OT: Choppy PC audio...

Check the system & CPU temperatures. Even if it gets a *little* too hot... it will cause choppiness. Also, make sure your FSB & memory frequencies are correct. It happened to me recently.. and it was temperature (new heatsink/fan fixed). My friend's girlfriend had the problem.. was FSB & memory frequencies being incorrect ;). Good luck.

-Mike

-- A happy kid behind the wheel of a 98 Mustang GT Cold air intake FRPP 3.73 gears Steeda Tri-Ax Shifter Flowmaster 40 Series mufflers (self-installed woohoo) Hi-speed fan switch

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Mike...

System is somewhere around 96F, CPU at 140F - middle of the "warning" range my Award BIOS allows me to set. Maybe I could underclock the processor while I'm out looking for a new cooling option. I'm using the stock fan system and a single case fan. All of the timing settings are set to auto.

I remember this happening before, too, when the system *was* underclocked by a bunch (2.0GHz processor running somewhere in the 1.2GHz range). I'll try it out though and see if helps anything.

Thanks...

JS

Your system may simply be underpowered. You yourself said your girl's computer has a better video card (takes a bit of the load off the CPU), has a faster processor, and double the memory. That's quite a difference, espescially if you're multitasking, i.e., running Winamp and typing something else.

Max out your memory and get a better video card. As Mike said, cooling won't hurt either.

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

"JS" wrote in news:67dEd.2864$gb.2720@trndny03:

Especially since the latest versions of Winamp, WMP, Real, and Quicktime are such memory hogs. Up until recently, I still used the old Winamp 4 for music, and I still use WMP 6.4 for video. And I've got a 2.8 GHz P4! :)

Right. I think you (JS) said that there is only the one case fan, but I'm assuming you didn't include the power supply fan. You might want to see if you can add at least one more fan in the front of the case, so that you have one blowing in, and two (case and power supply) blowing out.

Also, make sure that with whatever CPU heatsink & fan you end up getting you use enough thermal paste. I've seen otherwise decent computers where the builder used one of those terrible thermal pads and others that used too little or even no (!) thermal paste, and the computers performance seemed worse than my old Celeron 400 with not enough RAM. Add a dab of paste (and get rid of all the spyware...), and everything ran smoothly.

I wasn't quite clear when describing the systems... mine is the one with the better video card, better processor, and twice the memory. As for multitasking, my PC is running almost barebones WinXP Home. I think the only things I have open are the program that checks for new drivers for my MB every Sunday at noon, AIM, Y!Messenger, Winamp, and OE. No virus scanner (I run Symantec's online scanner every now and then) to clog up the system. A first model Pentium - 75MHz can handle the version of Winamp I'm running. (I kept the old version because the new one removed the function I like - the 'J' key allows you to text-search the playlist by most ID3 text fields simultaneously, handy when you have a couple thousand songs).

I'm running whatever came with WinXP (not SP2) for WMP. I don't remember what version of Winamp I'm running (can't check either because I changed the wrong BIOS setting trying to underclock and now have to remove the case to set the config reset jumper so I can get the thing to boot up again - oops). I don't even have Real installed, and I have the smallest option of Quicktime available.

One case fan, one power supply fan, one fan on the CPU that came in the box with the Athlon.

I know all about the spyware cleanup. I've had to do a few systems that took hours to go through and clear it all out... registry editing, etc. Luckily, I stay away from most of that... I really don't run any programs on mine other than OE, AIM, Y!Messenger, Winamp, and the occasional silly outdated game. I didn't even install WeatherBug with AIM as I've heard that's a nice piece of spyware in itself.

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll do some more checking after I get the system back to normal.

JS

Couple of suggestions to try - assuming that it isn't overheating and "throttling back" the CPU speed automatically (run with the case open for a bit - will run a lot cooler):

Google your audio chipset if you haven't done so already with "choppy" or similar keywords - somewhere, someone will have had the same issues...

Try swapping keyboards, just to rule out a hardware fault causing it (unlikely but I've come across stranger things in my time..)

If you have one available, try a pci soundcard instead of the onboard chip. If this also has issues it pretty much rules out driver issues - assuming it will be a different chipset to your onboard one. (Don't forget to disable the onboard in the bios and I would re-install DirectX after the sound just to be sure)

Don't rule out the possibility of "strange" OS behaviour - I can't really give you a "technical" explanation, but I have seen similar issues resolved by re-installing the same OS and drivers (wipe the drive first to guarantee a completely clean install), which you would expect to reproduce exactly the same issues, but hasn't! I can only guess in such cases something has failed to register properly the first time??

Hope something here helps, I know how frustrating this sort of thing can be - my current PC is rock solid using the drivers that came on CD with the mobo, but if I try updating them from the manufacturers website (several driver versions are available) random crashes (re-boots itself with no warning) are introduced. The only solution I have found in my case is to wipe and reinstall as just reinstalling the CD drivers doesn't fix the problem. I found this out through painful trial and error experience a while ago...

Regards, Mark

** above suggestions are provided without warranty of any kind, changes to your system are to be made entirely at your own risk!! **

If you are going to open the case, make sure you have a big fan blowing directly into it... preferably onto the processor. Otherwise, you are actually better off leaving the case closed. Air circulates better with it closed unless you have it open w/ a big fan (I do).

-Mike

-- A happy kid behind the wheel of a 98 Mustang GT Cold air intake FRPP 3.73 gears Steeda Tri-Ax Shifter Flowmaster 40 Series mufflers (self-installed woohoo) Hi-speed fan switch

255/60R-15 rear tires Subframe connectors Aluminum adjustable clutch quadrant

Sorry Mike, can't agree with you there - (unless it is a fancy overclockers special case designed for max cooling with suitable ducting and several fans to ensure loads of airflow) most standard pc cases just don't flow air well at all - put it this way, you wouldn't want to attach one to the cold air intake on the GT ;-)

My processor runs 8 degrees C cooler just by opening the side of my case and I run a front fan and an exhaust in addition to the air the powerpack fan shifts (which is usually not much).

Mark

Well, in my experiences it's been less efficient cooling-wise to just open up the case w/out stuffing a huge fan next to it... but do whatever works. It's not exactly gonna hurt to try to open up the case & see if it helps. If it does, heck ya.. if it doesn't...

-Mike

-- A happy kid behind the wheel of a 98 Mustang GT Cold air intake FRPP 3.73 gears Steeda Tri-Ax Shifter Flowmaster 40 Series mufflers (self-installed woohoo) Hi-speed fan switch

255/60R-15 rear tires Subframe connectors Aluminum adjustable clutch quadrant

overclockers

"JS" wrote in news:sMnEd.7751$eb.2752@trndny01:

Ah, this may be the problem. I'd bet a chunk that the problem disappears with an Intel chip.

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

Hmm... never really had a problem with an AMD chip, except my friend's old K5, but that was ancient history. Maybe I should've stolen the girl's CPU while her computer was here just to see if it was a glitch in the chip, as hers is an Athlon as well.

BTW, I'm running Winamp v2.91... ancient. I see that in 5.0x they put my favorite function (J key allows search text) back in. I'm thinking of upgrading.

Just as a side note, I did try to underclock the CPU some, but I haven't messed with the system bus speed at this point (still set at 200MHz). I slowed it down to 8x bus speed to no avail. I pulled the side of the case off while playing with jumpers (wrong clock multiplier on the CPU causes system lockup that only the hardware jumper can recover) and it did cool the system down significantly. This is the first PC I had a case for, actually.. most were just shells.

Still, nothing's really helped the situation much. I'm still looking, but have been much too busy. Thanks for all of the advice and different options I could try...

JS

"JS" wrote in news:CmHGd.9224$Vn2.4438@trndny06:

If hers is an Athlon and it works, then who knows? Only reason I suggested it was that I've had "interesting" experiences with Athlons...

Winamp's great, but 5 is a lot more piggish than 3 or below. 2.91 is still a good version. BTW, I can run 5 on my P-III w/364mb Ram with no problems. But if I do anything else at the same time... ;)

Hope you figure it out - good luck.

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

I've never had a problem with AMD either. JS... this sounds tedious, but you've done several tedious things already. Take out all unnecessary hardware (disconnect power supply to them anyway) such as CD-RW, DVD-ROM, all RAM modules except 1, sound card, etc... and see the problem persists. If it doesn't, add one component... try again. Still no problem? Add another component, try again. Keep doing this until you find out what specifically is causing it. It could be due to lack of power.

-Mike

-- A happy kid behind the wheel of a 98 Mustang GT Cold air intake FRPP 3.73 gears Steeda Tri-Ax Shifter Flowmaster 40 Series mufflers (self-installed woohoo) Hi-speed fan switch

255/60R-15 rear tires Subframe connectors Aluminum adjustable clutch quadrant

Mike is right, at least in theory. The atx spec calls for air to be drawn in the bottom-front and blown out the top-back, which is supposed to flow the air over the CPU. This only works with the case fully assembled and all slot openings plugged, otherwise you get "short circuits" where the air doesn't follow the intended path. Some cases do a better job than others, and some actually run cooler with the side panel off.

John