Why does music sometimes studder during output on my pc?

[packerjoe]

Can you tell me why my audio sometimes "stutters" during playback on my Compaq Presario pc?

Thanks,
Joe Adams

 

[flank21]

My computer is manufactured by _____ and is model number _____ running _____ operating system.

what type of audio is stuttering; all audio, music, games etc...?

 

[phyco126]

I have a laptop that stutters at the end of any song I play on my laptop (first time it plays only after each boot). I solved the problem by getting a faster hard drive. But it took 4 different 7200 RPM HDDs before finding one that worked. I have no idea why one worked when the others had the same specs (same speed, cache, just different brands). You're issue may be different though, so more info would be helpful.

 

[packerjoe]

My computer is manufactured by _____ and is model number _____ running _____ operating system.

what type of audio is stuttering; all audio, music, games etc...?

Dear flank 21,

Thanks for your interest in helping me. I am new to forums and so here goes:

Manuf'd by: Compaq Presario AMD Athlon XP Processor 2.08 GHz
Model #: SR1115CL
Operating System: Windows XP v2002 SP3
HD: 120 GB 7200rpm
Memory: 512 MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM

Types of audio stuttering: No games played; Some music; Internet audio-OFTEN!!!!

Also phyco126 lists a possible solution of getting a faster hard drive which sounds possible.

What is the useful life of a hard drive/pc? Is it common to hear all sorts of noises from my pc when it is processing?

Thanks.
packerjoe

 

[flank21]

packerjoe

It's very hard to say exactly what the life of a hard drive will be. For ex. I have a WD 200GB IDE hard drive that I purchased around ~2003 and its still running fine. I also have a WD 750GB SATA drive that I purchase around ~2007 and its starting to develop bad sectors.

The noise you are hearing from your computer is most likely from the hard drive and yes it is very common to hear noises from it when there is disk activity, especially from older IDE hard drives...they are quite noise lol.

Do you remember if this audio stuttering just recently starting occurring or has it been going on for some time?

In the mean time I would run a check disk on your hard drive to check the integrity of it. Open my computer, right click on your C drive and hit properties. Click the tools tab and then click the error checking button, check the following:
Automatically fix file system errors
Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors
and then click start, it should ask you if you want to schedule the scan the next time the computer starts, click yes and reboot. Let chkdsk run and note, it can take a while. Report back the results of chkdsk.

 

[zac14001]

Dear flank 21,

Thanks for your interest in helping me. I am new to forums and so here goes:

Manuf'd by: Compaq Presario AMD Athlon XP Processor 2.08 GHz
Model #: SR1115CL
Operating System: Windows XP v2002 SP3
HD: 120 GB 7200rpm
Memory: 512 MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM

Types of audio stuttering: No games played; Some music; Internet audio-OFTEN!!!!

Also phyco126 lists a possible solution of getting a faster hard drive which sounds possible.

What is the useful life of a hard drive/pc? Is it common to hear all sorts of noises from my pc when it is processing?

Thanks.
packerjoe

Probably because THAT COMPUTER IS SO OLD, IT CAN'T EVEN START UP MINECRAFT, LET ALONE READ MUSIC OFF OF YOUR HARD DRIVE.
Sorry but i had to say that. BRO, JUST GET A NEW PC.. THAT'S WHAT I'M DOING.

Just a question.. is your computer case white with a turbo button? :lol:

 

[phyco126]

No reason it can't play music soundly. My old 96 MB RAM 450 MHz CPU PC can play modern music with no hick-ups.

I would also check what your resources are at in terms of use. If you are maxing out your RAM doing basic things (and with 512 MB of RAM, that's not hard) then it wouldn't surprise me that you'll have performance issues with music skipping.

Also run an antivirus, there may be viruses as well.

Also, while I disagree with zac14001 on whether or not it can play music, I do agree that it may be time to get a new laptop/computer. Believe me, even a $300 laptop will run circles around it.

 

[zac14001]

No reason it can't play music soundly. My old 96 MB RAM 450 MHz CPU PC can play modern music with no hick-ups.

I would also check what your resources are at in terms of use. If you are maxing out your RAM doing basic things (and with 512 MB of RAM, that's not hard) then it wouldn't surprise me that you'll have performance issues with music skipping.

Also run an antivirus, there may be viruses as well.

Also, while I disagree with zac14001 on whether or not it can play music, I do agree that it may be time to get a new laptop/computer. Believe me, even a $300 laptop will run circles around it.

dude, it seems like its just plain old. the cpu is probably fried from all the usage. if anything, he should put new thermal paste on it and take more care of it because thats most likely the case. its common sense though, the pc is probably older than me! and i'm 15..

 

[phyco126]

There is no "seems" about it, the computer IS old. But the CPU is not fried from usage - if it was then it wouldn't even boot up. Hardware doesn't exactly slow down due to age. Software might, there was research done some years ago that showed that the older the OS installation is, the slower and more degraded it became to the point of "death" (AKA, needing to reinstall the OS).

Now new thermal paste isn't necessary so long as his computer isn't over heating. It might be, which can cause massive slow downs and may make the music stutter.

Also, that computer isn't even as old as you are. Not far off... but still.

And I wouldn't say its common sense. Perhaps he doesn't have the money to get a new PC? Maybe music was just now starting to do this. If it worked before, why bother getting something new? Just fix the old and keep on chugging.