Here’s the problem:
When I play just about anything on my computer, it refuses to play it at the right speed. It comes out as if it’s speeding up and slowing down.
Actually, it sorta speeds up for a moment, then comes back down to ‘normal speed’. And it does it frequently, though unpredictably. During the speed-up portions, it sounds like it might be omitting a series of fraction-of-a-second bits of the recording, instead of actually playing faster. But it’s hard to tell.
This holds true for *.mp3’s played in Winamp, for a standard CD played in Realplayer, and for DVDs played in my ‘PowerDVD’ software. All of them worked a while ago.
This happened once before, back in the fall of 2002 (Actually, it was just with Winamp-- I wasn’t using the other two applications back then). It went away after I ignored it for a while. But this time it’s lasted for almost three months.
Does anybody have any idea why this might be? It’s tremendously annoying, to the point where I don’t bother even trying to listen to music or watch movies anymore.
Computer stats:
Constructed from components August 2002.
WinXP
Winamp3 - Re-downloaded a week ago in case that was the problem.
The free version of Realplayer
PowerDVD came with a DVD movie.
Try increasing your virtual memory and/or defraging your hard drive.
You can change your virtual memory under the control panel>>
system performance…>>advanced>>see basic information…>>perfomance settings>>advanced
Good luck!
Sounds like an issue with your sound card, maybe you could borrow a friends install it and see if it works better, then go buy another sound cardif it does. I realize it would have to be really good friend to let you borrow their sound card for this purpose.
You could also try to install updated drivers from the website of your sound card manufacturer.
good luck!
Hmm, maybe. I just tried a DVD again, and the video seems pretty good, but it’s messing up the audio, just like it for the CD and *.mp3’s
I just defragmented, and it didn’t fix it.
I don’t have another sound card readily available… but you may be right. I hope I don’t need to buy another. (Well, I don’t really need sound, I guess.)
Watches the DVD some more
Audio gets worse, and the same sort of choppiness becomes apparent in the video
Hmm… Yeah, it’s definitely in the video, too. I don’t know about the sound card.
Oh, and despite your instruction, I’m having a lot of trouble finding the virtual memory settings…
That pathway you gave doesn’t work out.
Thanks, though.
Im sorry it should be
control panel>>
system performance…>>>>see basic information…>>advanced>>perfomance settings>>advanced
make sure to take note of the virtual memory settings so you can restore them if your computer does not function well after you change them.
the path is quite is convulted!
you may try reinstalling your sound card drivers, get updated ones from the website of your sound card manufacturer, or try installing using the windows sound card drivers.
Good Luck!
Well… before I go change that… I’ve got 768 MB of virtual memory. How much should I set? The maximum allowed value is 1536 MB.
It is probably not your virtual memory, however you could try
setting it to the maximum and see if it works then stepping it back until it messes up again and then increase it slightly until it works again . It was just something to try.
Good Luck!