Winamp 5 slow start up?

Phat-Cow- · 17th December 2003, 01:56

when i start winamp 5 its takes a while to start up but when it loads theres nothing there and a minute later the skin. this happen to anyone else?

JonnyMac · 17th December 2003, 02:39

Might be the following...
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....hreadid=160147

Cheezychops · 17th December 2003, 03:23

WOOO! I almost didnt make that post because I didnt think anyone actually read those bug reports.

Phat-Cow- · 17th December 2003, 04:13

and how to turn sonic off?

Cheezychops · 17th December 2003, 04:15

uninstall winamp, reinstall and make sure you uncheck the box for sonic (it is under the audio menu during install)

Phat-Cow- · 17th December 2003, 04:15

oo ok thans alot

Cheezychops · 17th December 2003, 17:23

Phat -Cow-: What OS are your running?

Phat-Cow- · 17th December 2003, 23:53

xp

DJ Egg · 18th December 2003, 05:34

Righty-ho

I've got the #winamptech log from yesterday, but it's too huge to go through at the moment, maybe when I've got more spare time later...

On Win9x/ME systems, you are prompted to reboot after installation.
This is so the Sonic Solutions Ripping/Burning Engine can be registered on the system.

It's possible that in some cases you may also need to reboot before using Winamp 5.0 on Win2k/Xp.

Reasons for this being that you might have some other (CD/DVD player/ripper/burner) software installed which also uses the Sonic Engine, eg. MyDVD (info)

So, reboot after installing, then see if the slow load persists.

That's assuming this is even the cause of the problem....

To provide any further help, we need to know the following:
1. System specs (cpu, ram, mobo, sound, graphics)
2. Windows OS + sp, DirectX version
3. List of concurrently running apps, especially anything like:
nView, StyleXP, Windows Blinds/FX, Litestep, Multimedia software, P2P apps, any cpu-intensive apps (eg. Seti, MS Machine Debug Mgr, Norton full suite), etc.
and whether the problem persists after closing them down,
one by one (by process of elimination method).
4. Which Winamp windows are open and whether the problem occurs with both modern & classic skin (note: to test with classic, switch to classic before closing winamp)
5. Was this a clean install of Winamp 5.0 ?
Or did you install on top of an older 2.x version or 5.0beta build?
6. Whether you've installed ANY 3rd-party plugins

There might also be a few relevant Winamp settings/options/features that can be disabled to test a few things, but we can go into this later if needs be (post is already turning into a mini-novel).

Anarchi · 7th March 2004, 21:36

The main reason WinAmp 5.0x starts slow is the modern skin support, on my Pentium 3 notebook it takes 5 seconds, using the classic skin makes WinAmp load in less than 1 second as like WinAmp 2.xx!

I have also removed the sonic burning option but didnt notice an improvement in startup speed.

Enough · 27th April 2004, 11:55

It's not the modern skin support, no, the skins themselves are responsible for the slow start. I'm using a 500mhz notebook and starting up with modern skins took ages. So I tried some classic skins and startup was very quick. But as I don't really like the classic skins (I want a small bar-like player), I decided to do a modern skin myself. Well... what I found is that startup is just so slow with most modern skins because they are BLOATED with effects, animations, scripts, modes etc etc.
I'm perfectly happy with my own modern skin now. Startup is as fast as classic.
I think most people are using fast computers and so they don't notice anything.

DJ Egg · 27th April 2004, 14:16

Yes, but the original complaint was that Winamp was taking over 1 minute to load... and afaik, this has been fixed in 5.03+

True, the more complex the modern skin, the longer loading times can be, especially on older/slower machines.

We recommend that people concerned about loading times with modern skins / older pc's should read this article.

And of course, there's a fair few other 3rd-party modern skins available which are much more simplistic than the likes of Winamp Modern, MMD3, etc. But yes, on my pc (Athlon XP 2400+, 512 DDR RAM, WinXP) Winamp 5.0x opens/loads in approx 2 to 3 seconds with the Winamp Modern skin, and instantly with any classic skin.

DarkPower · 31st May 2005, 19:58

hey guys i m having the same problem w/ realplayer and i just got the same problem w/ winamp after i was done ripping a kelly clarkson disk for my sister. i used win2k and after uninstalling and reinstalling w/o that sonic thing it wont start up after 3 mins. i had the same problem w/ realplayer too. does anyone have any idea what really could be causing this? o well i m gonna go do some gooogleing to help you guys find more facts.

billyvnilly · 31st May 2005, 20:09

did you read the time of the last post: 04-27-2004.

If you have a problem with realplayer that is no concern of ours. Search the winamp forums for current discussion about "slow startup"

DarkPower · 31st May 2005, 20:12

hey i just fixed i re reinstalled it then restarted my computer and it worked

unga.bunga · 15th June 2006, 15:56

lol i found a cool solution for slow loading winamps:
dont open it as usual!
instead just doubleclick an mp3 file on your desktop!
(of course "enqueue in winamp" - not "play in winamp") can be set: preferences > file types > explorer settings

this method reduces startup loading to 2-3 seconds.
(usually it took about a minute to load with mm3d skin)

lol funny isnt it ?

is this a bug????????????????

have phun
-m

unga.bunga · 15th June 2006, 16:00

for a second you see some parts of the classic skin during loading but a second later everything's loaded as it's used to be.

Velho · 23rd June 2006, 09:24

when I updated the 5.xx to the new one I countered the same problem. I tried to install it again without any extra stuff, just the thing needed to make the program work, restarted computer but NO... the same problem again...
then I found a good solution

I installed the ladder version of the winamp and it works GREAT. I NEVER update it again :P

PVTele · 9th June 2007, 13:15

I've been plagued with slow start, slow shutdown, slow playlist and library opening/closing, almost since first installing 5.x back in (?)2002.

It got so bad I was looking everywhere for an alternative to Winamp (XMPlay's not so dusty... nice little player, but doesn't sound quite as good as Winamp IMHO!) I even tried those bloatmasters iTunes and Songbird - though they got uninstalled PDQ!

Finally I searched these forums, and found the hint about Sonic burning support. Uninstalled Winamp, reinstalled without Sonic - perfect!

I never used Winamp's rip & burn anyway - I always use a standalone ripping app and then add to library afterwards - so I'm not worried about losing anything.

Just for the record: Win XP SP2, Sempron 3000+, 512MB, Avira PE Classic, Windows Defender, Ashampoo Firewall 1.20, on a wireless network. The symptoms didn't change no matter what I had or didn't have running, and shutting stuff down one by one didn't reveal anything. Only 3rd-party plugin is Tara (uninstalling makes no difference either way) and I do use the portable device support.

However - looks like all's well that ends well - Winamp's all but instantaneous now - many thanks people

Ladyhawk · 29th August 2007, 03:12

Since Yahoo bought out MusicMatch, I've switched to Winamp, but it takes about thirty seconds to load. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling it without Sonic, but that didn't seem to work. Maybe I missed an important step somewhere. *shrug*

(Yes, I rebooted before declaring the fix a "failure.")

System Specs:

ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (on-board Realtek sound)
2 GB DDR2-666
Radeon X1900XT
Windows XP Pro SP2
DirectX 9.0c

Apps:

nostromo speedpad profile loadout
XFire
PowerMix
Volume Lock
Adobe Photo Downloader
ATi Tray Tools
Logitech Setpoint
AVG Free Antivirus
SSC Service Utility (for Epson printers)
Creative Disc Detector
hp photosmart tray
Picasa 2
Realtek tray

Processes that might be important: *shrug*

mmtask.exe (MusicMatch)

dijon · 14th July 2008, 18:47

My Winamp takes about 30-60 seconds to start-up and another 30 seconds or so to close down. By monitoring processes via Task Manager (I'm using Windows XP), I noticed that my Anti-virus (AVG) is very active during this time so I think some sort of scanning is the culprit. ...might be time to try out Avast...

legith · 10th February 2010, 16:44

OK, I just solved this problem for myself. I use windows 7 and have a pretty fast computer so I was pissed off about it being so slow. I was getting around a 30 second startup time, where the skin would load but the player would essentially be frozen until then. Things that I tried first:

1. Full uninstall/reinstall
2. Change skin type
3. Updated video card drivers
4. Full uninstall/reinstall while removing sonic support
5. Used an older version of winamp
6. Changing compatibility mode in windows 7
7. Malware scans, etc.

None of this helped, although removing the sonic support seemed to make it go slightly faster (maybe 20 seconds). About 10 minutes ago I was getting the same problem (which has lasted for weeks). I have an 8gb SD card in my card reader, which I just realized was not being read by my computer correctly (which wanted to reformat or something). I took it out, opened winamp, and it loaded immediately, even with sonic support re-enabled. Problem solved.

Now I doubt everyone's having this exact problem, but I think we should be aware by now that there are a ton of factors that could cause this slow startup issue, and everyone should consider that Winamp may be struggling to access various drives and data sources on your computer (regardless of whether you've set it up to do so), resulting in a very slow startup.

Hope this is beneficial.

PS. Webmaster: banning gmail accounts to this forum is about the dumbest thing imaginable whether you're getting spam or not. No wonder you can't find a straight answer on here.

if.mihai · 13th February 2010, 17:44

I had a problem with slooooow startup of winamp, and wanted to post a more specific (and simple) solution.

In my case, it took some like 1 minute until Winamp was loaded.

The USB plugin is at fault (Plugins -> Portables). When the user has an USB flash drive connected, Winamp will start slowly because it wants to read the USB. So unninstalling the plugin (pmp_usb.dll) solved the problem.

17th December 2003, 01:56	#1
Phat-Cow- Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 245	Winamp 5 slow start up? when i start winamp 5 its takes a while to start up but when it loads theres nothing there and a minute later the skin. this happen to anyone else? http://hxcmp3.com

17th December 2003, 02:39	#2
JonnyMac Moderator Join Date: Dec 2000 Posts: 14,344	Might be the following... http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....hreadid=160147 Please do not PM me for tech support. Any request for tech support through PM will be ignored. Read the Stickies ---> \| \| \| \| <--- Knowledge is power

17th December 2003, 03:23	#3
Cheezychops Major Dude Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Ohio Posts: 767	WOOO! I almost didnt make that post because I didnt think anyone actually read those bug reports. Computers may be twice as fast as they were in 1973 but your average person is as drunk and stupid as ever. The only one who's changed is Dro! He's become bitter, and let's face it, crazy over the years. He'll sell our children's organs to zoos for meat. And he'll go into people's houses at night and wreck up the place! Muhuhahahaha!

17th December 2003, 04:13	#4
Phat-Cow- Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 245	and how to turn sonic off? http://hxcmp3.com

17th December 2003, 04:15	#5
Cheezychops Major Dude Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Ohio Posts: 767	uninstall winamp, reinstall and make sure you uncheck the box for sonic (it is under the audio menu during install) Computers may be twice as fast as they were in 1973 but your average person is as drunk and stupid as ever. The only one who's changed is Dro! He's become bitter, and let's face it, crazy over the years. He'll sell our children's organs to zoos for meat. And he'll go into people's houses at night and wreck up the place! Muhuhahahaha!

17th December 2003, 04:15	#6
Phat-Cow- Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 245	oo ok thans alot http://hxcmp3.com

17th December 2003, 17:23	#7
Cheezychops Major Dude Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Ohio Posts: 767	Phat -Cow-: What OS are your running? Computers may be twice as fast as they were in 1973 but your average person is as drunk and stupid as ever. The only one who's changed is Dro! He's become bitter, and let's face it, crazy over the years. He'll sell our children's organs to zoos for meat. And he'll go into people's houses at night and wreck up the place! Muhuhahahaha!

17th December 2003, 23:53	#8
Phat-Cow- Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 245	xp http://hxcmp3.com

18th December 2003, 05:34	#9
DJ Egg Techorator Winamp Team Join Date: Jun 2000 Posts: 35,130	Righty-ho I've got the #winamptech log from yesterday, but it's too huge to go through at the moment, maybe when I've got more spare time later... On Win9x/ME systems, you are prompted to reboot after installation. This is so the Sonic Solutions Ripping/Burning Engine can be registered on the system. It's possible that in some cases you may also need to reboot before using Winamp 5.0 on Win2k/Xp. Reasons for this being that you might have some other (CD/DVD player/ripper/burner) software installed which also uses the Sonic Engine, eg. MyDVD (info) So, reboot after installing, then see if the slow load persists. That's assuming this is even the cause of the problem.... To provide any further help, we need to know the following: 1. System specs (cpu, ram, mobo, sound, graphics) 2. Windows OS + sp, DirectX version 3. List of concurrently running apps, especially anything like: nView, StyleXP, Windows Blinds/FX, Litestep, Multimedia software, P2P apps, any cpu-intensive apps (eg. Seti, MS Machine Debug Mgr, Norton full suite), etc. and whether the problem persists after closing them down, one by one (by process of elimination method). 4. Which Winamp windows are open and whether the problem occurs with both modern & classic skin (note: to test with classic, switch to classic before closing winamp) 5. Was this a clean install of Winamp 5.0 ? Or did you install on top of an older 2.x version or 5.0beta build? 6. Whether you've installed ANY 3rd-party plugins There might also be a few relevant Winamp settings/options/features that can be disabled to test a few things, but we can go into this later if needs be (post is already turning into a mini-novel). Playlist -\|- Twitter

7th March 2004, 21:36	#10
Anarchi Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 5	Modern Skins slow startup The main reason WinAmp 5.0x starts slow is the modern skin support, on my Pentium 3 notebook it takes 5 seconds, using the classic skin makes WinAmp load in less than 1 second as like WinAmp 2.xx! I have also removed the sonic burning option but didnt notice an improvement in startup speed.

27th April 2004, 11:55	#11
Enough Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 9	It's not the modern skin support, no, the skins themselves are responsible for the slow start. I'm using a 500mhz notebook and starting up with modern skins took ages. So I tried some classic skins and startup was very quick. But as I don't really like the classic skins (I want a small bar-like player), I decided to do a modern skin myself. Well... what I found is that startup is just so slow with most modern skins because they are BLOATED with effects, animations, scripts, modes etc etc. I'm perfectly happy with my own modern skin now. Startup is as fast as classic. I think most people are using fast computers and so they don't notice anything.

27th April 2004, 14:16	#12
DJ Egg Techorator Winamp Team Join Date: Jun 2000 Posts: 35,130	Yes, but the original complaint was that Winamp was taking over 1 minute to load... and afaik, this has been fixed in 5.03+ True, the more complex the modern skin, the longer loading times can be, especially on older/slower machines. We recommend that people concerned about loading times with modern skins / older pc's should read this article. And of course, there's a fair few other 3rd-party modern skins available which are much more simplistic than the likes of Winamp Modern, MMD3, etc. But yes, on my pc (Athlon XP 2400+, 512 DDR RAM, WinXP) Winamp 5.0x opens/loads in approx 2 to 3 seconds with the Winamp Modern skin, and instantly with any classic skin. Playlist -\|- Twitter

31st May 2005, 19:58	#13
DarkPower Junior Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 7	hey guys i m having the same problem w/ realplayer and i just got the same problem w/ winamp after i was done ripping a kelly clarkson disk for my sister. i used win2k and after uninstalling and reinstalling w/o that sonic thing it wont start up after 3 mins. i had the same problem w/ realplayer too. does anyone have any idea what really could be causing this? o well i m gonna go do some gooogleing to help you guys find more facts.

31st May 2005, 20:09	#14
billyvnilly Forum King, M.D. Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Detroit burbs Posts: 3,378	did you read the time of the last post: 04-27-2004. If you have a problem with realplayer that is no concern of ours. Search the winamp forums for current discussion about "slow startup"

31st May 2005, 20:12	#15
DarkPower Junior Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 7	hey i just fixed i re reinstalled it then restarted my computer and it worked

15th June 2006, 15:56	#16
unga.bunga Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: bla Posts: 2	lol i found a cool solution for slow loading winamps: dont open it as usual! instead just doubleclick an mp3 file on your desktop! (of course "enqueue in winamp" - not "play in winamp") can be set: preferences > file types > explorer settings this method reduces startup loading to 2-3 seconds. (usually it took about a minute to load with mm3d skin) lol funny isnt it ? is this a bug???????????????? have phun -m

15th June 2006, 16:00	#17
unga.bunga Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: bla Posts: 2	for a second you see some parts of the classic skin during loading but a second later everything's loaded as it's used to be.

23rd June 2006, 09:24	#18
Velho Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 1	when I updated the 5.xx to the new one I countered the same problem. I tried to install it again without any extra stuff, just the thing needed to make the program work, restarted computer but NO... the same problem again... then I found a good solution I installed the ladder version of the winamp and it works GREAT. I NEVER update it again :P

9th June 2007, 13:15	#19
PVTele Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Dorset UK Posts: 9	I know this is a year later, but... I've been plagued with slow start, slow shutdown, slow playlist and library opening/closing, almost since first installing 5.x back in (?)2002. It got so bad I was looking everywhere for an alternative to Winamp (XMPlay's not so dusty... nice little player, but doesn't sound quite as good as Winamp IMHO!) I even tried those bloatmasters iTunes and Songbird - though they got uninstalled PDQ! Finally I searched these forums, and found the hint about Sonic burning support. Uninstalled Winamp, reinstalled without Sonic - perfect! I never used Winamp's rip & burn anyway - I always use a standalone ripping app and then add to library afterwards - so I'm not worried about losing anything. Just for the record: Win XP SP2, Sempron 3000+, 512MB, Avira PE Classic, Windows Defender, Ashampoo Firewall 1.20, on a wireless network. The symptoms didn't change no matter what I had or didn't have running, and shutting stuff down one by one didn't reveal anything. Only 3rd-party plugin is Tara (uninstalling makes no difference either way) and I do use the portable device support. However - looks like all's well that ends well - Winamp's all but instantaneous now - many thanks people

29th August 2007, 03:12	#20
Ladyhawk Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 1	Since Yahoo bought out MusicMatch, I've switched to Winamp, but it takes about thirty seconds to load. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling it without Sonic, but that didn't seem to work. Maybe I missed an important step somewhere. shrug (Yes, I rebooted before declaring the fix a "failure.") System Specs: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (on-board Realtek sound) 2 GB DDR2-666 Radeon X1900XT Windows XP Pro SP2 DirectX 9.0c Apps: nostromo speedpad profile loadout XFire PowerMix Volume Lock Adobe Photo Downloader ATi Tray Tools Logitech Setpoint AVG Free Antivirus SSC Service Utility (for Epson printers) Creative Disc Detector hp photosmart tray Picasa 2 Realtek tray Processes that might be important: shrug mmtask.exe (MusicMatch)

14th July 2008, 18:47	#21
dijon Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 3	Slow start-up b/c of AVG My Winamp takes about 30-60 seconds to start-up and another 30 seconds or so to close down. By monitoring processes via Task Manager (I'm using Windows XP), I noticed that my Anti-virus (AVG) is very active during this time so I think some sort of scanning is the culprit. ...might be time to try out Avast...

10th February 2010, 16:44	#22
legith Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 1	OK, I just solved this problem for myself. I use windows 7 and have a pretty fast computer so I was pissed off about it being so slow. I was getting around a 30 second startup time, where the skin would load but the player would essentially be frozen until then. Things that I tried first: 1. Full uninstall/reinstall 2. Change skin type 3. Updated video card drivers 4. Full uninstall/reinstall while removing sonic support 5. Used an older version of winamp 6. Changing compatibility mode in windows 7 7. Malware scans, etc. None of this helped, although removing the sonic support seemed to make it go slightly faster (maybe 20 seconds). About 10 minutes ago I was getting the same problem (which has lasted for weeks). I have an 8gb SD card in my card reader, which I just realized was not being read by my computer correctly (which wanted to reformat or something). I took it out, opened winamp, and it loaded immediately, even with sonic support re-enabled. Problem solved. Now I doubt everyone's having this exact problem, but I think we should be aware by now that there are a ton of factors that could cause this slow startup issue, and everyone should consider that Winamp may be struggling to access various drives and data sources on your computer (regardless of whether you've set it up to do so), resulting in a very slow startup. Hope this is beneficial. PS. Webmaster: banning gmail accounts to this forum is about the dumbest thing imaginable whether you're getting spam or not. No wonder you can't find a straight answer on here.

13th February 2010, 17:44	#23
if.mihai Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 1	I had a problem with slooooow startup of winamp, and wanted to post a more specific (and simple) solution. In my case, it took some like 1 minute until Winamp was loaded. The USB plugin is at fault (Plugins -> Portables). When the user has an USB flash drive connected, Winamp will start slowly because it wants to read the USB. So unninstalling the plugin (pmp_usb.dll) solved the problem.

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