Distorted Sounds...

Sweetchuck

I have just been given a new PC at work and it's average spec - Pentium 4 (2GHz) with 504MB RAM and onboard graphics and sound.

My problem is that whenever I try to play audio files (have tried Windows Media Player and RealPlayer) the sound gets corrupted really badly, particularly at the start of audio tracks. With such a powerful processor and an adequate allocation of RAM, this surely shouldn't be happening.

I've tried playing audio CDs direct from the CD-ROM, MP3 files from CD, my HDD and a USB drive and direct streaming RAM files from the net, and every time I try, the sounds is regularly interrupted (every two seconds or so) for a short period.

The problem becomes much worse when I'm using an application - trying to open a new browser window whilst listening to audio files is unbearable.

I've spoken to my IT technicians and they can't find a fault anywhere - all my drivers and codecs seem to be up to date.

Can anyone suggest what might be causing this and how I would go about fixing it? Please bear in mind that I don't have administrator privileges on this particular machine.

Any suggestions welcomed!

intel

Try uninstalling Realplayer first of all. Control Panel Add/remove Programs.

Sweetchuck

Like I said, I don't have admin privileges.

RealPlayer was installed in an attempt to overcome this problem. When I first came across the distortion, I was only using Windows Media Player. Given that my drivers and codecs are up to date, I assumed the problem was with WMP and I asked the teccies to install WinAmp for me. They said they couldn't do that but could do RealPlayer instead.

Personally, I hate RP and wouldn't dream of using it on my home PC. However, that's beside the point as the problem at my work PC surfaced before RealPlayer was installed.

intel

Mmm maybe if its a work system and you dont have full priveleges may be
a stickie point.. Its deffo summet that a work techie should sort I mean in the sense
of I wouldnt be at all happy if summet went wrong because I suggested it.

So just for 100% clarity this is a works PC on a Network or is it not on a Network.

Sorry to ask ....

Sweetchuck

Yes, it's my office PC and it's on a fairly large network (~2000 PCs).

Unfortunately the IT department doesn't seem too keen to help - either that or they simply don't know what the problem is.

I've checked all of my hardware in Device Manager and everything seems to be working fine.

intel

Sweetchuck wrote:

Yes, it's my office PC and it's on a fairly large network (~2000 PCs).

Unfortunately the IT department doesn't seem too keen to help - either that or they simply don't know what the problem is.

I've checked all of my hardware in Device Manager and everything seems to be working fine.

As it is on a network it may well be that the Player could be located on the server and the Icon is located on the Desktop,,

To check this just right click the Windows media Player Icon then
chose properties and what is the Target of the Icon.

May look like "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" /prefetch:1

Now because it begins with C:\ I know this is on my local drive C:\

If it starts with another letter what is it.?

Sweetchuck

No, both audio files and player are located on my PC.

On my old PC the setup was identical with no audio problems whatsoever.

I really can't work out what's going on!

intel

Sweetchuck wrote:

No, both audio files and player are located on my PC.

On my old PC the setup was identical with no audio problems whatsoever.

I really can't work out what's going on!

I will say if you have, ooooh lets say, other tasks on the PC as well as listening to Music while you work the PC may be overworking because it
is stretching resources as a lot PCs that are networked are along
the lines of a dummy PC as the info that you need are on a server
so they/can be low spec PCs.

In other words it just aing got the umph.... Unless its medium/high spec.

Are you using any other programs whilst using WMP.?

wolfman

Had similar problems with my last P4. Things worth checking are:

- Make sure you have the latest sound drivers for the onboard sound installed.
- And secondly, and probably more importantly, make sure the volume control isn't set to full. Set it nearer 3/4.

To do the second step, go to Start > Control Panel > Sound And Audio Devices, then you can change the settings in there.

Alternatively, try installing Winamp. You probably won't be able to run the setup.exe for Winamp, so I'd install it at home, then copy the the directory where you installed it, and bring it in to work and copy it onto your machine. It'll still work fine, you may need to put some dll's across.

There are other lighter media players if not.

Sweetchuck

intel wrote:

I will say if you have, ooooh lets say, other tasks on the PC as well as listening to Music while you work the PC may be overworking because it
is stretching resources as a lot PCs that are networked are along
the lines of a dummy PC as the info that you need are on a server
so they/can be low spec PCs.

In other words it just aing got the umph.... Unless its medium/high spec.

Are you using any other programs whilst using WMP.?

I usually have Outlook, Word and Internet Explorer windows open whilst I'm working. As you'd expect, there are all sorts of background apps running but nothing too memory-hungry.

The fact that this exact setup worked perfectly on my older, lower-spec P3 machine leads me to believe that it's either a hardware or driver/codec issue. Given that all codecs and drivers are bang up to date, I'm thinking there's probably a problem with the onboard sound - a Realtek AC'97. Either that or the memory is being guzzled by something else. This doesn't seem to be the case though, as there's no noticeable slowdown with any of the other apps I'm running. I've tried raising the priority of the audio players in my Task manager, but also to no avail...

wolfman wrote:

Alternatively, try installing Winamp. You probably won't be able to run the setup.exe for Winamp, so I'd install it at home, then copy the the directory where you installed it, and bring it in to work and copy it onto your machine. It'll still work fine, you may need to put some dll's across.

I'll give it a try, but seeing as this is an issue under both WMP and RealPlayer at present, I'm not going to hold out much hope.

Cheers for the advice, guys.

wolfman

Sweetchuck wrote:

The fact that this exact setup worked perfectly on my older, lower-spec P3 machine leads me to believe that it's either a hardware or driver/codec issue. Given that all codecs and drivers are bang up to date, I'm thinking there's probably a problem with the onboard sound - a Realtek AC'97. Either that or the memory is being guzzled by something else.

Did you try setting the volume control lowe, ie not the volume in the actual player itself but the volume across the whole operating system. It could just be volume distortion. Even top of the range stuff shouldn't be run higher than 90-95%. You should put the volume control down to nearer 75%.