Windows Media Player Problem?

[matt328]

My computer is relatively new; I do not have a lot of junk on it.  When I first got the computer, I ripped a few of my CDs onto Windows Media Player.  After having about 500 songs, my computer's sound started getting choppy. The visualizations on Windows Media Player also got choppy.  I deleted all the songs, thinking that maybe I have just too much on the computer for it to handle; it didn't solve the problem though. I frequently use Disc Cleanup and Disc Defragmentor to free up space and I have no games or anything of that sort. I currently have no songs saved on the computer but still, whenever I put in a CD, it never plays properly (all kinds of CDs; brand new right out of the package, and burned CDs). When I load my computer up, the little sound that plays when Windows starts (the classic doo-doo-doo) is also choppy.  I don't download music and I have virus protection so I don't think I have a virus. It isn't my speakers because I've tried two different sets of speakers.  Is there anyway to get my visualizations and music playback right again? It used to work so perfectly :-/

Thanks for any help you can offer.   -Matt

[GX1_Man]

There are things as bad as viruses that can slow down your system.

Download and run

AdAware
Spybot
CCleaner
Ewido

All are free, just google for them. Let us know what you find.

[matt328]

I downloaded all 4 of these programs.

AdAware and SpyBot installed successfully.

Ewido pops up with an "NSIS" error when I try to open the installer.  CCleaner begins the install, and while it is installing, the whole setup just disappears. No files were made in the programs folders and no icons show up anywhere.

I downloaded these two programs from multiple sources, each resulting in the same errors.  Is there a place you recommend I get these programs from?

[Fed]

http://www.ewido.net/en/
http://www.ccleaner.com

[dl65]

matt328........

Ewido pops up with an "NSIS" error when I try to open the installer.

This could be the result of a failed download or corruption from a virus.

So , try this ......Turn off your system restore feature ........then reboot into SAFE mode and run your anti virus program from there.
Be certain your anti virus is up to date as far as subscription and virus definitions .  Once you have scanned for viruses .....try and install Ewido again .
Then I would run SpyBot .........

let us know how it goes .

dl65  

[matt328]

Alright well props to you guys for the safe mode idea. All four of the programs installed and ran properly. Everything is clean on the computer now but only one problem... I still have playback issues.  I've done everything the Windows Help Section has to suggest to get rid of the choppy playback. What happens now is when the computer first loads up, it is choppy. The choppiness goes away slowly after awhile until it is perfectly clear. So now I have clear music again, but I have to wait for the computer to like "warm up" for 5 or 10 minutes in order for the music to work properly. It also gets choppy again when I open another program (such as Internet Explorer) but it never used to do that. Is that a RAM problem? All I want is to be able to play music while I'm working  :-/

[Fed]

Shutdown all the little background things running in the right hand side of your taskbar.
Now try & play some music.
Does it play?
Then just re-boot to get back your normal running junk.
Do you have Norton installed?

[matt328]

I have the full version McAfee installed. Closing down everything isn't making much of a difference. Maybe next time i'll just put the extra 50 bucks or so in to have the RAM upgraded haha I'm at 256, I don't think it should be a problem to play music but I'm running out of excuses. Is the visualizations on Windows Media Player and the music just too much to handle on a 256MB RAM computer while having instant messenger and Microsoft Word open?

[GX1_Man]

Is the visualizations on Windows Media Player and the music just too much to handle on a 256MB RAM computer while having instant messenger and Microsoft Word open?

I can do that perfectly on a PII-400 with 128 RAM and WIn 98 or 2000, no problem.

If you are running XP that may be an issue, but I suspect something else. Have you checked to see what processes are rfunning at start up?

[Roofvogel]

I have the full version McAfee installed. Closing down everything isn't making much of a difference. Maybe next time i'll just put the extra 50 bucks or so in to have the RAM upgraded haha I'm at 256, I don't think it should be a problem to play music but I'm running out of excuses. Is the visualizations on Windows Media Player and the music just too much to handle on a 256MB RAM computer while having instant messenger and Microsoft Word open?

It could be that programs such as McAfee or BitTorrent are constantly trying to access your hard disk drive. This slows down nearly any computer.

[matt328]

I don't know what processes to close. The start up one's are just like my anti-virus and two other things.  I'm running McAffe Virus Scan as my virus protection but I don't want to turn it off just to listen to music.

[Roofvogel]

Is it set so scan in real time?

[Windows98]

Using windows XP? To much process running to lag? How much ram does it have? You tried increasing the pagging file size?

[matt328]

Yes, Windows XP. 256 MB RAM. Lag is probably the issue but I don't know what to do about it.

[Windows98]

Right Click my computer-> Properties-?Advance Tab=>Proformance options=>Change->


My personal reconmendations:

Intial size: 750-820 depending on how many startup items and desktop icons
Maximum Size: 900-1000 depending on number selected above

Maximum Regisrty size: 64MB

By the way you should check your CPU to se if it remains 100% for a long time. How many real time applications do you have?

I have to go I'll be back tommorow one of the other poeple can try to help you here  [smiley=happy.gif]