Updated Winamp freezes

Kira37 · 20th January 2001, 19:25

I recently updated my Winamp from a 2.6 version (which worked perfectly well) to Winamp 2.71. That version freezed every time i tried to play an mp3. So, i downloaded Winamp 2.72, but it still does the same thing.

I run a Micron Millenia P1 233 w/96 MB RAM on Windows 98SE. I have a Yamaha integrated sound card (which i have recently updated the drivers on, and am also having some trouble with), and a Voodoo 3 PCI video card.

I've tried uninstalling Winamp, rebooting, then re-installing it. That doesn't help. I don't have any skins or other plug-ins that might be interfering with it either.

Please help! I haven't been able to play mp3's (or any other format, for that matter) for weeks!

Qaxar · 20th January 2001, 21:26

Can you try to play an MP3 using a different player? This might help to isolate the problem a bit.

Kira37 · 21st January 2001, 19:24

What other players can play mp3's?

Winsane · 21st January 2001, 23:32

Windows Media Player and RealPlayer are the ones that you're most likely to already have.

Qaxar · 22nd January 2001, 01:09

Just a thought. When you updated your sound card drivers, could they have loaded any new plugins to either input or output? On the input side you should see only one that looks like IN_MP3.DLL. On the output side be sure to click on (Select) the Nullsoft Waveout Plugin.

peri · 23rd January 2001, 01:50

I've had similar problems. I have an AWE64 card and windows ME. I wasn't having any trouble with winamp before I upgraded to 2.71 and 2.72. Now, I have trouble intermitently. I have a number of VQF's on my machine, and I use a winamp plugin to play those. I have NO trouble with them thus far. My problem seems to be limited exclusively to MP3 files, and the problem also seems to be bitrate independent.

I will try and play an MP3 either by double clicking on it in Explorer, or by opening winamp and selecting the song already in the playlist, or by going through the "open" dialog box. It doesn't seem to matter. 2 times out of 3, winamp correctly displays the song's information and tracklength in the playlist, but hangs without playing the first note of the track.

I've tried the sound output settings. ie, switching from "AWE64 Out" to "Wavemapper" and viceversa several times. As far as I can tell, it makes no difference.

I have a k62-450, a via MVP3 chipset, 128MB SDRAM, a new GeForce2 videoboard, and my system is working flawlessly in all other respects. Any clues as to what has gone wrong and how I can fix it short of searching for a 2.6x copy of winamp out there?

Regards,
peri

Qaxar · 23rd January 2001, 06:51

peri,
This seems very strange, but try disabling Winamp Agent. I used to run without it because of problems it created with Scan Disk and Disk Defrag. But this is fixed in ver 2.72, so I left it enabled after the 2.72 install. And, in general my system didn't run as well - random crashes. So, I disabled it again, and I'll swear I'm running better now.

If you do try this, please post again and let me know if it made any difference to you. I'm also running Windows ME.

peri · 23rd January 2001, 14:25

Thanks, but I'm afraid that I already had disabled Agent just after install. Its something I always do because I didn't want anything more running in the background than absolutely necessary. The more stuff I have in the background, the more unstable my system is as a general rule.

Any other thoughts or suggestions? Additional info. A few weeks ago when I reinstalled windows something REALLY weird happened. I honestly don't know what program was causing this. It may have been windows itself. But all of the volumes (midi, wave, main, line-in, line-out...) were automatically maxing themselves out. Also, the soundboard control for bass and treble, those were going down to zero automatically. I could fix them, close the window, and open it again immediately thereafter to see the same thing happening. This problem seemed to fix itself after about 4 reboots. I have NO idea what was happening. Could this be a hold-over of the same problem? If so, why is it only effecting MP3 file playback? I think I'm going to try installing my plugins for mp+ and ogg-vorbis to see if they're effected. I'd test mp2's, but I don't have any.

peri

rockmanac · 23rd January 2001, 17:24

On my comp, not only does winamp freeze, but it takes down the entire system..

This started happening yesterday after i updated winamp to the 2.72 version from 2.5 or 2.6 i can't remember which one i had.

I should note, it is not an instantanious freeze, it will play a random number of mins. and then freeze.

Thanks,
AC

Qaxar · 23rd January 2001, 19:22

Stumped! I wonder if it's a Windows ME problem. I do like using it, but, in general, my system is more unstable than it was with 98 and SE. I'd go back, but I read somewhere that going backwards in Windows will cause loss of much data.

DJ Egg · 24th January 2001, 00:05

Maybe you all should consider reinstalling the latest drivers for your soundcard.
Definitely so in peri's case!

I've no idea why the default installation of Winamp 2.72 should cause Windows to freeze.
I & 1000's of others have got no problems with it whatsoever!
Then again, I don't have WinME, DirectX8 or IE5.5

But if you want to downgrade to an earlier version:
http://www.winampheaven.com/

Geoshine · 24th January 2001, 05:44

I get the same behavior. I just recently went from a pre 2.6 version to 2.71. It will play songs for some period of time (usually 3-10 minutes), and then suddenly the music just stops. Mouse cursor still present and moving, but no applications are reachable with Alt-Tab or mouse clicks. Ctrl-Alt-Del so far (once in about 15 times) has allowed me to kill Winamp, but the machine still needs a reboot after this. This is seriously starting to get annoying. I'm one of those people that requires constant music in the background to remain sane. Please help.

Thanks,
- Geo

peri · 24th January 2001, 14:11

DJ Egg,

I'd love to try and install new drivers for my soundcard, but bastards that Creative Labs are, they have no intention of supporting the AWE64 for windowsME. The only drivers are the ones that came with the windows installer. Do you think I should try some that were intended for win98? I mean, I know the OS's aren't that different... Heh, maybe I should try that first.

peri

DJ Egg · 24th January 2001, 22:45

Well, that's just bloody typical of Creative Labs!

I'm not sure on this one, but I suppose there can be no harm in trying.
If it fails you'll just have to resort to re-using the drivers that came with Windows (urghh).
However, I'd expect them to be quite recent seeing WinME is primarily a Y2K release.

Hmm, you (peri) say that you're only having problems with mp3 playback.
Do mp3's play ok in other players? (eg. WiMP)
Maybe your system codec is damaged or some of the reg settings have got messed up?
If not, then check that the settings for Winamp's mp3 plugin are compliant with your system
Prefs -> Input -> MPEG Audio Decoder -> Configure
Also, have you tried using the DirectSound Output instead of WaveOut?

Anyway, further help/info on this whole issue can be found here:
Tech Support Greatest Hits:
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=36850
[RE: "Problems with skipping & freezing" Section]

If all else fails, exit Winamp & delete winamp.ini from your Winamp dir.
A new ini file will be created next time you open Winamp with all the default settings restored.

It's either that or downgrading to an older version for now ????????

Good luck y'all!

peri · 25th January 2001, 01:35

In the interest of simplifying matters (and getting homework done

) I have gone back to version 2.666. Everything seems fine, now. No more crashes as of yet. I'll let you guys know if that changes, because that will be a pretty good indication that the problem is either my hardware or a bad install of windows.

Kira37 · 27th January 2001, 00:01

*sighs*

Well, I tried playing an MP3 on Windows Media Player, and it works fine. So I guess that the problem has something to do with Winamp.

I'm gonna go download the 2.666 version and see if that works better.

Get back to ya all later!

Kira37 · 27th January 2001, 00:19

Downloaded Winamp 2.666, still doesn't work.

The problem is that it starts to play, but it just keeps repeating the first second or so of the song. I've found this to be true with all of my Windows sounds too(start up sounds, etc...). So maybe all this has to do with my sound card or Windows.

Thanks for all your help guys!

DJ Egg · 28th January 2001, 16:27

WMP uses DirectSound filters, so maybe you might want to try the same for Winamp.
Goto: "Prefs -> Output" & select DirectSound (instead of the default WaveOut)
If this still doesn't work, click the configure button for this plugin and change the Output Device to one that best describes your soundcard (WaveOut also has this option).

btw, have we ascertained whether you've installed any extra 3rd party Winamp plugins yet?

Your only other option is to reinstall your soundcard drivers (latest version)
Maybe also check your DirectX to see if there's any problems
(Diagnostic Tool @ c:\windows\system\dxdiag.exe)

If all else fails, totally uninstall Winamp (via Add/Remove Programs) & reinstall v2.72
Make sure the Winamp dir is totally empty after uninstalling & b4 reinstalling.

peri · 29th January 2001, 01:53

I no longer believe winamp to be the source of the problem, although it seems to have been the only program showing symptoms. I mentioned earlier that I'd switched from winamp 2.7x to 2.666 and my problem seemed to go away. Well, the must have been temporary, because it happened again a few minutes ago. In frustration, I've tried to install new sound drivers. There are no drivers for an AWE64 for WinME. However, most hardware drivers that worked on 98SE seem to work in ME, thus far. There are some video card driver and USB-device exceptions I am aware of. However, I'm crossing my fingers that these drivers actually hold up. They've only been loaded for about five minutes, so it is too early to start celebrating. They do seem to be working, though. If there is any more anomalous behavior, is this thread the correct place to post it? I think at this point it is *probably* not a bug in winamp but flakey sound drivers (or an old sound card trying to crap out on me, take your pick).

At any rate, thanks to those who tried to help me out. I hope this fix *stays* fixed. :}

peri

Kira37 · 29th January 2001, 01:59

WHOO HOOO!!!!!

I changed the output to DirectSound and it works!!!

YEAH! I'm so happy now! Thank you all sooooo much!

DJ Egg · 30th January 2001, 01:09

Kira
Yeehar, glad it worked for ya

Peri
Yes, post any developments here.
This will keep everything in context so we don't get other members posting possible fixes etc that we've already covered here.

23rd January 2001, 01:50	#6
peri Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 5	similar problem I've had similar problems. I have an AWE64 card and windows ME. I wasn't having any trouble with winamp before I upgraded to 2.71 and 2.72. Now, I have trouble intermitently. I have a number of VQF's on my machine, and I use a winamp plugin to play those. I have NO trouble with them thus far. My problem seems to be limited exclusively to MP3 files, and the problem also seems to be bitrate independent. I will try and play an MP3 either by double clicking on it in Explorer, or by opening winamp and selecting the song already in the playlist, or by going through the "open" dialog box. It doesn't seem to matter. 2 times out of 3, winamp correctly displays the song's information and tracklength in the playlist, but hangs without playing the first note of the track. I've tried the sound output settings. ie, switching from "AWE64 Out" to "Wavemapper" and viceversa several times. As far as I can tell, it makes no difference. I have a k62-450, a via MVP3 chipset, 128MB SDRAM, a new GeForce2 videoboard, and my system is working flawlessly in all other respects. Any clues as to what has gone wrong and how I can fix it short of searching for a 2.6x copy of winamp out there? Regards, peri

23rd January 2001, 14:25	#8
peri Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 5	already done Thanks, but I'm afraid that I already had disabled Agent just after install. Its something I always do because I didn't want anything more running in the background than absolutely necessary. The more stuff I have in the background, the more unstable my system is as a general rule. Any other thoughts or suggestions? Additional info. A few weeks ago when I reinstalled windows something REALLY weird happened. I honestly don't know what program was causing this. It may have been windows itself. But all of the volumes (midi, wave, main, line-in, line-out...) were automatically maxing themselves out. Also, the soundboard control for bass and treble, those were going down to zero automatically. I could fix them, close the window, and open it again immediately thereafter to see the same thing happening. This problem seemed to fix itself after about 4 reboots. I have NO idea what was happening. Could this be a hold-over of the same problem? If so, why is it only effecting MP3 file playback? I think I'm going to try installing my plugins for mp+ and ogg-vorbis to see if they're effected. I'd test mp2's, but I don't have any. peri

23rd January 2001, 17:24	#9
rockmanac Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 1	System Freeze On my comp, not only does winamp freeze, but it takes down the entire system.. This started happening yesterday after i updated winamp to the 2.72 version from 2.5 or 2.6 i can't remember which one i had. I should note, it is not an instantanious freeze, it will play a random number of mins. and then freeze. Thanks, AC

24th January 2001, 00:05	#11
DJ Egg Techorator Winamp & Shoutcast Team Join Date: Jun 2000 Posts: 35,894	Maybe you all should consider reinstalling the latest drivers for your soundcard. Definitely so in peri's case! I've no idea why the default installation of Winamp 2.72 should cause Windows to freeze. I & 1000's of others have got no problems with it whatsoever! Then again, I don't have WinME, DirectX8 or IE5.5 But if you want to downgrade to an earlier version: http://www.winampheaven.com/ Playlist -\|- Twitter

24th January 2001, 05:44	#12
Geoshine Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 5	Re: rockmanac's problem I get the same behavior. I just recently went from a pre 2.6 version to 2.71. It will play songs for some period of time (usually 3-10 minutes), and then suddenly the music just stops. Mouse cursor still present and moving, but no applications are reachable with Alt-Tab or mouse clicks. Ctrl-Alt-Del so far (once in about 15 times) has allowed me to kill Winamp, but the machine still needs a reboot after this. This is seriously starting to get annoying. I'm one of those people that requires constant music in the background to remain sane. Please help. Thanks, - Geo

20th January 2001, 19:25	#1
Kira37 Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 6	I recently updated my Winamp from a 2.6 version (which worked perfectly well) to Winamp 2.71. That version freezed every time i tried to play an mp3. So, i downloaded Winamp 2.72, but it still does the same thing. I run a Micron Millenia P1 233 w/96 MB RAM on Windows 98SE. I have a Yamaha integrated sound card (which i have recently updated the drivers on, and am also having some trouble with), and a Voodoo 3 PCI video card. I've tried uninstalling Winamp, rebooting, then re-installing it. That doesn't help. I don't have any skins or other plug-ins that might be interfering with it either. Please help! I haven't been able to play mp3's (or any other format, for that matter) for weeks!

20th January 2001, 21:26	#2
Qaxar Major Dude Join Date: May 2000 Location: Bel Air, Maryland, USA Posts: 725	Can you try to play an MP3 using a different player? This might help to isolate the problem a bit.

21st January 2001, 19:24	#3
Kira37 Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 6	What other players can play mp3's?

21st January 2001, 23:32	#4
Winsane Moderator Alumni Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: U.S. (eastern time zone) Posts: 2,598	Windows Media Player and RealPlayer are the ones that you're most likely to already have.

22nd January 2001, 01:09	#5
Qaxar Major Dude Join Date: May 2000 Location: Bel Air, Maryland, USA Posts: 725	Just a thought. When you updated your sound card drivers, could they have loaded any new plugins to either input or output? On the input side you should see only one that looks like IN_MP3.DLL. On the output side be sure to click on (Select) the Nullsoft Waveout Plugin.

23rd January 2001, 06:51	#7
Qaxar Major Dude Join Date: May 2000 Location: Bel Air, Maryland, USA Posts: 725	peri, This seems very strange, but try disabling Winamp Agent. I used to run without it because of problems it created with Scan Disk and Disk Defrag. But this is fixed in ver 2.72, so I left it enabled after the 2.72 install. And, in general my system didn't run as well - random crashes. So, I disabled it again, and I'll swear I'm running better now. If you do try this, please post again and let me know if it made any difference to you. I'm also running Windows ME.

23rd January 2001, 19:22	#10
Qaxar Major Dude Join Date: May 2000 Location: Bel Air, Maryland, USA Posts: 725	Stumped! I wonder if it's a Windows ME problem. I do like using it, but, in general, my system is more unstable than it was with 98 and SE. I'd go back, but I read somewhere that going backwards in Windows will cause loss of much data.

24th January 2001, 14:11	#13
peri Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 5	new drivers DJ Egg, I'd love to try and install new drivers for my soundcard, but bastards that Creative Labs are, they have no intention of supporting the AWE64 for windowsME. The only drivers are the ones that came with the windows installer. Do you think I should try some that were intended for win98? I mean, I know the OS's aren't that different... Heh, maybe I should try that first. peri

24th January 2001, 22:45	#14
DJ Egg Techorator Winamp & Shoutcast Team Join Date: Jun 2000 Posts: 35,894	Well, that's just bloody typical of Creative Labs! I'm not sure on this one, but I suppose there can be no harm in trying. If it fails you'll just have to resort to re-using the drivers that came with Windows (urghh). However, I'd expect them to be quite recent seeing WinME is primarily a Y2K release. Hmm, you (peri) say that you're only having problems with mp3 playback. Do mp3's play ok in other players? (eg. WiMP) Maybe your system codec is damaged or some of the reg settings have got messed up? If not, then check that the settings for Winamp's mp3 plugin are compliant with your system Prefs -> Input -> MPEG Audio Decoder -> Configure Also, have you tried using the DirectSound Output instead of WaveOut? Anyway, further help/info on this whole issue can be found here: Tech Support Greatest Hits: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=36850 [RE: "Problems with skipping & freezing" Section] If all else fails, exit Winamp & delete winamp.ini from your Winamp dir. A new ini file will be created next time you open Winamp with all the default settings restored. It's either that or downgrading to an older version for now ???????? Good luck y'all! Playlist -\|- Twitter

25th January 2001, 01:35	#15
peri Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 5	downgrade In the interest of simplifying matters (and getting homework done ) I have gone back to version 2.666. Everything seems fine, now. No more crashes as of yet. I'll let you guys know if that changes, because that will be a pretty good indication that the problem is either my hardware or a bad install of windows.

27th January 2001, 00:01	#16
Kira37 Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 6	sighs Well, I tried playing an MP3 on Windows Media Player, and it works fine. So I guess that the problem has something to do with Winamp. I'm gonna go download the 2.666 version and see if that works better. Get back to ya all later!

27th January 2001, 00:19	#17
Kira37 Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 6	Downloaded Winamp 2.666, still doesn't work. The problem is that it starts to play, but it just keeps repeating the first second or so of the song. I've found this to be true with all of my Windows sounds too(start up sounds, etc...). So maybe all this has to do with my sound card or Windows. Thanks for all your help guys!

28th January 2001, 16:27	#18
DJ Egg Techorator Winamp & Shoutcast Team Join Date: Jun 2000 Posts: 35,894	WMP uses DirectSound filters, so maybe you might want to try the same for Winamp. Goto: "Prefs -> Output" & select DirectSound (instead of the default WaveOut) If this still doesn't work, click the configure button for this plugin and change the Output Device to one that best describes your soundcard (WaveOut also has this option). btw, have we ascertained whether you've installed any extra 3rd party Winamp plugins yet? Your only other option is to reinstall your soundcard drivers (latest version) Maybe also check your DirectX to see if there's any problems (Diagnostic Tool @ c:\windows\system\dxdiag.exe) If all else fails, totally uninstall Winamp (via Add/Remove Programs) & reinstall v2.72 Make sure the Winamp dir is totally empty after uninstalling & b4 reinstalling.

29th January 2001, 01:53	#19
peri Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 5	problem re-evaluated I no longer believe winamp to be the source of the problem, although it seems to have been the only program showing symptoms. I mentioned earlier that I'd switched from winamp 2.7x to 2.666 and my problem seemed to go away. Well, the must have been temporary, because it happened again a few minutes ago. In frustration, I've tried to install new sound drivers. There are no drivers for an AWE64 for WinME. However, most hardware drivers that worked on 98SE seem to work in ME, thus far. There are some video card driver and USB-device exceptions I am aware of. However, I'm crossing my fingers that these drivers actually hold up. They've only been loaded for about five minutes, so it is too early to start celebrating. They do seem to be working, though. If there is any more anomalous behavior, is this thread the correct place to post it? I think at this point it is probably not a bug in winamp but flakey sound drivers (or an old sound card trying to crap out on me, take your pick). At any rate, thanks to those who tried to help me out. I hope this fix stays fixed. :} peri

29th January 2001, 01:59	#20
Kira37 Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 6	WHOO HOOO!!!!! I changed the output to DirectSound and it works!!! YEAH! I'm so happy now! Thank you all sooooo much!

30th January 2001, 01:09	#21
DJ Egg Techorator Winamp & Shoutcast Team Join Date: Jun 2000 Posts: 35,894	Kira Yeehar, glad it worked for ya Peri Yes, post any developments here. This will keep everything in context so we don't get other members posting possible fixes etc that we've already covered here. Playlist -\|- Twitter

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