Diagnosis please

[Mr. Smith]

Ok. Having problems.

Thought it was itunes 7 but after deleting it and testing various forms of media on various players including games I can't get rid of this crackle/distortion on sound - sometimes its almost as if the tempo slows a bit and the pc catches up and then returns to normal... Sometimes the sound is ok, sometimes (mostly) it is not.

General system performance has decreased dramatically, boot up seems to be where the problem starts. Asus splash screen followed by hd driver as normal. Then there is a pause... ... ... ... ... Then... XP splash screen... Another pause... a long pause... 30secs easy... fans seem to be going full blast... possibly times out... then windows begins to boot. Slowly. PC seems sluggish, CPU usage is sparadically changing from 0% to 10% whith no applications running. Checked processes - all seem kosher.

Followed the oc3d 'remove hijack spyware virus guide' system declared clean.

An example of erratic CPU behaviour is playing mp3 in wmp (deleted itunes7) the cpu usage fluctuates from 20-50% wtf!?

I'm thinking the sound problem is related as the system lag started at the same time, around itunes7. Now itunes is gone and according to all software the system is clean im stumpted.

I thought maybe my amp/speakers had gone - watched a dvd, blasted cds etc through the stereo - sounds crystal. Oh, i use my stereo as my pc speakers, was all working fine until recently. Using the asus onboard sound.

Tried checking for updates for xp - auto update is on as ms update doesnt let mozilla browser check for updates.

I've removed and disabled as many non essential processess and programs to eliminate problems.

Should I post a hijack this log? Any ideas on what i should do? I really want to avoid reformatting and losing everything. CPU is very lightly overclocked on air cooling at 2.5ghz using ai suite until i get my w/c kit installed. CPU Volt on auto floats between 1.1360/1.2, 280 x 9... temps look fine, sisoft sandra light states vcore too high, cpu-z & ai suite show slight fluctuations on core speeds and volts while idling.

I have tried to include as much info as possible. I'm new to this if that is not obvious. If you need more to help let me know, or if another site/forum is more suited to this q point me in the right direction.

Thanks

 

[Dav0s]

got a sound card you can test?

does asus let you use different sockets for different outputs?

for example try putting your line out through your line in socket and swapping them around

if you wiggle the sound wire, does it go all fuzzy?

 

[Mr. Smith]

got a sound card you can test?

does asus let you use different sockets for different outputs?

for example try putting your line out through your line in socket and swapping them around

if you wiggle the sound wire, does it go all fuzzy?

I have tried all the sockets in the back, no joy. It used to work fine in the l/r speaker socket it is in now. I don't understand what has happened.

As annoying as the crackling is i'm more concerned about my system lag - i'm worried there is a serious problem going un-noticed that will lead to my cpu melting lol...

Do you think I have 2 seperate issues? Or are they related?

P.S the socket has a solid connection with no feedback when wiggling the jack - i don't think this is the problem... Checked connections at both ends, its a quality 24K gold plated audio cable and, the most confusing thing is the system functioned as is until recently. No hardware changes have been made...

 

[Ares210]

What motherboard and onboard audio do you have? Also, tried reinstalling drivers?

 

[BloomerzUK]

Upgrade to the newest iTunes.. there was problems with the last version.

 

[Mr. Smith]

I already had itunes 7.1 at the time of reporting this, the updater automatically installed the 'new fix' so after uninstalling itunes, audio drivers (btw - asus p5b wifi deluxe with latest audio drivers from asus downloads) reinstalling I still have this crackle.

My pc is not performing. Boot up takes FOREVER! Seriously, I grew a beard waiting for it to boot. I thought all my files were corrupt somehow so I played a CD through the PC to test the sound - crackled and popped etc.

When I reinstalled itunes 7.1 last night my pc nearly died! Playing an mp3 cpu usage was 50-80% - i looked at processes and it was itunes eating all the system idle resource.

I don't have a sound card to test the sound, however, as I stated, I having made no hardware changes the problem appeared from nowhere. I have eliminated the speakers as the root cause, itunes did not fix or break it - it does however rape my pc...

I restored my sytem clocks to standard last night. I'm running out of ideas...

I'm concerned about boot up tbh. Having tried all techniques to remove virus/worms/trogens nothing has shown up. My system has gone from silky smooth to S-L-O-W. What can I do? What would win32:trogen (something like that) do to my sysem? Installing FEAR, the key gen i was using, Avast popped up 'warning keygen contains traces of win32:trogen. installation aborted' I called my mate who gave me the disk - he installed on his pc no probs. He advised disable anti virus, install, reboot and scan. I did, all clean. Nothing started to happen until recently.

The pc doesnt want to boot, why? Forget about the sound prob for now as something more serious is afoot.

Oh, almost forgot, I had to re-register my version of XP last night after booting I was greeted with 'your hardware had drastically changed over the past 3days, please re-activate XP'

I look forward to your input and appreciate your help

 

[Raging]

back up your stuff and do a fresh install of windows.

 

[Rastalovich]

Oh, almost forgot, I had to re-register my version of XP last night after booting I was greeted with 'your hardware had drastically changed over the past 3days, please re-activate XP'

I look forward to your input and appreciate your help

This bit bothers me. (bother is my word for the day)

I do seem to remember reading somewhere on the m$ website that u would need to re-register u`r windo$e install if something like 3 things changed. They were something like motherboard/harddrive/cpu.

If u`r sound was playing up beforehand, it would be in the back of my mind - aslong as u r truely malware free, that something bios related is going on. IF IF u have an issue that has masqueraded itself into u`r cpu being defined as something else in the bios setup, this ~could~ result in windo$e asking u to re-register... very big IF.

On the otherhand, without u saying what u just said here, I would have thought along the lines that, ok u have uninstalled itunes, but has it left something behind ?

Tricky one, just a problem of crackly sounds is usually a high % of the time, windo$e thinking u`ve got a different sound device than u actually have. Whether it`s drivers or whatever. I`d be keen to know, and maybe Frag could advise coz I know he likes iTunes, whether or not it ever installs `things` pertaining to certain sound hardware if it thinks u have it. Like thinking u got eax, when u may not, and it`s assumption leads to installing stuff u don`t need or want.

 

[Mr. Smith]

I may have to just wipe the slate clean and reformat... I don't have anywhere to back up my files so I'd have to loose everything

Maybe a CMOS reset is worth a shot to reset the BIOS?

Well, I have to go - sparring tonight, perfect to vent my pc frustration. I'll check back on around 9pm after trying a thing or two.

 

[Rastalovich]

Just got an interesting edge/slant on this crackling problem.

Using an AMDx2 system w/1G, everything lovely.

Last 2 days I`ve been converting some of meh large gig sized sky+ recordings into something more convenient, divx6.

Now - my thing is I like to remove adverts, for this I use VirtualMod, a semi-open source editing util, nice package. I noticed after doing editing and saving the result all of a sudden my sound is sheet. Crackles all over the place, kinda like a background thing, almost as if u selected "Vintage AM-Radio" in an EAX menu.

Figured my conversions were screwed >.<

However, once reset everything is good as new.

System has a SBLive including a front Drive, installed fine, using codecs out of ACECodecPackPro, with Divx6 slapped over the top.

Crazy thing is I can do as many conversions as I like and they turn out fine, it`s just the playback.

Just wondered if it was of any relevence to the thread opener, I`m not concerned about it at all.

 

[Mr. Smith]

Cheers people.

I bought an x-fi card and stopped using the onboard sound - problem went away. Since then my mobo has died anyway... Was probably the source of all my problems...

Please close thread.