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Music Flawed on Dell PC

albionrovers
albionrovers Posts: 2,028 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
I have a DELL PC which I have upgraded to 1.2MB RAM. It has about 2.5MHZ processor. If I play any music through the speakers it struggles to play it clearly, it seems to be lacking in system resource to play properly.
If I shut down all other applications except eg, Spotify the sound improves but it isn't perfect? If a scan kicks in it just fuzzes over completely as if the system can't cope.

Any ideas? Many thx.

Comments

  • jmc160
    jmc160 Posts: 744 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    What model Dell PC is it? Can you describe the sound it's making?

    What OS are you running? Is there any corruption in the Windows startup music? (assuming you're running Windows of course..)
    The pen is mightier than the sword, and considerably easier to write with.
    --     Marty Feldman
  • fwor
    fwor Posts: 6,944 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    If it's WinXP, try looking in Device Manager at the Advanced settings for the IDE channel controllers, and check that the Transfer Mode is set to "DMA if available".

    Occasionally they can (for reasons I've never established) get set to PIO only, which often wrecks things like audio playback.
  • 4743hudsonj
    4743hudsonj Posts: 3,298 Forumite
    jmc160 wrote: »
    What model Dell PC is it? Can you describe the sound it's making?

    What OS are you running? Is there any corruption in the Windows startup music? (assuming you're running Windows of course..)

    seeing as spotify is windows only its a good chance


    oh unless theyre using the linux distro and using wine

    which i doubt because if your capable of that you dont need to be on here asking questions like that
    Back by no demand whatsoever.
  • jmc160
    jmc160 Posts: 744 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    fwor wrote: »
    If it's WinXP, try looking in Device Manager at the Advanced settings for the IDE channel controllers, and check that the Transfer Mode is set to "DMA if available".

    Occasionally they can (for reasons I've never established) get set to PIO only, which often wrecks things like audio playback.
    That's what I was thinking too. If I remember correctly it was a known issue with some Dimension 300 models.

    OP, if the IDE channels do report PIO mode in Device Manager, you need to uninstall the primary and secondary IDE channel and reboot the computer. You should then find all your music plays properly. From my experience though, the issue will come back.
    The pen is mightier than the sword, and considerably easier to write with.
    --     Marty Feldman
  • albionrovers
    albionrovers Posts: 2,028 Forumite
    jmc160 wrote: »
    What model Dell PC is it? Can you describe the sound it's making?

    What OS are you running? Is there any corruption in the Windows startup music? (assuming you're running Windows of course..)

    ===

    Dell Dimension 3000 with Celeron D processor at 2.66ghz HDD 512mb

    Yes, startup is flawed. Its XP Home. It;s like an intermittent out-of-tune radio station. Thx.
  • albionrovers
    albionrovers Posts: 2,028 Forumite
    oh unless theyre using the linux distro and using wine

    which i doubt because if your capable of that you dont need to be on here asking questions like that[/QUOTE]
    ==-
    Agree, I'm convinced the PC just aint up to the task.
  • albionrovers
    albionrovers Posts: 2,028 Forumite
    jmc160 wrote: »
    That's what I was thinking too. If I remember correctly it was a known issue with some Dimension 300 models.

    OP, if the IDE channels do report PIO mode in Device Manager, you need to uninstall the primary and secondary IDE channel and reboot the computer. You should then find all your music plays properly. From my experience though, the issue will come back.

    ===

    Bingo, Dimension 300. Thx.
  • Marty_J
    Marty_J Posts: 6,594 Forumite
    4743hudsonj wrote: »
    seeing as spotify is windows only its a good chance

    It's also available for Mac OS X.
  • Strider590
    Strider590 Posts: 11,874 Forumite
    Silly question..... But your not playing it too loud are you? it's a PC not a live PA system :p
    “I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an a** of yourself.”

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