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11-05-2002, 11:07 PM
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#1 |
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Member (9 bit)
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: G.P., TX
Posts: 472
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Computer seems to "skip"
I've been having this problem lately. It seems as though Win98 SE is a scratched CD in a CD Player. It kind of skips. I dont know how to describe it. Even the sound is skippy. For example when I open MSN Explorer, it plays a sound but it skips. Same when I'm watching a DVD It pauses but they are very short quick pauses. At first I thought the DVDs were dirty. But I cleaned them and I noticed it did it all the time. The mouse is jumpy and I cleaned the rollers and trackball. I have done a thorough scandisk and defrag. and a virus scan. Anyone have any idea? Thanks In Advance
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11-06-2002, 02:02 AM
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#2 |
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Member (12 bit)
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Woodland Hills, CA (suburb of Los Angeles)
Posts: 4,014
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It does sound like either background activity or possibly a power/heat problem. Easy enough to check on the temps- next time in the bios, check the PC Health or Hardware Monitor temps. (some systems have Windows utilities that can check, too - and some cases have sensors with displays).
Is this your brother's Hp - or a different computer? A quick troubleshooter for background activity (since you've already scanned for viruses) might be Ad-Aware (for spyware), and The Cleaner (for trojans). I don't have the links handy, but if you search the forums, you should find a link pretty quickly. If no program is doing the "dialing home" or "keyboard snooping" kind of thing, next stop is msconfig (you can start it from the Start/Run box, or from Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information - and from the Tools menu selet System Configuration Tool). Under the "Startup" tab, uncheck most everthing except System Tray, Task Monitor, Scan Registry, and Load Power Profiles. . . and see if the "skipping" is gone. Then add items back one at a time to see who's causing mischief. You can also try booting to Safe Mode & seeing if the skipping is suddenly cured in there. You could also check to see if DMA has been disabled for the hard drive & DVD drive (I seem to recall that some DVD players can do DMA and some can't, but I'm pretty fuzzy on that - it'd be in the DVD's manual. Not sure if a hard drive or memory problem could cause this behavior, but you could run diagnostics on those just to be thorough. Best of luck . . . Gary Last edited by GaryRouth; 11-06-2002 at 02:04 AM. |
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11-06-2002, 05:31 AM
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#3 |
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Telcom Tech
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Western, Pa.
Posts: 5,409
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What kind of PC is it?? Please give some basic specs Processor and memory and what kind of sound card.
__________________
If it ain't broke, "TWEAK IT" |
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11-06-2002, 11:02 AM
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#4 |
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Member (9 bit)
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: G.P., TX
Posts: 472
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No...this is another computer...it's my Presario 5900z. The processor is a 600mhz (AMD Athlon I believe). 384 megs of ram. Since you mentioned it, I installed an extra stick of ram. I'm gonna pull it to see if that's the culprit. I've run Adaware...have yet to do Cleaner. I dont know if it's heat related...because it does this as soon as I boot the system. I believe DMA is enabled unless it somehow got disabled by itself:P I'm gonna do the Startup editing when I get home...I'm at work right now, but in the meantime, any other suggestions are welcomed. Thanks All
Last edited by el_novato; 11-06-2002 at 11:12 AM. |
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11-06-2002, 11:08 AM
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#5 |
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Member (9 bit)
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: G.P., TX
Posts: 472
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ktkendall,
I forgot about the sound card, I dont recall what type it is. I can tell ya when I get home...It's the one that came with the system. Sorry, it's all I have right now. Thanks |
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11-08-2002, 07:38 PM
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#6 |
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Member (9 bit)
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: G.P., TX
Posts: 472
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OK...sorry it took me so long...being without power sucks. Anyhow, under Device Manager, there is Creative Sound Blaster Audio PCI 128 and Sound Blaster AudioPCI 128 Legacy Device. Is that what you asked for ktkendall?
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11-09-2002, 07:15 AM
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#7 |
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Telcom Tech
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Western, Pa.
Posts: 5,409
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Yes and what about the PC itself, what processor and speed, and how much memory??
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11-09-2002, 08:46 AM
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#8 |
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Member (9 bit)
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: G.P., TX
Posts: 472
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AMD Athlon 600Mhz 384 megs of PC133 WIN98SE...btw, DMA is enabled.
Last edited by el_novato; 11-09-2002 at 08:50 AM. |
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11-09-2002, 12:39 PM
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#9 |
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Telcom Tech
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Western, Pa.
Posts: 5,409
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Sorry i didn't pay close enough attention to the above posts, Your PC seems fast enough and enough mem that It should be handling most anything you need to do. I would probably be looking into that sound card and settings, or as above mentioned, something else that is running in the backround is causing this!
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11-09-2002, 04:26 PM
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#10 |
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Member (12 bit)
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Woodland Hills, CA (suburb of Los Angeles)
Posts: 4,014
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Hi again all
el_novato - did you reinstall the operating system at any time since you first got it? If your motherboard has the Via KT133 or KT133a chipset on it, you might be experiencing the IDE/PCI timing problems that the chipset had at first. If your Athlon is a Slot 1, you probably have the KX133 - I can't remember if that chipset had the same trouble or not. The problem usually lay in the 686b "South Bridge" part of the chipset, that handles the IDE/PCI timings and transfers, etc. Updating to recent Via 4-in-1 drivers for the motherboard, and updating the Sound Blaster drivers might do the trick. Motherboard bios updates also helped such problems with some boards. The reason I asked if you reinstalled, is that you'd have needed to reinstall the Via 4-in-1 and sound card updates after that. _________ The above only applies, though, to chipsets with the 686b South Bridge. _________ So - if that's not it, do test your memory = both the old stick and the new. http://www.simmtester.com has a free testing program called something like MemoryDoc. Usually Win98's hesitation game with "large amounts of memory installed" (back in those days 384 to 512 was a Huge amount) starts to be a problem over 320mb. There's a VCACHE setting that can be adjusted for machines with 512mb or more - I wonder if problems can start to appear at 384mb as well. I'll take a look around & add to this post later if I find that information. Best of luck . . . Gary [Ok...got the info on the vcache: mostly if refers to systems with over 512mb, but you might have a look see anyway: it's an article with links to others that have a fair wealth of information of how Windows98 uses memory - it's interesting reading, even if it doesn't apply to your current problem (add one more stick of memory, though, and you're there!)] http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q253912 Last edited by GaryRouth; 11-09-2002 at 04:39 PM. |
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11-10-2002, 04:04 PM
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#11 |
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Member (9 bit)
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: G.P., TX
Posts: 472
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Yes, I have restored it from the Compaq restore disks twice in the 2 years that I have had it. I can't remember what chipset the mobo has. Would there be bios updates for it since it's a Compaq? I have tried to ID the mobo but haven't had any luck so far. Thanks for the link and your help, I'll look into it.
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11-10-2002, 10:26 PM
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#12 |
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Member (12 bit)
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Woodland Hills, CA (suburb of Los Angeles)
Posts: 4,014
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If there are bios updates available, the Compaq webpage for your model would list it under "available downloads". If the new memory tests out OK, might be time for another restore, if you've backed up all your data. Seems like an awful lot of restoring for a two-year-old system, but each box is different.
Best of luck . . . Gary |
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11-10-2002, 10:29 PM
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#13 |
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Member (9 bit)
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: G.P., TX
Posts: 472
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jejejeje...that's before I came to PCMech, when I thought a restore was the solution to every problem
 ...BUT that has changed alot.
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