Sound problem when playing cd's

[Floppyman]

Hi all,

Let me tell you this is the weirdest thing I ever experienced. My primary system is a Dual Pentium III 600E @800mhz, 384mb of ram, 30 gig hdd, Creative Labs SB Live Value, 2 cdroms, 1 Asus 50x, 1 HP 9110i cdrw, all dual booting between win98se and windows 2000. When I pop in a cd, any cd, it will play it fine for a while, and after a while I get pops in the speakers once in a while, this varies in time. I sometimes can play half a cd before I get this and sometimes just a little bit of a cd. And these pops just occur at random then, not like a whole bunch in a row or so. Any ideas? Could it be because of my high pci bus of 44.3mhz? But that wouldn't explain why it works fine for a while then starts doing it. Could it be my ram? Thanks.

And if having these troubles on one computer were not good enough, I have similar ones on another. The other is an old 486 50mhz, can't remember the cdrom exactly. Anyway it will play a cd fine for a while too, and then all of a sudden start skipping after a while? Any ideas? The cd itself is fine in both cases. It's not super annoying on the first system and I won't use the 486 much longer, but I'd still like to know what could be causing this. Thanks again.

[glc]

I would highly suspect the PCI bus speed - you could be slowly but surely frying the sound card.

[HAL9000]

I would also suspect bus speed as you had asked about another problem a while back that also sounded bus speed related. Try dropping it down and see what happens.

One last point, took me forever to realize what it was, you don't happen to have a cell phone sitting near your computer do you? They will cause a consistent click in the speaker about every 10 minutes.

[Floppyman]

Thanks glc, funny thing is this only happens cd's, not mp3's or .wav files....the other thing is I have not tested to see whether this happens in win98. I have had this system o'ced from the way beginning, over 1/2 a year ago, and things have worked fine so far, and it can't be ram related anyhow? It's just funny how it does this after a while, while playing just cd's, and then a couple pops at random intervals. Thanks again.

[Floppyman]

Thanks guys....I took the bus speed down to 112mhz (only thing besides 103 between 100 and 133)..so the cpus are running at 672mhz now...with a pci bus of 37.3mhz and am playing a cd right now to see what happens. This motherboard does not have a 1/4 divider at 133 so that's why the bus runs so high. I really don't see a speed decrease from 2x 800 to 2x 672 right now. And well it pops even at 112mhz....hmmm weird, it just did anyway. I will try in win98 here and see what happens. Thanks again.

[Floppyman]

Well I tried it at 800mhz in win98 and well it didn't pop as it did in win2k...I heard a couple little pops though, hardly noticeable, not like the ones in win2k. What are the chances of this being software related? I use winamp to play cd's but currently using another player...the one by creative (software). It even pops at 600mhz with winamp in win2k so something isn't right here. I will leave the cpu's at 600 for now and see what happens. If this seems to be software related I will try to oc again just to check to be sure. I won't keep my cpu's o'ced like that anymore though I think, for the goodness of the system. Besides, I really don't use all the power of a dual 800mhz or dual 600mhz system anyway. Thanks again and will keep you updated.

[Floppyman]

Hmmm theory #2 seems to be correct so far......it's software related in that theory. I use winamp to play cd's...and it pops using winamp. When I use creative's cd player instead....no pops. I played a cd for 20 min no pops using creative's cdplayer and no pops, and then just 5 min of winamp and it pops (this was at 2x 600) Now at 2x800 mhz again, and creative's cdplayer, still no pops as of yet (good 10 min). Will keep you updated.

[Floppyman]

Well I just don't get this. I start the comp up this morning at 600mhz and put in a cd and get a ton of pops again, weird. More than usual...Could it be something else like the wiring in the house, something near to the comp?....I mean it seems like it's doing worse now at default speed, and once again, only with cd's no mp3's etc. Any ideas?

[glc]

Have you tried a new CD audio cable? Do you get the pops through the headphone jack on the CD too?

[Floppyman]

Thanks glc, I went all out yesterday and reformatted and reinstalled win2k. The system is currently running at default (2x600mhz), and I'm gonna try playing cd's on it tonight after school to see what happens. It may have been premature of me to blame the last time it started popping again on the computer though, as the cd was dirty and started popping in the stereo too. Will try a cd again tonight and see what happens. Thanks again.

[Floppyman]

Well the popping seems to have disapeared..but now I just experienced a little static in the speakers when they are turned up all the way, with no sound..however, this was fixed by unplugging the connection to the amp and plugging it back again. What could be the cause of this? Is the amp to close to the comp? Electricity reasons? I'm using ACS 56 speakers. Thanks again.

[mhayes]

Sorry I'm late on this one Flop, I think you hit the key there a few posts back. "Winamp" I have used this program pre W2k and loved it, but I found that it completely messed up my W2k, symptoms were the pops that you experienced. Once I uninstalled Winamp the pops went away, however I no longer have a autoplay audio cdplayer?

[Floppyman]

Thanks Mike,

I'm beginning to notice now too that it pops during mp3's, maybe I'll uinstall and use a different program. The pops using the cd are gone, only maybe a minor one or two, but to some extent those are probably normal. I use creative's software to play the cd now. What to use to play mp3's in win2k? Ever used Music Matchbox (also free)? As for the auto cd player, I installed winamp so it wouldn't be associated with audio cd's therefore the creative cd player comes up. What do you to play cd's Did you check the preferences? HTH and Thanks.

[Floppyman]

Well let me take that back.....I uinstalled winamp and now I don't have an autoplay feature on audio cd's either anymore, instead I get an error saying the path is denied or something close to that, I guess thanks to winamp...oh well, Well I went back up to 2x800 just for kicks and well, no pops....will see if those I/O errors come up again or not after the reinstall. What to use to play mp3's now? Thanks.

[glc]

flop - have you tried Sonique for mp3's yet? Last time I saw it, it looked like a really nice player.

[Floppyman]

Thanks glc, will try that one. I'm using Real Player 8 right now...seems to work allright. Also got my cd autoplay back...by changing something under file types in folder options. I'm now getting explorer errors though...when o'ced, funny thing is I never got these before when o'ced, maybe I'll try some updates and see what happens.

[mhayes]

Hey Flop,

If you ever find the registry key or other fix for the default player send me a PM.

For a really cool MP3 player try PCDJ from Visiosonic, it's actually two playback decks with a mixer, you can mix play simultaneously........and it's free!

http://www.visiosonic.com/

[Floppyman]

Allright Mike, will send you a PM tomorrow...gonna head to bed now...also after some updates the explorers are gone too..let's hope they don't come back. Thanks again for everybody's help.

[WJWheels]

I've used Winamp, RealJukebox, Sonique, M-player, etc. I now use MusicMatch Jukebox for EVERYTHING. It autostarts with the insert of a CD, it's the best I've found for categorizing mp3s, it rips mp3 from a cd in record time, and it even burns cd's by converting directly from the playlist to "any" cdrw you have in your pc. I think it's the best.. and FREE to boot.

[Floppyman]

Ok Mike, to try to get your cdplayer to auto play again, go up to My Computer/Tools/Folder Options and then over to the file types tab...scroll down until you find Audio cd, click Advanced. A window should pop up and click edit: Enter this path if you win2k on your C: drive: C:\WINNT\system32\cdplayer.exe "%1" If it's on D: change the drive letter then and so on. Click ok and you should be set. Lemme no if this works for ya. HTH

[mhayes]

Thanks Flop, that was driving me nuts!