Windows: Audio Problems
 

When I have iTunes open (or any other audio player for that matter), I get crackles/distortion when opening up other programs/doing something else in the foreground when a song is playing, something that has only recently started to happen.

Obviously, my first port of call was to check that there was enough RAM free. Strangely enough, there is 30-40% free when it does occur. I've checked for viruses/adware (all negative), I've updated Windows to SP2, and I've deleted a great deal from my C:/ drive...and now I'm confused. :razz:

Surely someone must have an idea or two?

Check for updated audio drivers on the manufacturers website.

Do you have onboard sound or a PCI card, like SoundBlaster?

Or maybe, are the speakers ok? Crackling/distortion are symptoms of borked speakers.

Check the speakers are plugged into the socket on the PC properly, it might have jogged loose.

I've checked for updates, but there are none.

It's on my VAIO laptop, therefore I don't think that it's a loose connection.

It's only when I open up additional programs; when the computer is 'idle-ish', the sound is perfect.

Do you have any Java based torrent download programs on your machine ?

I usually have Azureus running.

Although, even with Azureus closed, the problem still exists.

Scandisk n defrag the drive. Sounds like when there's disc activity its causing the problems. Check the swapfile settings are ok. Turn of the XP HDD Indexing crap. Found in properties of your C:\ drive.

Also make sure ure not running too many things in the background, as something maybe chewing up your resources. How much ram does it have? Anything below 512mb might give you problems. And cpu speed?

I did both when the problem started. I've turned off the indexing, but, again, no change.

I have very little running in the background when I have iTunes open too. The laptop has 448 MB of RAM, with a 2.79 GHz processor. The problem has only just started, so it can't be a lack of RAM or processor speed.

Weird, u shouldnt have any issues at all with that spec. Throw it in the bin? 448mb of ram? where did u get that figure from?

My computer > properties.

I presume it's 512 MB - no idea why it says 448 MB.