Music makes other programs slow

Don't know if it's a driver problem, or what, but whenever I run ANY music player (windows media, winamp), my other programs run extremely slowly. This is terribly distressing to me, as I put my system together for gaming, and I can't game and listen to tunes at the same time. Here are my particulars:

AMD Athlon 64 2200 MHz w/ ASRock Upgrade-1689
768 MB System Memory

149 GB hard disk, SATA (86.4 GB free)

Creative Audigy 2 LS Sound Card

Windows XP Pro

 

Download EVEREST and post a log as an attachment. (don't copy and paste, only attach it please)

 

Ha ha ha - I already have - here it is (attached).

Thx.

Edman^^

 

There is nothing obvious in the log.

I thought it may have been your Bios settings for the CPU or DMA wasn't enabled, but everything looks good.

All I can suggest at this stage is to see what's running in the background, and try updating your motherboard drivers.

 

Thanks so much - I'll try updating the motherboard drivers.

 

Well, I've updated pretty much every driver I could find for every internal component - motherboard, cpu, bridges, chipset, sound card... still, when I play music, my gameplay is staggered and choppy - irritating as HECK for shoot'em-ups! maybe it's a vid thing? Would more memory for my video card help? or... what else? any help?

 

Well we should not also not forget that when you run a game it always takes full load on the cpu so that could be the problem right there. Your games and the music program dont have enough cpu to go to both and end result, everything gets choppy.
-the new tech guy

 

Edman, see what's running in the background as I suggested earlier.

 

Insomniac, that is true that the music program could be slowing down the game correct? Because Maybe either the background process or the music could be messing it up. Or Maybe ed can try to set the game priority high and the music to a lower one. That may work.
-the new tech guy

 

This issue shouldn't be about having a game and music program running.

What's the point, you can only either play a game, or play music, not both at the same time, that's silly?

 

My po9int is that there is only so much cpu power to go aroundand the game will set itself to a high priority and utilize the entire cpu so you will be using 100% of your system resource. There simply is not enough resource availible to be able to run a music program as well both without some type of hang up. The only way i can see somthing like that is if you have a hyper threading processor and the cpu is split in half so windows sees the computer as having 2 processors. So it will ONLY GIVE HALF to the game and respectively, you still have another idleing half. That other half will go to the music. So respectively i do not think this can be done.
-the new tech guy

 

well, he did say hecouldnt listen to music and play games at the same time.....too much cpu, or ram or both , to enjoy games and music together, unless your playing Mah-Jong

 

Well the individual game does not matter. Any of those games take full cpu regardless of what they are. I have zuma deluxe that uses 100% cpu on the computer, THE WINDOWS PINBALL THING uses 100% cpu. Doesnt matter on the game. Just dont think its doable.
-the new tech guy

 

Wait if you do other things than gaming is it slow?
-the new tech guy

 

Well, I tried opening a couple of separate windows w/ FF running, bouncing from site to site & they seemed to jump quickly from one to the next and to load quickly.

Just seems to be the games.

I really notice it while playing Luxor, as the balls' movement is staggered and chinky (is that even a word, Edman???!!).

 

That proves my point. It is just too much load on the cpu for it all to run without some type of performance loss. Just like they say in western's "this town ain't big enough for the two of us" . So I think that answers your question.
-the new tech guy

 

Insomniac, how shall I see what's running, besides the music and the game?

Nothing comes up on my task manager, 'ceptin' those two.

The only two applications I allow to run in my startup (using msconfig) are my Creative volume control (w/ surround mixer) - that came w/ my soundboard, and Freedom antispyware/anti-virus/firewall that I downloaded when I got my Adelphia broadband service.

(P.S. - on toast.net, I often get mad-fast download speeds - over 12Mb at times)

 

Try going to the manager and clicking the process tab. That should give him a very good idea of whats goin on. If its a ton of stuff post it as an attachment so we can simply view it in notepad.
-the new tech guy

 

You can use Process Explorer.

Your computer is more than powerful enough to run simple games and music.


I just tried on my crappy Pentium III, and loaded Half Life and Windows Media Player, and then tried Thief 2 and Windows Media Player and it didn't miss a beat.

It's not something I would usually do, but I'm just trying to prove a point that's it's not because the CPU isn't powerful enough as stated earlier.

 

Oh ok, i just htought maybe its the fact of system resources being used up by the game and not enough availible for the pc to use for the music. U know resource shortage.
-the new tech guy

 

Yeah, it's obviously a resource problem, but his specs are pretty good, and he is only loading simple games and music.

It shouldn't have a problem, although finding the cause is another matter.

 

I tried that download, but for some reason, the link wouldn't work for me.

I ran Luxor and Winamp, then opened my task manager, on the Processes tab, and it showed that the Luxor had a CPU usage of 95-99 (is this percent?), while Winamp only showed 00-02.

Since I couldn't get a pic of it while Luxor was on-screen, and I couldn't figure out how to select the text from the task manager (wouldn't let me highlight all of it, only one line at a time), I took a snapshot of the screen with Luxor minimized (so, System Idle was using over 90). I've attached the resulting bitmap.

Thx.

 

There we go then its luxor thats drawing everything and probably causing the problem. Try it without luxor.
-the new tech guy

 

with Windows Task Manager, Winamp, Gmail and this window (Major Geeks via FF), system idle process varies from 94-99, and winamp only occasionally registers over 00.

Again, is this percent of my availiable cpu?

 

No, it's what's being used. The lower the number generally the better as it means more resources are free and your PC is more efficient.

Why couldn't you download that program? Task Manager is very basic, Process Explorer is far better.

 

Well, symantics aside, I meant does that number signify how much of the processor resources each application is using. Sorry for the confusion.

The link to the download to the author's site wasn't working for me, but now it is and I've downloaded and installed it, but I still can't imagine how I'd be able to get a savable (ew - bad grammar) pic of what's happening while Luxor is running, as I can't go to any other progs w/out Luxor minimizing and going idle.

Thanks for the tip, though! Process Explorer sure breaks things down more.

Geez, you guys (guys?) have been so dedicated and helpful here - thanks so much for the time.

Still, my friend has a VERY similar setup as I and never has the problem.

I modeled my system after his, and I think aside from different monitors, the only difference is that he has more system memory, two of the same hard disks (so, twice the storage) and one more fan.


OH - and why does "System Idle" use so much CPU when I'm not using anything else? It's just a percentage of what is actually being used, isn't it, then? So, there's so little of the cpu's power being utilized when I'm not gaming, that the small amount that System Idle is using is a bigger percentage, right?

 

System Idle, as the name suggests, is what is available, not what is being used.

It should be in the 90's.

 

Have you tried listening to it on musicmatch? I know thats light on the cpu and has decent sound quality.
-the new tech guy

 

Thx.

I'll find it & try it out.

edman^^

 

It sounds like Luxor is a real system hog, while browsing this site and seen the header for this message i was running winamp and listening to a mp3 i check my cpu useage i was averaging 4%.

 

CALOO, CALAY!!!!

After executing all the steps on MA's sticky on Malware (MUCH thanks, MA), I got rid of a whole BOATLOAD of parasitic files (had 'em all - adware, trojans and other virii , spyware) and - most WONDERFUL news?

I can play music AND games with neither suffering!!!!!!

HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAA!!!!

Thank you all SOOooooo much!!!!

edman^^

P.S. - I was only using Freedom (which is offered free w/ my Adelphia Broadband - antivirus, antispy and firewall), CCleaner and CWShredder. I rarely had any serious problems, and the newest version of AdAware would previously not work on my system.

 

oops!

Thanks go to CHASLANG for the sticky directing the first important housecleaning steps. (in previous post, I gave creds to MA - sorry, CL).

 

Hey no prob and glad to hear your running again.
-the new tech guy