Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 08:31:42 +0800 From: Raymond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Music Playback on 100CT
>Looks as though my recollection of this problem was a lot worse than reality. > I've been out of town (away from the Libretto) for most of the summer, and >posted this question without rechecking the problem. While there are >occasional dropouts (sounds like a light scratch on a vinyl record), these >occur infrequently and not always in association with hard drive activity. It just occurs to me ... I have this EXACT same problem on my desktop computer (Athlon XP1600+, SB Live 5.1D, 512MB RAM, ATA RAID array, Intel Pro/100B NIC, Win2kSP2 ... as far as MP3 playing is concerned, speed ain't a problem for this thing) where during times of disk activity (and to a lesser extent hectic network activity) MP3 playback (or ANY audio playback for that matter) stutters slightly and does the scratchy record thing, even when CPU utilization is sitting at below 10% ... in my case though I've traced it to the fact that my sound card, network card and RAID controller are all on virtual software IRQs (the sound card and network card are both on IRQ16, the RAID controller on IRQ17) as a result of Win2k's bizarre IRQ steering algorithms. Unfortunately, in my case I can't do anything about it because the Win2k ACPI kernel doesn't let you assign IRQs yourself (to the extent that even if you go in the BIOS and change the IRQ settings round, Win2k will change them back and the slot-shuffle doesn't work either). Next time I reinstall (you can't switch kernels without reinstalling because the registry stuffs up) I'll be forcing Win2k to install the standard non-ACPI kernel (I don't use the power saving stuff anyway), I'm just putting up with it in the meantime (it really only gets annoying when I'm doing a file copy, everyday use is fine presumably because the sound card's on-board buffer smooths things over). Now I do realize that Win98 doesn't have software IRQs but perhaps a related issue may be at work in your case? Do you have any PCMCIA cards in your laptop which might be sharing an IRQ with the sound system? I can't remember on the libby (and it's not with me at the moment) but can you shift the sound card to a different IRQ in the BIOS? - Raymond --- /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\ | | "Does fuzzy logic tickle?" | | ___ | "My HDD has no reverse. How do I backup?" | | /__/ +-------------------------------------------| | / \ a y b o t | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | | Need help? Visit #Windows98 on DALNet! | | ICQ: 31756092 | Libretto IRC channel #Libretto on DALNet! | \~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/ ************************************************************** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives -------TO UNSUBSCRIBE------- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe --------TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST------ Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **************************************************************
