pages loading 'skip' music

[Todd The Kiwi]

man this sucks, when i'm loading web pages qcd skips my music.
(actually it's more like mo'fox skipping it)
it doesn't happen when loading a big application like sound forge or outlook
only when loading web pages, any web pages, but not every time
this has been happening for months but for some reason i never got around to posting it here.
i'm going to attempt to record the sound and get some images of statistics from sound forge.
watch this space...
any suggestions in the meantime?
shit, i can't attach the zipped mp3 it's too big, the thing is only 640 KB
if anyone reckons they can help i'll email it to you...

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

i have this as well with the opera browser, but only very rarely. I think that suddenly a number of connections to the website that is to be loaded give in and transfer data to your computer causing a temporary peak in cpu usage. Ha ha all theory no proof though. Maybe someone else has a better explanation.

[Todd The Kiwi]

temporary peak in cpu usage
now that you mention it, the cpu does hit 100%
i have qcd set to "high priority" in windows and in qcd preferences
i dread to think what would happen if i set mo'fox to "low priority"
no doubt it wouldn't be good...

[Todd The Kiwi]

dammit, this shouldn't be happening man
i have a 512 ram 2.4 ghz machine!

the virtual memory is tweaked too. i have however just spotted something
drive "D" has no paging file? this is where i have everything that isn't windows.
"C" = about 5 gig
"D" = about 115 gig
could someone make a suggestion? should i make it 718 like "C" is?

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

Look. Todd, dont panic. There is nothing wrong with no paging file on your d:\ drive. In fact, you dont want 2 paging files because that will cause problems, ie slow down your computer. What you have there is fine. The problem lies with your browser, definitely NOT with how much memory you have and how big your paging file is. Have you perhaps done any speed tweaks to your browser? When exacly does the hic-cup occur? Can you reproduce it after reloading the same link?

[Todd The Kiwi]

don't panic = ok man :)
page file = ok sweet as i'll leave it alone
i have done no browser speed tweaks, it's been doing it since i had firebird even
i've heard that sound over 70 times this morning no worries
i don't have to reproduce it as it happens with almost every page i open or reload.
also this was happening when i had 56k dial-a-snail, and before i'd adjusted my virtual memory
IE does it too. i'm perplexed to say the least...

incidentially if your firefox is loading slowly (opening i mean)
try this "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" /Prefetch:1
in the properties of the shortcut where it says "target"
that cut my loading time of firefox from about 15 seconds to more like 2, sweet ;)

here's a zipped .mp3 sample about 3 seconds long of what i hear
sometimes it's worse than this too...

[Todd The Kiwi]

ok i have to change the characteristic description of this problem AGAIN
it appears not to be effected by cpu, it'll make the hideous crackling
noise even just clicking links, when the cpu barely registers... *:skull:*:skull:*:skull:*:skull:*:skull:*

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

i have this as well with the opera browser, but only very rarely.

After hearing the pops and clicks in the test file you attached, well it could be worse you know. Going back to my quote above, i dont hear any sound for a second!

So how to solve the problem... At what frequency are you playing your tunes? 44.1kHz or higher? And at what bit depth are they being played? 16bit? 24bit? Do you use the MAD plugin? Do you have the same problem with WMP for instance?

[Todd The Kiwi]

At what frequency are you playing your tunes? 44.1kHz or higher? And at what bit depth are they being played? 16bit? 24bit? any audio file type does it @ any sample rate or bit depth, streams don't thoughDo you use the MAD plugin? Do you have the same problem with WMP for instance?i don't use mad and wmp and winamp both do it...this sucks, i was talking to my isp yesterday about why my connection is so slow, to cut a longish story short it's going really fast now and this crackling sound got worse :skull:

[matty28carter]

i used to get skipping whilst playing music and loading web pages. uping the buffer in the output plugin to above 7500ms cured it.

-- i had a machine once that made the sound crackle every time you scrolled or moved things quickly on the screen. updating the sound drivers cured that too.

[Todd The Kiwi]

i never quite understood what the "output plugin" was...
do tell ;)

[matty28carter]

in QCD goto the plug-ins section, playback, and adjust the plug-in you use's buffer to over 7500ms

oh and cheers for the /Prefetch:1 thing, got firefox loading in about 2,3 seconds now. noice!

[Todd The Kiwi]

i use simpledirectsound and it's set to 10,000 :puzzled:
it's now 7,500 and i'm not noticing any difference.

re /prefetch - sweet as mate, and thanks mozillaline...

[matty28carter]

have you tried updating ur soundcard drivers? thats all i can think of that might help...

[Todd The Kiwi]

did that today, made no difference, i updated all my bios 'drivers' and motherboard drivers too... :ermm:

[Roj]

man this sucks, when i'm loading web pages qcd skips my music.
(actually it's more like mo'fox skipping it)
OK, this is gonna sound weird but hear me out:

What kind of NICs do you guys have? I've seen something like this with network drivers that tied up things while pages were trying to load. Basically you get a pause wihile it tries to gain access to the site and then all is OK.

I don't get this on my Via Rhine II built-in NIC on my mobo but I did get it on 3Com (Satan lives!) cards on occasion. I don't see it on Intel or Realtek LAN cards. Oh, and the CPU *punches* it when this happens - it's like it's doing a 'resend resend resend" on the NIC until something happens. I'm thinking it's Windows IP subsystem and the drivers.

Just another left-of-center thing to tink about and tinker with...

[Tokelil]

Well a few things I would try:
If you have options to set DMA (Direct Memory Access) try disabling/enabling it. (Would be crazy if it helps, but if the NIC does DMA through cycle stealing for some reason, it could help disabling it...)

Try turning down the hardware acceleration of Audio playback under the performance tab in your soundsettings dialog.

As Roj said, there is a good chance this is more of a NIC hardware/driver issue than a soundcard issue. (IMhO)

[Todd The Kiwi]

What kind of NICs do you guys have?
i don't know mate how can i find out?
tell me where in my pc i need to go to find out and i'll get the info for you if you're prepared to help me :)
If you have options to set DMA (Direct Memory Access) try disabling/enabling it.
(Would be crazy if it helps, but if the NIC does DMA through cycle stealing for some reason,
it could help disabling it...)
Try turning down the hardware acceleration of Audio playback under the performance tab in your soundsettings dialog.
As Roj said, there is a good chance this is more of a NIC hardware/driver issue than a soundcard issue.
i found something in my soundcard front end thingy that refers to "dma buffering" i altered it and it made no apparent difference (yes i stopped playback while doing this) i found an article that said i should make all my sample rates and frequencies the same system wide, but i can't see how i'm supposed to do this when my music files are all different sample rates and frequencies ? i'd REALLY like to know what this "NIC" is i'm going to do some googling but it sounds like (once again) the best advice is right here. i will keep my eyes peeled for any replies or suggestions here.

p.s i have updated every driver i could find on my system, including "VIA rhine II fast ethernet adaptor" which roj mentioned up there a bit...
here's a pic of my m-audio front end thingy.
http://www.quinnware.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=867&stc=1
http://www.quinnware.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=866&stc=1

[Todd The Kiwi]

ok i messed with the hardware acceleration, it did make a difference but the problem still existed afterwards.
however in my poking around i decided to tick something i've never ticked before as i didn't know what it did (i still don't)
BUT it made a huuuuge difference, i'm only getting the odd click rather than hell crackling, can you guys tell me what this does and why has it changed the noise?

"do not map through this device"

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

The windows help says: "It prevents your programs from using this device driver. Unless one of your programs specifically requests it, this device will not be used."

Sounds interesting. Now what would be the difference between on and off? :puzzled: ha ha :grimreape

[Todd The Kiwi]

prevents your programs from using this device driver. Unless one of your programs specifically requests it, this device will not be used
ok cool, so qcd etc would request it but not,say,mo'fox ?
i also disabled mapping through my onboard soundcard, it appears my problem is 99% fixed
i only get an occasional click now.
i reckon having to restart after ticking a tickbox to enable what i've just done sucks though.
BMC152004s sig come to mind...

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

Im glad you are sorted :) You might want to disable your onboard sound btw. Check the BIOS or the manual for you mainboard.

[Todd The Kiwi]

funny you should mention that mate
after ticking "do not map through this device" for my onboard card it disabled it
weird man, but my m-audio audiophile 2496 stayed enabled
probably because it's my default sound device.

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

funny you should mention that mate
after ticking "do not map through this device" for my onboard card it disabled it
weird man, but my m-audio audiophile 2496 stayed enabled
probably because it's my default sound device.

That's not what i meant. I mean truely disable it so that windows doesnt even know it's there. Like i said check the mainboard manual on how to set/change a jumper to have onboard audio disabled or check the bios.

[Todd The Kiwi]

That's not what i meant. I mean truely disable it so that windows doesnt even know it's there. Like i said check the mainboard manual on how to set/change a jumper to have onboard audio disabled or check the bios.
i'm not sure what manual you're talking about man
i didn't get any paperwork as such with my pc when i bought it
aside from receipts that is, i have a couple of install disks for drivers and the like but no manual, google time perhaps...

[Todd The Kiwi]

You might want to disable your onboard sound. Check the BIOS or the manual for you mainboard.
i rebooted and got into my bios settings, found what looked to be the onboard sound, disabled it, restarted. my pc froze and keeps freezing, i don't know what i've done, my sound is now provided via the #0 modem?????????
and my audiophile doesn't exist, i have nothing to choose from in any drop down menus in the sound properties, i think i've fucked my pc man.
is there any way i can reset my bios?
will a system restore fix this?
will reinstalling windows re'install' my bios settings?
i'm at a total loss, this is my first time online or being able to use my pc 'properly' since almost this time lastnight
HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP! HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP! HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP! HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP! HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP! HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!HELP!

[Heigar]

Your bios settings are on a chip that is on your motherboard and reinstalling windows will not fix the problem.Try reinstalling your soundcard drivers,or just reverse what you did in the bios.....

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

Im sorry i got you into this Todd. That was not my intention. If you still have a problem and reversing whatever settings you made in the bios doesnt help, then there are two ways how to reset the bios:

1) Move a jumper on the motherboard that is specifically designated to reset the bios (you need to check you mainboard manual for this one)

2) Take out the battery located on you mainboard (flat round looking thing) and leave it out for 15 mins or so. Then put it back in and the bios should be reset, but you better check if everything is configured properly (theoretically this should be the case).

Next time you try something, make sure you know what you are doing or get the appropriate documentation and read that first OR post specific questions here on the forum that will be replied to.

:fingerscrossed:

btw always check your device manager to check why certain hardware is not working and fix it accordingly. (device manager is located in control panel -> system)

[Tokelil]

Sorry, but that made me laugh! :biggrin: Kind of funny that it somehow sets the modem as a sounddevice, though it might be logical if it is a voice modem...

Anyway, in your BIOS menu there should be an item called something like "Load optimal BIOS settings" and "Load standard BIOS settings". Try the optimal one first. It should restore you BIOS to something that works.

[Todd The Kiwi]

heigar - i set my bios back to how it was and it made no difference.
and reinstalled my sound drivers umpteen times.

rex - i have no manual for my mainboard.
i'll have to ask the shop i bought it from if i can get one.

tokelil - my soundcard cost $500 so naturally i found this funny too...

i turned my pc off for 2 days, and rebooted back into a freeze again.
then i tried a system restore, lo and fucking behold it worked, for the first time ever system restore actually worked for me, all my shit is back and everything appears to be cool,for now at least.

i have NO IDEA what i did wrong.

[Todd The Kiwi]

i took this photo (heavily cropped) of what i was messing with.
the top (highlighted) entry, i altered from "auto" to "disabled"
this shouldn't have made such a big impact, it must have caused something else to happen beneath the surface...

[Tokelil]

If that was the only thing you changed it surely shouldn't behave as it did!

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

i concur. Anyways there you go. That is the option where you can disable onboard audio.

[Roj]

i took this photo (heavily cropped) of what i was messing with.
the top (highlighted) entry, i altered from "auto" to "disabled"
this shouldn't have made such a big impact, it must have caused something else to happen beneath the surface...
http://www.quinnware.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=871&stc=1
I'd personally have the AC97 audio and modem disabled and the LAN Boot ROM disabled but the only thing with the potential to make a fuss is the ac97 Audio.

[Todd The Kiwi]

I'd personally have the AC97 audio and modem disabled and the LAN Boot ROM disableddo you mean disable them in bios or in the control panel/sounds and audio devices?the only thing with the potential to make a fuss is the ac97 Audioit threw a wobbly big time, i think i'll leave it alone.
any more ideas on how to get rid of this damn crackling noise while loading web pages ?

[Todd The Kiwi]

my corn-fed bitch bios FINALLY decided to co-operate!
about damn time, i managed to turn my onboard sound "via-3058 ac97 audio"
from auto to disabled.
i still get crackling though, i've messed with hardware acceleration to no avail
i'm going to attempt to disable my modem next, wish me luck...
this is just a pic of what it looks like at the moment :ponder:

ok done, this is what it looks like now, can i change any more in bios?

[lyinhart]

I personally blame some of these Flash movies on the web... they hog up a lot of CPU time, depending on how they make the movie. I find that when I open and close a site that has a Flash movie, QCD skipping starts and then stops. There's also over a 50% difference in CPU usage as seen in Task manager when the page with the flash movie opens and when it closes.

[Todd The Kiwi]

lyinhart - it's not flash player mate, it does it when flash isn't running.

i've disabled everything i can get away with disabling, modem, floppy drive, coms port 1, onboard sound and printers port. i've adjusted my IRQs from bios too
none of this has made any difference to the sound, it has made my pc boot faster and run smoother though. my system cost almost $2500 it shouldn't be doing this to me! anyone else keen on suggesting stuff to try, i'm ALL ears...

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

Uhm Todd, what the heck is the point of disabling your floppy drive or your LPT printer port? ha ha :silly: Anyway, like we discussed, you could try to change the pci latency. Unfortunately, you do not have that option in the bios, so you need an application to do it. On the other hand, it could be your modem. Have you tried to make your modem deliberately slower and see if the problem still persists? (We're getting desperate now, aye? ;)). I really have no other clue. Try posting your problem on a tech forum.

[Todd The Kiwi]

i found a help section at m-audios site that mentioned IRQs (interrupt requests)
the less things i have 'allowed' to interrupt my cpu the faster my pc will be.
i don't use the stuff i've disabled so why have it enabled.
i'm off to find a thing to change my PCI latency, i hope it doesn't break anything ha ha haHave you tried to make your modem deliberately slower and see if the problem still persists?
i have a wireless modem with no speed settings
i'd have to ask my isp if they could slow it down for me.
worthy of a mention i suppose - when my connection is slow, and i'm having trouble loading pages
i.e sluggish,the noise is really bad when it finally finishes loading the page
it's like the sound is being sucked right out of qmp (or WMP or winamp)
this noise was also present when i had 56k dialup via a phone line

[Tokelil]

If your soundcard is in the PCI slot at the top (next to the AGP port) try moving it down a notch.

[Todd The Kiwi]

things i've discovered tonight -


1_ it does make this noise when streaming and browsing
http://95bfm.co.nz:8000/stream112 and http://stream.noise.net.nz:8000/julia-broadband both do it

2_ i recorded nothing in sound forge for a minute or so resulting in a
.wav @ 96,000 24 bit depth 4608 kbps of silence = 30 MB in size
and played it back in qcd while browsing, no noise.

3_ this noise sounds almost the same as the noise i get when my stream buffer is set too low while listening to a stream (like the pic)

4_ BUT when the buffer is set too low while listening to one of the above streams the music
plays slowly and makes the hideous crackling noise whereas playing an mp3
plays at the correct speed and makes the hideous crackling noise
(but nowhere near as bad as when streaming)

If your soundcard is in the PCI slot at the top (next to the AGP port) try moving it down a notch. ok mate i'll try that

if you guys can ask me questions that i may not think to ask myself, ask away, i'll answer them.

[Todd The Kiwi]

ok the direct sound playback settings if set low enough will do the same as when streaming
sorry about that.
BUT i think i'm narrowing it down a bit.
it appears to be some kind of buffering issue? :skull:

[Tokelil]

Well I guess the outcome is some kind of buffer problem... The questions is whats the cause of the buffer problem. My bet is still on a hardware/software conflict somewhere. :ermm:

[Todd The Kiwi]

If your soundcard is in the PCI slot at the top (next to the AGP port) try moving it down a notch.
ok this is a pic i took of my pci slots -
agp slot is empty and has been since i bought my pc.
my onboard modem was in the top one, i removed it today.
the middle slot has never been occupied.
my soundcard (m-audio, not onboard) is at the bottom.
does it matter which pci slot i use for my soundcard?
i get the hideous crackling noise playing cds in my cdrw and my dvd drive too.

[Heigar]

No it doesn't matter what slot it is in ,but make sure it's in straight and that it's in tight.

[Todd The Kiwi]

No it doesn't matter what slot it is in ,but make sure it's in straight and that it's in tight.that's what she said,ha ha ha ;)
i'm going to swap pci slots and see what happens.
it is in straight and i have it fixed in with a screw in the side.
as is the norm i believe.

[Heigar]

Ha ha I knew you were going to say something like that:biggrin:

Even with the set screw sometimes the side opposite that tends to loosen and can come out alittle..

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

You have nothing in your AGP slot? It would seem you have onboard video then. I've read some stories about onboard video chip taking a lot of latency bandwidth. Especially if you have a cheap range mobo, the onboard video isnt going to be great and might take a lot of unnecessary cpu cycles.

Next suggestion:

Get a mate to bring his videocard and put it into the AGP port. Then see if you still get the crackling noise from your soundcard.

[Todd The Kiwi]

Get a mate to bring his videocard and put it into the AGP port. Then see if you still get the crackling noise from your soundcard.i should probably get one for myself anyway, but i'll see what i can do about borrowing one.
"my computer" properties says my RAM is 480 when really it's 512
that's 32 MB being used by something...:depressed
could it be this simple? potential > :biggrin:
i hope so i'm running out of things to try.

edit: my onboard graphics card uses 32 MB.

[Tokelil]

No it doesn't matter what slot it is in ,but make sure it's in straight and that it's in tight.You don't want to use the one next to the agp port, since it on many motherboards share the IRQ with the AGP port.

It sounds like you are RAM bandwidth starved when it is drawing the screen and playing at the same time...

[Todd The Kiwi]

It sounds like you are RAM bandwidth starved when it is drawing the screen and playing at the same time...
ram bandwidth?
not something i've heard of mate, do tell :biggrin:
below is how my interrupt requests look at the moment
i moved my soundcard into pci slot 1 (right next to the agp)
i'll move it again when i get a video card.

[Tokelil]

ram bandwidth?
not something i've heard of mate, do tell :biggrin:Well it's just a guess and something I can imagine happens with build in graphic cards...

Build-in graphiccards uses the main RAM as video RAM (as you found out) which means that it has to share the bandwith with all other things running on the computer.
The bandwith on a "modern" computer should be enough for this, but a lot of trafic is going between the RAM and the rest of the system when browsing the web. What probably has the highest priority is the build-in graphic card, since it needs to send data to the screen all the time.

(A little sidenote, the fastests desktop PC's has around 7 GB/s of bandwith between the RAM and the rest of the system. The newest graphiccards has 37.8GB/s just for it self...)

You could try turning down the acceleration for your graphic card under Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Troubleshoot.

Also you could try giving your graphic card more or less RAM (you should be able to do this in the BIOS I think)...
Maybe there's more settings for your videocard in the BIOS?

Thats what I can think of... besides getting an AGP card and try it.

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

You could try turning down the acceleration for your graphic card under Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Troubleshoot.


If i were you i'd skip this option, it can make things very slow or look messed up. Anyways, it's true onboard video eats away your RAM. So video is also dependent on the speed of your RAM. Onboard video used to be horrible with computers of like 4-6 years old. Nowadays, a regular computer user wont recognise much difference until he/she fires up a computer game or starts designing using advanced paint/rendering software. Todd, since you hardly play any computer games, you would do well buying even a low to mid-range agp video card and it wouldnt cost you much.

[Todd The Kiwi]

tokelil - that makes sense now ;)
rex - yeah i don't really do games
i've seen video cards for about $30 (16 euros') so i have no excuse
woo hoo i get to go hardware shopping.
i wonder if st nick has an anti-static sack :cheeky:

[Todd The Kiwi]

i wonder if st nick has an anti-static sack :cheeky:
it appears he does...
WOO HOO ! problem fixed
i borrowed a 32 MB bottom of the line archaic nvidia tnt2 64 video card off a mate and all is well.
i reclaimed 32 MB of ram too, sweet as.
after all the stuff i disabled and removed and now this, my pc is REALLY FAST :skull:

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

Sweet as, you found the source of the problem! :cheeky: The video card you borrowed is indeed very low-end nowadays, it doesnt even have support for anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, yet they seem to pop-up everywhere! At my folk's place we have 2 of em, one a Riva tnt2 model 64 pci and another a Riva tnt2 ultra agp. A friend of mine also has one of these. I remember when my dad bought a new computer many years ago, the agp version was one of the best video cards out there. The nostalgia ha ha ha :grimreape

[Zayoos]

I am using Riva TNT2 Pro AGP right now. :) I've finished "Max Payne 2" on this video card last year, the game wasn't so beautiful but who cares? It worked ;)

[Todd The Kiwi]

dammit, linux is doing this now.
[using qmp via wine though...]

at least xmms doesn't do it

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

dammit, linux is doing this now.
[using qmp via wine though...]

at least xmms doesn't do it

Only because you are emulating the whole thing? lol It requires a lot of cpu power.

[Todd The Kiwi]

hey you might know this rex... shit wrong thread
um--- over here (http://quinnware.com/forum/showthread.php?p=78318#post78318).

i can put up with the skipping at least i get to use the nicest piece of software ever made qmp

[Todd The Kiwi]

ok so i have a NVIDIA 7600gt gfx card and an M-AUDIO 2496 sound card and 1 gig of ram
strapped to a 2.4ghz p4, so it's not slow.

i'm still getting skips and crackling when i crank up a game?
any particular area i should be looking @/tweaking?

[rorythedog]

ok so i have a NVIDIA 7600gt gfx card and an M-AUDIO 2496 sound card and 1 gig of ram
strapped to a 2.4ghz p4, so it's not slow.

i'm still getting skips and crackling when i crank up a game?
any particular area i should be looking @/tweaking?

Depending on the game 1GB of RAM ain't much.

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

ok so i have a NVIDIA 7600gt gfx card and an M-AUDIO 2496 sound card and 1 gig of ram
strapped to a 2.4ghz p4, so it's not slow.

i'm still getting skips and crackling when i crank up a game?
any particular area i should be looking @/tweaking?

Better harddrive? Better mobo? More RAM? Disable onboard sound in bios if you haven't done so already?

EDIT: Play at same resolution as your desktop to avoid crack/pops when changing resolution.

[Todd The Kiwi]

how cool is this my motherboard can handle 3.06GHZ cpu and 2GB of ram, nice :bulb:
i currently have 2.4GHZ cpu and 1GB of ram

[Willow of Oz]

I'd say look at your detail settings in the game, assuming it's only happening on modern ones.
I mean, don't go playing supcom over dual 60cm monitors at native res or anything.

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

how cool is this my motherboard can handle 3.06GHZ cpu and 2GB of ram, nice :bulb:
i currently have 2.4GHZ cpu and 1GB of ram

While that may sound cool, I'd think it's a waste of money trying to find a new cpu and more ram for your mobo. At this point you might want to consider getting a new machine sans video card since you already got that new.

EDIT: Though you are going to need to find a AGP compatible mobo which also supports a processor like the intel core 2 duo which would be pretty hard to find. I'm sure they are there, but limited. So adding more RAM would be ok in the short term i guess, but getting a new 3ghz cpu wont be really worth it since it would mean only a slight speed increase.

[Todd The Kiwi]

i'm not going to do it, i was just letting you guys know what i could do if i wanted to [could afford to]

it only stutters a little bit when i initially load the game.
i can handle that.

[Todd The Kiwi]

it only stutters a little bit when i initially load the game.
i can handle that.whoah, i just dug this thread up to 'add' this question to it.

i have adjusted qmp buffers up which made no difference.
my soundcard has a "DMA buffer size" "latency" setting
that was @ 256 i put it up to 512, should i go any higher?

it just sucks that i have my tunes playing nice and loud, i load the game and it 'crackles'.

[Toe]

Are you using ASIO output?

[Todd The Kiwi]

no man.

HL2 and quake4 both do it too.

[Todd The Kiwi]

is there anything i should try?

[Roj]

i have this as well with the opera browser, but only very rarely. I think that suddenly a number of connections to the website that is to be loaded give in and transfer data to your computer causing a temporary peak in cpu usage. Ha ha all theory no proof though. Maybe someone else has a better explanation.
I'll give you the proof:

You're right.

Queried it with a M$ engineer - you're dead on. CPU intensive jobs break up wav audio (but not DirectSound which is multithreaded).