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Post by Chicago Jake on May 17, 2011 15:37:06 GMT -6
Hey Guys, anyone have a clue about this problem?
I have a four-year-old Win XP Laptop that I only use for playing music, either mp3 files, or Pandora. Recently, it started giving me really crappy audio. It sort of "vibrates" and cuts in and out very rapidly. If it were an analog stereo, I'd say it sounded like a loose wire going in and out of contact.
At the same time that this started, the computer started getting REAL SLOW to launch applications. Like, 30 seconds to bring up a Windows Explorer window. I thought maybe some rogue program was hogging all my CPU time, but Task Manager shows the CPU not being overtaxed.
So far, I've done a full virus scan and malware scan, a System Restore back to several weeks before it happened, and am now working on a disk defrag. Not much help yet.
Any thoughts about what could be causing this? Or what would fix it? Thanks!..........Jake
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on May 17, 2011 17:29:52 GMT -6
1. I realize you said this is 4 yrs old but your HD isn't SSD is it? I'm asking because you said you're doing a defrag and you're not supposed to do that with SSD's
2. Does any other audio play in this fashion? E.g., Windows system sounds or an audio CD (assuming you still have one of those old fashioned things, along with the drive to go with it).
3. Do any of your software -- either the OS itself or individual components -- do automatic updates? I'm thinking that maybe something got updated (e.g., a sound driver, but it could be something unrelated to playing sound) in the background and either the update went badly or something else was corrupted.
If you're saying you did the system restore and that didn't fix the problem, then this software update may not be the issue -- may be a hardware problem instead.
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Post by Chicago Jake on May 17, 2011 17:57:20 GMT -6
Thanks for the thoughts. Here are some replies:
1. Nope, not a SSD. It has an 80 GB regular old spinning hard drive, which is about 66% full. That might be an issue.
2. Yes, the Windows startup and shutdown sounds and anything played through Winamp get the same warbley treatment. Haven't tried an audio CD, but I'm pretty sure it would have the same problems.
3. Yes, WinXP updates itself automatically, as does my antivirus (Avast). That's why I did the system restore. Didn't help.
Still working on the defrag; it's been four hours since I started it, and it's only 26% of the way through.
It sounds like a memory access thing to me, but I'm not sure how to test for that. It's maxed out at 2.5 GB, but I'd add more if I could.....Jake
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on May 17, 2011 18:36:20 GMT -6
Maxed out at 2.5GB RAM? You should be able to have up to 4GB on a 32-bit OS.
Can you restart in Safe Mode (F8) and try playing sounds? Safe Mode will reduce the number of background startups and should be a good test.
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Post by Chicago Jake on May 17, 2011 19:24:38 GMT -6
That's all the RAM the motherboard will hold. I did the system restore in safe mode, but didn't try a sound test. Good idea.....
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on May 18, 2011 9:06:37 GMT -6
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Post by Chicago Jake on May 18, 2011 12:53:07 GMT -6
Okay, it seems to be working now, thanks to some of the above suggestions.
I had a USB External Sound Card installed (because there was no stereo-in port on the computer itself to make recordings), but the problem existed whether I used the USB or the onboard sound card. So I blew away the driver that came with the External Sound Card, I updated the device driver from the Windows collection of drivers, and I tweaked the settings in the Sound Control Panel. I didn't have an "enhancement" button to disable, but there were some performance controls, that I reset to all the lowest settings.
I don't want to disable WiFi, as I primarily use this computer to stream Pandora. I suppose I could hard-wire it to my router, but that's a pain in the arse I'd rather avoid!
So far, no more stuttering. I'll give it a few hours and see how it goes. Thanks again!.......Jake
Edit - not as good as I had hoped. Yes, it's improved, but still doing the stuttering thing on occasion. But at least I think I'm on the right track....
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Post by Chicago Jake on May 19, 2011 9:04:50 GMT -6
Arrghgghg!!! The playback is marginal, but the recording is for shit. No good. I have LPs that need digitizing!
I suppose that a cheap USB sound card and a non-sound-oriented laptop do NOT make for a good audio system.
So... I had to revert to my old audio solution: a circa 2002 Dell Desktop (which I affectionately call "Big Iron") which makes a fine audio machine with its integrated sound card. It's back up and running and sounding fine. But man, it takes up a lot of desk space!........Jake
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