Win ME skips everytime I play music under ANY load

[JTH]

I am using Win ME on a Gateway machine (P3 1ghz, 128mb RAM) as I've been doing for many years now.

Recently, when I play songs in Windows Media Player, the slightest simultaneous action causes it to skip majorly (e.g. opening an Internet Explorer window or clicking a link). This makes listening to music really tough! I never had this problem at the start. I know more RAM is an obvious solution but 128mb has always been enough for such meger tasks. I have only a reasonable ammount of backround programs running (AGV, Zone Alarm) and I run Spybot, AdAware, Disk Degramenter and Scandisk regularly.

Can anyone help?

[GaryRouth]

Hi again

It's been a few days (I've had some projects & haven't been around much) - are you still having the skipping problem?

Did you try double-checking your local antivirus/antispyware with an online scanner? (like HouseCall, Panda, or Pest Patrol?).

Might check in System Information under the "Software Environment"/"Startup" area to see if everything looks right, and is getting called from the right places. (Or use msconfig - which you can run right from the Start/Run box)

Have you recently added a version of RealPlayer to the system?
. . . Gary

[JTH]

Gary, I'm not sure if this is okay or not, but this is what's in my MSCONFIG environment:

PATH C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
PROMPT $p$g
TEMP C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
TMP C:\WINDOWS\TEMP

I have run up to date virus scans and they have turned up nothing. Thanks for any help!

[Carpedebass]

Are you running Media Player 10 by chance? I'm not sure if it's available for ME or not, but I'm running it and it still seems to be quite "buggy."

[JTH]

Nope, I wasn't aware there even was a version 10! I'm running Windows Media Player "9 Series".

[GaryRouth]

Are your system resources at or above the 80 per cent mark [When you look at My Computer/Properties/Performance tab]?

Perhaps some background jobs have been quietly adding up, until the camel's back is ready for the chiropractor [if so, off to pac-portal's excellent startup/system resources articles and programs list you go: http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk -- go to the Startup Tips section]

If system resources don't seem to be an issue, and you want to see if things go better with a bit more memory an 128mb module = that might help a little [multitasking usually improves some, but not always dramatically]. And you might be able to find a module for the equivalent of about $20 (USD) [not sure what that is in pounds]. Of course, you'll want one that matches your Gateway.

Another thing that happens from time to time that can slow systems down - Bios settings that have been thrown off by power surges & blackouts. Might poke in the Bios to make sure everything is set up OK [and that the processor and memory haven't been set to a slower-than-normal setting by accident]
. . . Gary

[JTH]

Thanks Gary, I will take a look at those startup tips.

System Resources are 68% free, how's that? Oh and by the way, we've switched to euro now

[GaryRouth]

68% is starting to get on the low side. If you've got QuickTime, MS Office startup & findfast, Instant Messaging, Printer monitoring, etc. running in the background = all these you can do without. Most programs (with the exception of firewalls and antispy/antivirus) don't need to run every minute the computer is on.

Got to run out the door myself (time to get the kids from school) - I'll be interested to hear if it doesn't skip anymore with resources up around 85-90%.
. . . Gary

[...just remembered another one - your ISP software (esp. AOL) - such "Start Centers" aren't usually necessary either ...]