This will be somewhat difficult to describe, but maybe somebody has experienced the same problem.
I’m running XP on a computer built for 98SE. It only has 64 MB RAM, if that should help with the diagnosis. The sound card is the standard factory card, and there is no video card upgrade either.
Every time I play a sound or video (with sound), after a given period of time (between 30 seconds and 5 minutes) a crazy static noise comes out of my speakers. It is like TV static that is rhythmic and has lots of painful high pitches. If I stop whatever is playing and start it again, the sound goes away. I can’t figure out what is wrong. Any ideas?
That’s your PC screaming in pain. How the heck did you coerce WinXP to run on 64 meg? You really should have 128 meg at a minimum, 256 meg is better and not terribly expensive these days.
As for the noise, check with the sound card maker’s website to see if they have WinXP drivers.
2 things come to mind.
1 if you have amplified speakers, turn the system volume down and the amps up.
control panel-> sounds and multimedia-> move the slider to the left and hit ok. now use the dial on your speakers to turn the volume up to what it was.
2 open volume control and make sure line in is muted
How did I coerce it to run on 64 meg? Threatened it with more severe beatings (which it received regularly before XP and just as regularly after). It runs fairly smoothly, I was surprised. It was more of a stupid experiment than a plan for extended use, I just happened to lose my 98SE cd. I’ll check for the drivers, I don’t know why I didn’t try that before.
if you need win98 se again since you have license i don’t belive it would illegal to download it off a filesharing network. bearshare, shareaza, gnucleus, and kazaa come to mind as good for that use.
netscape 6: The same thoughts came to mind when it first happened for me, and I played with volume controls like crazy to no avail. I’ve been considering downloading 98SE again, not only because it didn’t make these horrible noises but because I liked it better. I may end up doing that.
I updated my drivers, and about halfway through Stairway to Heaven, as I was getting exciting thinking that it worked, horrible piercing high pitched static came out of my speakers. Damn. I’ll try some other stuff.
Another thought - if there’s a hardware acceleration control for the sound card, try setting it to none.
At least updated drivers let you play a bit longer. 
No luck with the hardware acceleration either 
I’ll probably wait a few days and screw around a bit more before falling back on 98SE, although I will miss my “do everything for you” OS.
If you can provide the proper proof, and pay what I recall is a very reasonable (read: small) fee, MS will replace your Win98SE CD:
[;326246]How to Replace Lost, Broken, or Missing Microsoft Software or Hardware](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[ln)
I did this about six years ago for Office and was pleasantly surprised at how easy and cheap it was. That was six years ago, however, so YMMV.
If the machine in question is your primary box, and if you have a coupla hundred bucks lying around, I’d strongly recommend upgrading the CPU, motherboard, and memory (and probably the HD, too) to something a little more 21st century, and ditch 98 entirely. You’ll be glad you did.
whups, the link in my above post is one of those that contains brackets… here’s the URL without the bbcode:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[ln];326246