sound problems

[mikefortwunty]

this is my first post, so i appologize if it's in the wrong section.

my problem is that any program i use to play music (live streams or mp3 and the like) skips or lags. it's hard to describe what it does. it's like the song slows down for a few seconds. it gets worse or constant when i open other programs, web based or just simple utilities. all the other programs run slower than normal aswell.

i understand streaming music will lag if im downloading or useing the internet for other bandwidth hogging programs, but i've never had a problem anything like this. if im playing a game, it will "lag" whether or not it's an online game when i play music through another program(WinAmp or Windows Media Player).

i just moved in with my girlfriend and this is her dell built computer, which i know nothing about. she says this never happened in her dorm room.

we have comcast cable
Dell Dimension DIM3000
Intel
Pentium 4 CPU 2.80GHz
2.79GHz, 512MB of RAM

should i post my audio codecs, drivers, and devices?

please help

 

[talldude123]

Download the K-Lite Codec Pack and see if that helps.

http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

 

[Silent_Joka]

When this happens, do you notice how much of your CPU resources are being used? How much RAM is being used?

 

[Daduck]

When this happens, do you notice how much of your CPU resources are being used? How much RAM is being used?

I was going to say the same. Especially if you're using onboard sound. In that case, you're having to share CPU usage with the music and whatever other programs you're running. Games and the like tend to take up quite a bit of CPU therefore lagging out other programs running.

 

[mikefortwunty]

i downloaded and installed the k-lite codecs. seems like it may have helped a little but the problem still persists.

system idle process never reaches 0. the closest it gets is maybe 30%. i can just be running windows media player and nothing else and it still stalls the music. changing songs does that same. i've never seen anything like this on any other computer.

 

[kwokwai]

this is my first post, so i appologize if it's in the wrong section.

my problem is that any program i use to play music (live streams or mp3 and the like) skips or lags. it's hard to describe what it does. it's like the song slows down for a few seconds. it gets worse or constant when i open other programs, web based or just simple utilities. all the other programs run slower than normal aswell.

i understand streaming music will lag if im downloading or useing the internet for other bandwidth hogging programs, but i've never had a problem anything like this. if im playing a game, it will "lag" whether or not it's an online game when i play music through another program(WinAmp or Windows Media Player).

i just moved in with my girlfriend and this is her dell built computer, which i know nothing about. she says this never happened in her dorm room.

we have comcast cable
Dell Dimension DIM3000
Intel
Pentium 4 CPU 2.80GHz
2.79GHz, 512MB of RAM

should i post my audio codecs, drivers, and devices?

please help

It sounds like to me that your audio CODEC should have been corrupted.
Please tell which music player do you use to play your music in the PC?

WMPlayer, winAmp, RealPlayer, iTunes...?

 

[mikefortwunty]

i use windows media player for mp3s and winamp for live streams. same problem with both.

 

[ElBurro]

i downloaded and installed the k-lite codecs. seems like it may have helped a little but the problem still persists.

system idle process never reaches 0. the closest it gets is maybe 30%. i can just be running windows media player and nothing else and it still stalls the music. changing songs does that same. i've never seen anything like this on any other computer.

when you say "the closest it gets is 30%" do you mean it never goes below 30%. If so where does average (approximetly) it should stay near zero if you doing nothing or just have Windows Media running. Do other programs execute slowly also? If so you may be looking at a malware problem

 

[kwokwai]

i use windows media player for mp3s and winamp for live streams. same problem with both.

Have you recently installed any CODEC other than K-Lite?

 

[EricB]

turn down your sound card's hardware acceleration.

is her hdd raid?