Why do my MP3s skip during computer playback, but not on CDs? (1 Viewer)

[Jared_B]

Here's my setup:
P3-600, 256MB RAM, Windows XP Home, and a generic sound card that came with the computer. I'm using Windows Media Player (not sure on version, but it came with XP) to play all my MP3s through my HT.

My MP3s skip during playback. Not small CD-like skips, but usually 1-2 second skips. Here's the kicker: they skip in different spots each time I play them. If I burn a CD of these MP3s (in normal .wav format), there are no skips at all.

This happens to all my MP3s, regardless of source (Napster, Kazaa, ripped using Roxio, ripped using WMP, etc).

Anyone experienced this before? Is this a problem with Windows Media Player, or possibly an issue with my sound card.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

CPU overhead. How much stuff do you have running?

 

[BrianB]

As Jeff said, it's just a problem with you doing too much at once on your computer. I have the same problem with mine - I can't run winamp + (2 x Visual C++) at once, mp3s skip all over the place. I have a athlon600.

Playing audio CDs is MUCH less intensive on your computer, which is why it doesn't skip.

What are you running at the same time as playing mp3s?

 

[Jared_B]

That's just it, usually nothing else is running except the Media Player. I'm usually not even connected to the internet.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

If you play back .wav files do you have the same problem?

 

[Jared_B]

Yes, I believe I do have the same problem with wav files, but I'm not 100% sure. I'll check some out when I get home tonight.

 

[Drew Dockery]

What type of compuet do you have? A lot of vendors pre-install a lot of crap that runs all of the time. Maybe uninstalling some things would help you out.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

yup, look in your "startup" section of the Start Menu. Kill any and everything in there, especially office toolbar or Norton CrashMaker

 

[Max Leung]

Could be the infamous VIA chipset soundcard stuttering problem (won't affect CD playback if the CD player is connected to the analog input of the soundcard).

Basically, the PCI bus is not catching up with the data transfer requests...too much latency between them, or the data transfer size is set too small, or both!

Problem is usually worst when an older VIA chipset-based motherboard is used in combination with a Soundblaster Live! card.

What kind of motherboard are you using? If it has a VIA chipset, you should try upgrading to the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers. The URL is (I hope) www.viatech.com .

 

[Ken Chan]

CPU utilization is easy enough to track with the Task Manager in XP -- although there still seems to be a goofy problem having it display in the tray when minimized.

//Ken

 

[Max Leung]

Oh, I forgot to ask: Do you have the latest video card drivers? There was a known issue with certain video cards hogging the bus, starving the other devices such as RAID controllers and sound cards.

So many variables...

 

[Jared_B]

Jeeze - never knew such a simple issue could be so complicated.

I don't have much running in the background at all. No anti-virus. CPU usage from Task Manager hovers around 20% while WMP is running.

I have no idea what hardware I have. The PC was a custom job made by a friend of a friend. I think it's probably time for a new one anyway.

Thanks for the ideas, guys. I might even download Winamp to see if it runs any better than WMP. A friend of mine uses it on a similar computer and doesn't have any problems.

 

[Max Leung]

Could you find out what sound card you are using?

You can go to Control Panel->System, click on the Hardware tab, and open Device Manager. Then, scroll down the list to the Soundcard/Game Controller section, expand the section, and tell us what you see there.

Alternately, you can beat errr I mean ask your friend who built the PC for you...