me that it wasn't their problem and it was a problem with my wirelss network i have set up.
I have a D-Link wirelss router and so i am going to try my airport express with another router or another wireless network when i get a chance.
But when i was trying to get it working i was watching the Airport Client Monitor to see what was going on, and what happens is when there is nothing playing, the transmit rate rate sits on a steady 11Mbps, then when i start to try and play a song with the airport express it drops to 1Mbps and then when it skips, it spikes to 2Mbps - so obviously it is a problem somethign to do with this, but im not sure why it is happening... I have got some pictures if you would like to see.
But any other suggestions at all woudl be great, other than tryign to test it with anotehr wirelss network with a different router which i will try and do this week some time.
Thanks for yoru help so far.
Hope to hear back from you soon.

[DMBand0026]

I compiled my solution (which works for me...sorry that it didn't help you out at all :\) from Apple's Discussion Boards (http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@3.usAfagttRqc.0@.6897492e). That thread that I linked to is a lot of people having the same problems that you're having and there's an endless number of fixes and ideas to try. Check that out and see what you can find. A lot of people have different setups that work well for them. That's just the one that I had tried that worked best for me. Go there, read through the thread and see what you can figure out.