Distortion/Skipping when running IE 5.5
 

I've been having the same problem with skipping/distortion/choppiness or whatever as I'm running other applications, namely IE 5.5 My system specs are:

PIII - 733mhz
Windows 98 SE
384MB PC-133 SDRAM
Sound Blaster Live!
32MB Nvidia TNT2 M64
Direct X 8.0a
Cable Modem
Winamp 2.76

I've already tried reinstalling and getting the latest drivers for my sound card, increasing the buffer size, switching ouput plugins, disabling plugins, closing all other apps running---basically the whole deal. I also noticed that this really only started happening after I purchased and installed 256MB of RAM to go with my current 128. I did some experiments and found out that with 128MB of RAM, the distortion does not occur as nearly as much as it does with either 256 or 384 in there. This seems strange but I was wondering what could cause this and if there is any other solution to the skipping issue. :confused:

i assume that when you took the ram out, you were testing with the same file, right?

the only thing that i could think of doing is disabling smooth scrolling in internet options (In internet explorer: Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced -> Uncheck Use Smooth Scrolling [its at the bottom of the browsing section]).

If this doesn't work out, reply back, and we'll think up something else.

Well I tried disabling smooth scrolling, but no luck. I'm open for any suggestions right now.

perhaps you should go to microsoft and upgrade to 6.0¿

Ok, well after some more searching I found out that my vid card and sound card are sharing the same interrupt request under resources in the device manager. Is this a problem that could be causing the skipping, and how do i fix this? because windows won't let me change the settings in there

Yup, that's your problem okay. A classic Resource Conflict!

Workaround fix:

Add the following line in System.ini & reboot.

code:
[display]

busthrottle=1

Permanent fix:

Remove the entry for soundcard in Device Manager
Reinstall drivers.

If that doesn't work, remove entry again.
Shutdown pc
Physically move the soundcard to another free available slot.
Reboot
Reinstall soundcard drivers.

btw, IE5.5 sp2 has just been released!

Thanks for the help DJ, but i got some more bad news.
[display]
busthrottle=1 was already in the system.ini file(Put in by my netcam I believe)

As for reinstalling the drivers, I tried that before, and after doing it again, things were the same under resources. Then I even moved the soundcard to a different slot, but that did not work as well. I also should mention that this problem only occurs when using winamp. Is there anything else I can possibly try?

Oh, and I already got the sp2 for IE.:)

Oh heck! :(

So you actually removed all reference to the SBLive s/c in Device Manager, then reinstalled the drivers . . . and Windows still assigned the same IRQ as your videocard? If so, that suxx bigtime!

You also tried removing all references then moved to a different slot?

Simply reinstalling the drivers won't fix it. You have to remove them first.

What IRQ is assigned to them both? Is it IRQ 11 ?

Have you tried going to SBLive -> properties -> Resources tab
Uncheck "use automatic settings"
Hi-lite "Interrupt Request"
Click the "change" button.

Change IRQ to 05 (or anything else that won't cause a conflict)

At the moment, your videocard is stealing bus bandwidth from your soundcard.

I know you've said earlier that you tried the DirectSound Output Plugin,
but did you also checkmark both "create" & "play primary buffer" in DS config?
Further tips here
(increase buffers/prebuffers/polling delay/etc)

More tips/advice:
From: TSGH -> Useful Links
Re: Problems with skipping.... section.

I wonder if we have/had the same problem...

I was having some minor popping/skipping problems on a Dell Laptop with Win2K. I isolated the problem to my PCMCIA NIC. My problem was not limited to Winamp, rather it was anything that used the Wave Balancer audio control....

I have another, though. I am experiencing a sort of CD skip sound occasionally while playing MP3s located either on my desktop or on my local HD.

Any guesses?

Brock

Yes, it is IRQ 11, and no I can't change the settings. It says "This resource setting cannot be modified". Another thing: There was something called Creative Restore Defaults included with the software from the soundcard. I used that to restore my soundcard settings to their original, and it changed the IRQ from 11 to 5. However, after restarting, it went back to 11. Any ideas??

Two options:
1) Contact CreativeLabs support
2) Get a qualified technician to change the settings in the BIOS

I've been trying out the DirectSound plugin with the info you gave me, and so far so good. But is there any change in sound quality while using DirectSound?, because the overall volume seems lower. Anyway thanks for all the help but this whole thing just seemed strange to me since the distortion/skipping harldly ever happened when I had 128MB of RAM installed. Perhaps Windows doesn't know what to do with the extra memory?

Hmm . . . possibly, though Windows should be able to handle upto 512mb RAM
Any more than that is surplus to requirements/ignored. (fact!)
Could be faulty chips maybe? :eek:

Re: Volume

Just turn the main/master slider up in Windows Volume control.
Turn Winamp's volume slider up a bit as well, and you shouldn't be able to tell any difference. Maybe crank the EQ up a bit too.

let's be version-specific with windows, folks; mine can handle up to 2GB of ram and 16 processors. I had a similar problem with my sound, having nothing to do with software. I tossed in 256 mb of GOOD (micron) ram [yes, quality makes a big difference] and an SBLive! 5.1, and my problems evaporated. If you're really sure the problem lies in software, try some alternatives. maybe netscape, a lower display resolution, or a different version of windows, if you have the system flexability.