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Bottleneck in system when playing music?

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rars222

rars222

Technical User
Jan 24, 2005
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I've written here before for this issue, but it remains unresolved after much exploring.

Whenever I play music - my system lags or something and the music stutters & skips. Sometimes it pops as well, but it can best be described as a "lag/stutter". It seems like it will happen if something is running in the background, but I may just have iTunes open and it will still occur.

My system:

Upgraded the processor from P4 1.4 to P4 2
Intel 845 WN motherboard onboard sound
1 gig Ram
I have a 400 FSB
WinXP Pro

I've also tried a separate PCI soundcard and it still occurred.

I upgraded to 1 gig ram and faster processor in hopes of curing the problem.

I uninstalled Norton Antivirus software - I heard it was a system hog.

What else can I "clean up" or fix?

Any suggestions?
 
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Do you have NERO installed, and if so what version?

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
 
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Yes.

Currently I have version 6.3.11 installed. I checked for upgrades after you asked - do I need to install the latest version. I rarely use the software - mostly just for backups, but if it's conflicting I can use something else...

tx for your help.
 
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This sounds more like a possible IRQ problem. First, open Windows Task Manager and play some music whilst watching the resources. Is memory or processor maxing out and are any applications hogging a resource? My guess is probably not.

To give you a rough idea of what should be happening, when Media Player is minimised to the Taskbar and is playing an MP3, around 4-5% processor and 40MB memory should be used.

Check in Device Manager to see which PCI IRQ is assigned to the Sound processor. Very often it is possible to go to BIOS and reserve an IRQ (usually IRQ 5) to the sound card. This stops Windows from assigning anything else to the IRQ5.

I am sure this a resource allocation problem rather than resource hogging. Something such as the keyboard or mouse must be using the same assignment as the sound.

For test purpose, you could open BIOS and disable all unnecessary items such as USB, Serial and Parallel ports, etc and then test again. That may help ientify the problem.

Also, check that you have the latest Motherboard BIOS installed: very often early releases of motherboards have problems with assigning and sharing resources across the PCI correctly and this is fixed in later BIOS rleases.


Regards: tf1
 
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great suggestions - I will work on them later. I did have the bios flashed about a yr ago.

I will report back any findings.
 
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Yes, I suggest that you UPDATE NERO to version 6.6.0.18 or above (not NERO 7 it has the some problems that are unresolved as of yet)... the Problem is with the MP3Pro Plugin check what version it is (see link below to NERO 7)...

Some things to read:
Windows Media Player FAQ

Nero 7 causes Audio CDs to skip

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
 
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It's been awhile since I explored this issue, but it is still present. I recently had my RAID rebuilt & a new drive installed, as 1 had failed, but I still have system stutters when playing music from the HD.

I looked thru the IRQ settings and I don't see a conflict. There is definitely something running in the background, as I can hear HD activity.

I am not that experienced to mess around with Task Manager, but are there any "known" culprits to cause resource hogging?

I do scan for adware & spyware using Spybot and Adaware. Currently I am not running virus protection. I have windows firewall running.

Any suggestions would be helpful. Please let me know if I need to give more system info....
 
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Indexing Service, runs in the background...
Prefetching, does too...
The Pagefile gets accessed alot...
another thing that comes to mind would be defrag software, even the built in one, does at times do access the HDD...

also Windows Restore...

other than that, I am at a loss, as I can't delve further into your OS there... it may well be Nero's MP3Plugin and then it could be something totally off the wall...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
 
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It shouldn't happen as often as it is for you. At this point, your best option is to get your hands on a spare hard drive with at least 10GB of space. Temporarily detach all other drives and do a clean install of Windows on the spare.

If the problem occurs without installing any 3rd-party software, then it's likely a hardware or BIOS issue. It may sound tedious, but it might actually save you a lot of time by narrowing it down to hardware or software.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
 
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Are you running the latest drivers for your sound card? New sound card <> newest drivers.

DirectX updated?

Same problem playing files through, say, Winamp?



Just my 2¢

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg
 
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I mentioned not running virus software b/c I know that really can slow a system down. I was having problems with this long before I uninstalled Norton.

I check frequently for viruses, adware, malware, spyware...

At any rate - I can try the hardware first. I recently had my computer "in the shop" to rebuild the RAID as a drive had failed and I was having some other issues. It was their thought that the system stutter was due to the drive fail, but I got it home and it's still here.

I will probably dump it back to them - as they have random HDs laying around and the space & time to test things one at a time.

I've also been on the ball with getting the latest drivers as well, but I will double check that too.

I don't really use Nero, so I wouldn't miss it and will try to uninstall that.

Thank you for your helpful suggestions.
 
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