Hello,

I have some trouble when playing sound files with Windows Media Player or Media Monkey. When I play music there are very short interruptions. What could be causing this?

My system has 4GB RAM, an Athlon X2 and Soundblaster Audigy soundcard. It runs Windows XP

Thank you.

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Hello,

I have some trouble when playing sound files with Windows Media Player or Media Monkey. When I play music there are very short interruptions. What could be causing this?

My system has 4GB RAM, an Athlon X2 and Soundblaster Audigy soundcard. It runs Windows XP

Thank you.

where are the sound files located !

Well I found the problem: it was the microsoft indexing service. I disabled indexing for all harddrives, and then I opened services.msc and disabled the indexing service.

Well I did some closer examination of my system. The sound interruptions are not fixed and they aren't really sound interruptions at all. In fact the entire system freezes for just a few moments. What I managed to figure out was that there are some spikes in the CPU-usage when the hick-ups happen: two things called DPCs and Interrupts give a spike.

Disabling the indexing service didn't help and nor did reversing to Windows XP SP2.

The soundcard should be placed in the furtherest slot away from the cpu.

Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Audio may cause an error message. Describes how to work around this problem by setting Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Audio to be the default Sound Playback device.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319595

God bless you jupiter 2,
How do the error messages described in kb/319595 have anything to do with the posters problem?

"Ctplay2.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Eacontrol.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

SoundBlaster card needs to be installed."

God bless you jupiter 2,
How do the error messages described in kb/319595 have anything to do with the posters problem?

"Ctplay2.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Eacontrol.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

SoundBlaster card needs to be installed."

Well given the questionable quality of your usual "advice" offerings, you might want to pull your head in. There is actually some merit to his line of thought....

The OP has listed having 4GB of RAM installed - meaning that is his Windows installation is going to actually be capable of using all that, he is using XP x64. The biggest problem this OS has always had is that many manufacturers never released more than buggy HW drivers for that OS version.... Creative being leader of that rather ugly pack.

In Win7 x64, MS has finally taken the initiative, rolling out a large number of generic drivers to fill that void, thus making the transition to x64 Windows much easier.... this was never the case with XP x64, and likely will remain that way.

Another line of thought is this:
Given the high-end (and quite modern) specifications of his machine, it is highly likely that he has either bought a system designed for Vista and downgraded it to XP - not a good idea by the way - or has built a system with parts not fully supported by XP. Either way, a migration to Win7 would be a better alternative, and would likely solve the problems he is encountering. Either that, or swap out offending hardware (such as the sound card) for devices which were indeed designed for the XP environ.

Ok kaninelupus,
There is no need to use that sort of language in an open forum. I was being nice to Jupiter 2 and pointing out that the site he has given clearly states that if when you install a Creative Audigy sound card you may get an error message... Copied from site "After you install a Creative Audigy sound card and software, you may receive any of the following error messages:
Ctplay2.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Eacontrol.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

SoundBlaster card needs to be installed.
If you view the data that the error report contains, the following error signature information is listed:"

Now the poster is not getting any error message like that and therefore, no mater what train of thought he (jupiter 2) may have, it is not about getting these error messages. For you to jump to his defense is very admirable. You being such a busy teacher, with exams and all, but it would be good if you could show how the error messages are relevant, because I have no idea, and that is why we have open forums, so we all can learn from others with more knowledge like you. So I am asking you nicely, please explain the error messages in relation to the posters problem of his sound having "very short interruptions"
I have learned something from you already, I did not know that there were systems and components that were too advance for the proper functioning caperbilities of XP.

It is not a case of being "to advanced for XP". It is a case of many recent components not being supported for XP... ie, manufacturers/designers not providing any XP-based drivers for their wares. Yes Vista/Win7 provide hardware-based options which were only at conception form at the time of XP's delivery - CPU-GPU collaboration, hybrid HDD's (ie, turbo caching), many of the hardware accelerations found post-XP.

The simple fact is this; yes some hardware is incompatible with XP solely on the basis that the relevant manufacturer saw no compelling reason to continue to support that OS in their hardware offerings, but also true is the fact that other recent hardware offerings move beyond the capabilities of what XP is capable of supporting.

Hi Pim, i have just been doing some checking and there are six different Soundblaster Audigy soundcards, which model do you have, I could ask kaninelupus because he even knows that you can not run that card in XP as it is not providing any XP-based drivers. When I get you answer as to the model, I will ask Creative Labs if they have any experience with your situation and find out why they have six different cards with Windows XP drivers (that are upgradable to Vista) that not providing any XP-based drivers

Hmmmm...... the drivers they supply in the realm of backwards-compatibility are usually buggy as all hell, and are well known for this. Trust me, as one who has long used their hardware (as an anti-Apple evangalist, I long clung to the hopes and dreams that their Zen line would actually squash the iPod trends); I have time and time been sorely disappointed by that particular corporation. They have one of the shortest hardware support cycles I have ever come across - roughly two years - meaning new Windows editions are frequently never supported. When they actually do either port drivers for new Win edits, or backdate their drivers, they often tend to be rushed, and as a result, are bug-ridden.

@Bob - sure a quick Google will give you the surface info/results, but only actual experience will provide deeper illumination as to the actual facts!

I am using Windows XP home (which is a 32 bit edition of windows). Reinstalling the operating system, or a different windows operating system is not a solution at all. The problem wasn't there at first, and now it is there, so there must have been some mutation which caused the problem to occur.

I'd like to ask you to stop fighting with each other and help me troubleshoot the problem.

Another thing: as I posted before I found out that the problem isn't necessarily a sound card problem:


Well I did some closer examination of my system. The sound interruptions are not fixed and they aren't really sound interruptions at all. In fact the entire system freezes for just a few moments. What I managed to figure out was that there are some spikes in the CPU-usage when the hick-ups happen: two things called DPCs and Interrupts give a spike.

Disabling the indexing service didn't help and nor did reversing to Windows XP SP2.

The sound card I have is a Audigy LS card.

Originally Posted by Pim
Hello,
I have some trouble when playing sound files with Windows Media Player or Media Monkey. When I play music there are very short interruptions. What could be causing this?
My system has 4GB RAM, an Athlon X2 and Soundblaster Audigy soundcard. It runs Windows XP
Thank you.

My answer was just a general answer I googled
"Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Audio "
and got these results -
http://www.google.com/search?q=Creative+SoundBlaster+Audigy+Audio+&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8

After reviewing several links I saw an answer that referred to a problem with the device -

Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Audio may cause an error messageDescribes how to work around this problem by setting Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Audio to be the default Sound Playback device.
support.microsoft.com/kb/319595 - Similar


I thought that would be enought to at least ger a response from the Poster.

The following was more information that I was going to put in my answer but after being told to keep my answers to one topic reply, I declinned to add details.

Here is another link that reviews the soundcard -
http://www.guru3d.com/review/creative/audigy2/

Here are some download sites that may suit your needs -

http://www.soft-go.com/download_driver/Creative-Sound-Blaster-Audigy-ValueSELS-and-Sound-Blaster-Live-24-bit-Driver-1.04.0077_432.html

http://www.soft-go.com/download_driver/Creative-Sound-Blaster-Audigy-Audio-Driver-2.12.0002_433.html

Many years ago, during a stint at a computer repair shop the Certified expert advised me that the sound card shoud go at the far end on the PCI bank, away from the CPU. This only applied to older sound cards as some sound cards after 2007 preferred the cpu end.

Also, Sound Cards prefer IRQ10. This IRQ may be assigned to another periphial in bios. Better to change it for the sound card.

I suppose I'll get some ngative response to this answer. It is only based on expert advice from 2001.

I am using Windows XP home (which is a 32 bit edition of windows). Reinstalling the operating system, or a different windows operating system is not a solution at all. The problem wasn't there at first, and now it is there, so there must have been some mutation which caused the problem to occur.

I'd like to ask you to stop fighting with each other and help me troubleshoot the problem.

Another thing: as I posted before I found out that the problem isn't necessarily a sound card problem:


The sound card I have is a Audigy LS card.

Do you have some idea when the issues first occurred, or any changes made around that time? Sounds like you've rolled back the last XP service pack, so unlikely to be that. Have you recently installed anything else which may have tipped the balance? Have you tried uninstalling the drivers (via Device Manager) and reinstalling? We really need more info as to what system changes were made prior to things going pear-shaped.

Taking closer look at specs, seems is not so recent at all - my error - which does make things a little more difficult... the sound card is outside it's support cycle, meaning new drivers are a fantasy. It does also introduce an ugly possibility... that parts are beginning to fail (although we can hope otherwise, you do need to consider that.)

If you have onbard sound (as well as the sound card) turn this feature off in bios.

Try a Check for new Hardware to ensure all drivers have been loaded. Always a good idea regardless of installations.

Check Device Manager and see if you have any Exclamation marks in Yellow circle.

Also, do a dxiag in the RUN Box Start > Run type in dxdiag
The dialog will show if the sound card is working properly. You can do a sound test here, also.

Also select the more info button on last page of DxDiag dialog. Then check Conflicts tab in sys info.

As stated before, you should set the IRQ to 10 as this is the preferrred IRQ for all soundblaster/Creative sound cards.

If all else fails then

If you have the setup cd for the sound card then I suggest you do a reinstall or go to device manager and do the reinstall from the sound device.


@Bob - sure a quick Google will give you the surface info/results, but only actual experience will provide deeper illumination as to the actual facts!

Hi, I did not know you spelt "Google" C-r-e-a-t-i-v-e L-a-b-s. Unlike you, who knows all about the products and their software, I decided to check with the ones that should know, the manufacturer to see if they had experience with this problem. When I tried to get information, in their site, about the poster's problem, I discovered that there are six models of this card. I could not do any further searching, effectively (in Creative Labs, not Google) without the model number. Therefore, unlike you I asked the poster for more information. That way, with the model number, I could search their data base for information on this card to see if the problem had been reported and/or dealt with before.
I understand that you do not need to know the model number or any other information about this card to know that it is the cause of the poster's problem and that, as you said earlier, the poster only needs to swap out this card with one made for XP or upgrade to Vista or Windows 7.
Your vast experience, has shown you that Creative labs are misleading the public buy backgrading their drivers to work in XP and not writing proper drivers to supply with their product.
I will ask Creative Labs today what is their reason is for not doing what you believe is the right thing. While I am communicating with them I will try to find information from the Manufacturer and not you, the expert on their product, if they have any knowledge of this problem other than their inefficient XP drivers.
As I said in an earlier post, it is good that you can share you vast experience and expert knowledge with everyone that can read these posts. I can even copy your posts and paste them on my request for information to Creative Labs. As your knowledge is accurate and factual, I feel sure that there is no way they will take offence to what you have said.


Taking closer look at specs, seems is not so recent at all - my error - which does make things a little more difficult... .)

The rest of the post should have read...." I am sorry I jumped in and said what I did, I did not read the facts properly and I just made an assumption. Now that i have read your post and looked into it, not relying on my vast, unequaled knowledge of the facts, I see that i was wrong. Now I need to ask you some questions so that i can have some information that may help you. Yes, I know someone else is doing that but I am much more experienced than him, I know much more.

Many years ago, during a stint at a computer repair shop the Certified expert advised me that the sound card shoud go at the far end on the PCI bank, away from the CPU. This only applied to older sound cards as some sound cards after 2007 preferred the cpu end.

As I explained to the other poster, the information here is available to all who want to read and get knowledge to help them with their problems. Therefore, please explain what cards after 2007 need to be closer to the CPU and which ones need to still be further away. I have tried to search for this information on-line but can not find any reference there. So I thought it best to just ask you. It would also help if you could supply a reference to where your facts came from so any one can check it out. Thank you in advance for your kind assistance to all who will read your response.

Gigabyte Sound cards

<quote with name-calling snipped>

I have tried to show you all the mistakes that you have made in a private forum, your private message box, but you blocked me as you do not want advice on your incorrect self serving posts. I do not want the public to read your silly posts and think that they could have some merit. If I can not inform you in any other way I need to do it here. You have admitted that everything I have said is correct, your answers are wrong and misleading and yet you continue to post them. The public need to understand that you have about 5% correct answers, and not to just jump in and follow blindly what you offer. You defender has also admitted he is also wrong with what he has said and now he has started doing what he should have done in the first place, trying to discover more information to help the poster. The two of you continue on this assault on me because I pointed out you inability to give correct information. Unlike you I am not looking for "Points" I only want what is best for the posters and it certainly is not what you are offering.
I have only posted to you to show you where you have made a mistake, I have never just attacked you. I have made plenty of mistakes in my life and I have learned from them. I will continue to make mistakes and I hope that some one will point out where I hav be mistaken so I can fix it. That is all I have been trying to do with you. You have taken offence and I am very sorry about that. The moderators will need to step in on this problem as it is just being escalated by the two of you and something needs to be done. This is the only place where I post (Daniweb) and I would hate to think that Jupiter 2 was posting his uninformed information on other sites as well. I will be staying here to help posters (if the moderators will permit me) so I will not be going away. So as was suggested (instructed) by crunchie in a much earlier post "Play nicely"

Bob - You are this | | close to being banned.

Really, you are closer. Those multiple uses of highly unnaceptable language just earnt you a 5 point infraction.

Play nice.

And just to add my two cents, i have never heard anything about the sound card thing either. Maybe "back in the day" (by that i mean early/mid 90s) it might have been true though.

Hi Pim,
i do sincerely apologize for all that aside arguing between all of us and that you were in the middle of it all.
I can not find a direct answer to your problem, but if you go to this site at Creative Labs, you may be able to get a better result as you know the details about your problem.
http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?url=http://ask.creative.com:80/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.exe/,/%3FSt=469,E=0000000000666020907,K=3985,Sxi=1,Answer81897=obj(81897):obj(81909)
If you can not find a solution in the data base, you can then send an email to them and hopefully they will send you a constructive reply in a short time.
If they can not assist you and you have exhausted all other possibilities, a repair install may be the only answer. If you are forced to do one, you will only lose your Windows service packs, hot fixes and updates since your OS CD was produced. As I said, if all else fails...
PS. If you do, later, consider doing a repair/install look at slipstreaming your OS CD first, it will save you a lot of trouble when doing the repair.

Well it seems that the program SpeedFan is causing the problems. When I disable it the disruptions are gone.

Strange. Glad you got it solved though.

Hi, I did not know you spelt "Google" C-r-e-a-t-i-v-e L-a-b-s. Unlike you, who knows all about the products and their software, I decided to check with the ones that should know, the manufacturer to see if they had experience with this problem. When I tried to get information, in their site, about the poster's problem, I discovered that there are six models of this card. I could not do any further searching, effectively (in Creative Labs, not Google) without the model number. Therefore, unlike you I asked the poster for more information. That way, with the model number, I could search their data base for information on this card to see if the problem had been reported and/or dealt with before.

Have a look HERE Creative's own support site (ie, their own location for driver downloads) and you tell me where you see a single "Audigy" driver available.... found one yet????

The simple facts are these:

a) The Audigy range has not been supported for some time now. Creative has moved on to the X-Fi models without a backwards glance. All support for the Audigy-class cards ceased at the end of the usual "support cycle". Look it up!
b) Creative seems to raise more complaints (and calls for work-arounds) than ANY other HW vendor, every time a new Windows OS rolls out (again, look it up!). I contrast this with my trusty old CanoScan, which though 7 or more yrs old, still can be made to work, not only in an OS two generations on, but in a x64 Windows environ which didn't even exist when the scanner was manufactured!

Rather than trusting Creative to provide accurate/helpful details, have look on their own support forums.... what you read there might well illuminate you (spent many a long hour there myself in the past!) Then use Google to look at just how many issues ppl have getting their Creative products (Soundblaster cards more than anything) to work with any new Windows release, especially when Creative either drags their heals in releasing a new driver-stack (contrast this with nVidia, who constantly releases pre-release driver builds for Windows pre-release builds.... Creative never ever supports those), or abruptly ends the support-cycle, leaving end-users out in the cold!

None of this is made up, or said without basis. Take the time to look it up, and actually educate yourself for once. I'm far from being the only one to have been burnt by Creative!

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