Sound Quality

[Guest]

I'm having a consistent wrestling match w/ my HP Pavillion Notebook (XP MCE)
The sound quality playing cd's and media files is frequently cutting out and distorted!
I've gone into the control panel/sounds and audio/ audio and messed with the various playback devices.
All options produce the same funky thang.
any ideas?

[Lowlander]

Try switching output plugin under Tooks > Options > Output plug-ins.

Does the problem only occur when playing songs with MediaMonkey or does it also happen when using other media software?

[rovingcowboy]

you answered your self and did not know it.


notebook.

otherwise known as hard drive oven and ram chip oven.

overheating which is common place in notebooks will cause the sound to do what you are saying.
there are ways to fix that.
get a software cpu cooler either a freeware version or one you bought, as long as it is for your cpu.
and or also get some cooling fan trays that you sit the laptop on. that will help keep it cool also.

sometimes the built on mb, sound chip gets hot but the cpu cooler and fans will help there also.
try that and let us know what happens. on a simple note if you don't have the money for the cooling fans.
you might try placing the computer on a marble counter since marble seems to keep cooler then the surrounding area it can have a slight effect also.

if none of that helps then i suggest buying some new ram sticks for the laptop because they might have already been overheated to the point where no amount of cooling will help them., but that is a huge amount of heat needed to do that? how hot has the system got and or did it just start doing the skipping.


also something else to think of. windows does have a way to clear the ram if it is being used and filling up.
this will cause slight stopping of the songs too. it will happen more and more the closer you get to having your hd filled up. or the more programs you have running that will fill up your page file and the ram. you can try making your page file larger and see if that helps.

[simon142857]

Thanks all for the suggestions.

The problem also happens with otner players.
I'm not so sure about the heat thing... the fans seldom come on.
I'm looking into getting my hard drive slimmed down, and will try other fixes involving ram.

Problem is even worse w/CD playback.

[Bex]

Also check if your drivers are outdated.

[simon142857]

I'm not so sure about which drivers to check?

[nohitter151]

I'm not so sure about which drivers to check?

Sound card drivers.

[Peke]

also Mouse, Chipset and GPU

[rovingcowboy]

if you have windows os. then go to windows update.

on that page you will see a link in the left side frame. this link is called Microsoft updates
click that link.

get that set up to run if it needs any activex to run, then use the custom scan button to scan your system
it will tell you what you need even if it is an third party peice of software,
of course that is only if they told microsoft about the update to their software.

if you need drivers and they know about it you will get them. because ms will go to the site
for them and get them for you. or they have had them sent to them and put them on their ms servers to download.

[Peke]

RC,
Over the years using Windows Update for hardware as sometimes it can miss and make issues.

I would rather suggest free http://www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax/ util.

[Bex]

Thanks for the link, Peke!

[rovingcowboy]

yep peke others do have trouble with it sometimes when it was not needed to be using a truely bought and paid for version of a real copy of windows os, so the ones with pirate copys were the ones that i believe mostly got the errors on updates at windows update. i got a few but cleaning out the system and getting it all in order before going there helps keep the errors to a min..

and the microsoft update site is something they just came out with last year. so it is new server that does that, i say to go to the windows update site then click the link there cause its easy for people to remember windows update when they don't follow the message for a day or two. because they have a link to windows update on the browser that makes it easy to find.