New Comp, Sound Issues, please help

[Skier4Life]

Ok, a friend of mine purchased an HP notebook with the following specs:
15.4" WXGA TFT widescreen display with 1280 x 800 resolution




40.0GB EIDE hard drive (4200 rpm)




ATI Mobility RADEON 9000 IGP graphics with 128MB DDR shared video memory; internal Harman/Kardon stereo speakers; S-video TV-out




3 high-speed USB 2.0 ports for fast digital video, audio and data transfer




Integrated 54g high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g); integrated 10/100Base-T Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector; V.90/V.92 high-speed modem




Weighs 7.9 lbs. and measures about 1.8" thin for portable power; high-capacity lithium-ion battery and AC adapter; 101-key-compatible keyboard




Windows XP Home Edition operating system preinstalled; software package included with HP Image Zone, Roxio Easy CD Creator Basic and more


- Problems have risen with the sound system though. We try to listen to music that has been loaded onto the hard drive. (Files are .wma). The music will "skip" and fade randomly. What can be done to fix this problem. I'm thinking its a driver issue. Any ideas??

Thanks

 

[Jorsoft]

Yes, skipping and fading is almost always a driver issue (I've never heard of it not being one). I'd go to HP's website and download the latest drivers for your laptop. Windows XP also has an extensive help system which, unlike past versions, is actually HELPful! If updating the drivers doesn't work, try using the Help system since it's not completely worthless anymore.

Try playing some .wav files and .mp3 files, too. It could just be that the Media Player doesn't have the right audio codec installed to play these .wma files correctly (yes this happens, even on preloaded comps). Update Windows XP with the latest Service Packs and codecs.

Standard Windows sounds (Boot Up, Open Folder, Shutdown, etc.) sound okay, right? If they do, I'd say it's just an outdated audio codec or something.

 

[DoctorD]

There's also other possibilities - check that your primary IDE has DMA support enabled - if it's set to PIO only it may run very slowly.

I had this skipping problem too and tracked it down to my spyware guard. The memory guard was eating system resources sporadically. Switched the memory guard off, but left all other guards enabled and problem was fixed.