speaker skips

For the past two days my speakers whenever playing sound it skips. At first I thought it was because maybe my computer is freezing up, but its not. It will even skip without anything else running in the background. The little sound that Windows plays one it started skips. I plugged in my earphones to see if its not just my speakers dying, but the earphones skip too. Today, when I opened iTunes it said it detected an error in my audio, but nothing else. I used Windows XP troubleshooter, and my volume settings are correct and there are no driver conflicts. The sound skips on anything, whenever any sound is played on my computer.

 

Sounds like you need to update the sound driver to your system.
If its onboard ,it could be ac 97
You should go to your motherboard support, and download from there to be certain of the correct driver- If you are a bit wary, post your motherboard name/model, here , and we will find it for you

If its ac97, It is available here for via motherboards.

http://www.softwarepatch.com/utilities/viaac97.html

 

How do I get to motherboard support? Or find out what model my motherboard is?

 

Download Everest home edition, and it will give you all the information .
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

 

Okay, sorry it took so long. Dial up and then the download stopped at 60 percent. Anywho here is what it says about my motherboard


Field Value
CPU Type Mobile Intel Celeron M 330, 1400 MHz (14 x 100)
Motherboard Name Unknown
Motherboard Chipset Intel Montara-GML i852GM
System Memory 480 MB (PC2700 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Phoenix (08/08/05)


Is that what you need?

 

Halo found this link in an earlier thread, and it appears to be a winner.
Keep trying

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showpost.php?p=893540&postcount=9

 

Your laptop name would also help, but by the chipset , it seems you most likely have ac 97 sound, on-board, here is a link to realtek site, if the first one fails.
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads...&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false#AC

 

okay, going there now. and my laptop is a HP dv1010us

 

I downloaded and installed that, but its still skipping.

 

It sounds so much like a faulty driver,Perhaps that driver was not the correct one.
At itunes, they say low memory might be a cause

http://www.askbobrankin.com/itunes_music_skipping.html

It could be system memory, so I suggest a clean up of exolrer cache(tools,options, clear out temporary files, cookies, etc: )
Also Right click my computer,properties, advanced, system, visual effects, and advanced, settings, - change settings for best performance for programs.
Virtual memory settings-
To help clear up , change to 0, close everything down, and restart to complete the clear up, then go back to the virtual memory, and restore a setting for virtual memory--I usually set to one and half times my installed Ram.

 

I did all the cleaning up of stuff. And I found the thing for the best peformance and did that. && it still skips. I can't find the virtual memory thing though, where do I go to get that?

 

Right click my computer,properties, advanced, system properties, look at the first one- performance,visual effects, processor sheduling,and click settings, then advanced, virtual memory is the last one on that part.

 

Sound drivers assistance here

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=26357

 

Okay, I'm going there now. (Sorry I haven't check this in awhile) If the information on there doesn't work I'll go through HPs site and see if I can't find anything. Thank you

 

Sounds like possibly an itunes problem, or possibly some external electronic device that is interfering, just my two cents, hope you resolve the issue.

 

Good luck whitelines, and keep let us know the outcome.

And thanks for extra input, Bugballou, - ac97 drivers can be a pain.I have seen this problem several times, and , for me, it was the driver itself.

 

I don't think its an iTunes problem, because even the welcome sound or whatever its called (thats what I call it) that plays when you log onto XP skips. Or when someone IMs me on AOL the sound, even if its the default sound - skips. I went to the thread you linked and read it - did you want me to download the driver thing on there? I looked and it said it might cause XP to crash, so I'm slightly afraid to download it. I downloaded the driver for my computer on HP's site, which didn't help.

Even though my virtual memory is set to the right limit and stuff, I'm still kind of wondering if it isn't that... because AOL wouldn't open the other day saying I had too many things running. (I had nothing else running) So I did what you guys say to scan for viruses and used CCleaner to take off what I don't need on my start up, but its still skipping.

 

Recently took a sound card out of one old system and put into another with onboard sound because the onboard sound wouldn't work. I tried everything from chip manufacturer to computer manufacturer (Packard Bell). Also read a lot of threads from others having the same problem (Yamaha). I resolved it by disabling the on board and installing another relic that worked. But a laptop is another thing altogether. I would try to backup the machine then reformat and reinstall windows, or do a factory restore, if either option is available. Sure hope it isn't degrading hardware. When all else fails, drop back and punt.
Bug

 

I think Bug got it. This one sounds a lot like a problem I had with an adware a while back. Nothing detected it and it didn't show in Task Manager but when I got looking through a few things I found it's files in my windows folder. Don't remember the name of it now and wouldn't have known what it was if it hadn't had a config file that would open in notepad. It took about a month before it started trying to redirect my browser but I had changed the config by then.

Finally took it off my system (required a format and reload of XP) after playing around trying to figure out where it had come from and sound issues cleared up right after.

Don't know if yours is the same issue but it could be worth checking out.

 

How would I got about checking that out? I mean nothing shows up in the scans I've done - and I've done all that this site suggests. How do I find a file thats bad and not showing up in scans? Should I start a new thread in Malware?

 

It would be worth starting a thread in malware section, but I have one more suggestion to make, before doing that.
It seems that going to add and remove programs, and uninstalling ac97 from there, then restarting has worked, if it is just the driver - sounds too simple,
but worth a try.
If that does not solve the problem, check your firewall, and see what has been given permission to go on-line, and configure to deny access to all except microsoft, and see if that stops the background programs, sufficiently.
You can allow access to the web for those you know any time, but stopping some for a while might help .

Major Attitude has a a complete malware search post

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=27385

Of course, if you have to, the last resort would be to reformat, as long as you have the necessary backup of your files , and programs.- It can take longer to find some things, that re-formatting, and setting up again.

 

Okay I'll try uninstalling the AC97 and see what my firewall is allowing.

By the way, can I even reformat with an HP computer? And how is that done?

 

Okay I couldn't find out how to edit my post, so I'm replying to it. (Sorry) Anyways.. dumb question. I can and my mom knows how. And I uninstalled the AC97, but I cant figure out where I find out what I'm allowing with AVG. I clicked on everything, but couldn't find it.

 

Unless you have a paid for version of AVG, with firewall, it is just antivirus.
If you only have Windows firewall, you need to look in the Windows firewall settings.
Did your sound stop skipping, or, is it still the same, after add and remove for ac97, and restart ?

 

I do have the paid version of AVG w/ firewall. And it still skips. But I think its getting worse though cause now instead of just skipping its sounding really fuzzy/staticy and it last for a long time. Someone IMed me and it just like dragged out the sound and was all static sounding

 

Looks like you are getting to that time.

 

Recheck your connectors and such. With it starting to sound fuzzy I wonder if it may be that the card did not seat like it should have. Slim chance on this one, it will most likely be driver or software related, but making sure that no little dust piles in the slot got in the way of a good connection might help.

 

Well, I went to Malware to see if it wasn't that and they said it was hardware. How would I check the card - this is a laptop of which I can't tear apart? The speakers are built in. Anyways, my problems keep increasing. The sound is getting worse and worse, my computer keeps freezing, and downloads keep timing out. And today, some files have been corrupted so I had to reinstall AOL. My mom says she'll try to do a system restore, but I really don't want her to because the last time we tried the computer was down for a long time cause the restore CD doesn't work whatsoever.

 

If you still have problems, I suggest you try system restore to a date before you remember the original sound problem--
In case you are not sure how to do this, Major Attitude has it here
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=799204#post799204
You only need to follow MajorAttitude's instructions, but,There is a link to Microsoft to find out more, but it just explains more.