Okay, some new information... This one's a headscratcher.
The sputtering problem has not gone away. Originally I thought IE was the culprit, but now that I have been avoiding its use, I am still having the problem.
The reason I thought it must have been the APE files is that 98% of my library is APE and it just so happened that I only heard it during APE playback, but it affects MP3s as well. So, I can probably safely assume it will affect any audio file I play through MC.
The only thing that any of these occurances have in common is that I happen to be *typing* when it occurs. It never occurs unless I am typing. It only occurs with MC (not Winamp). And, I don't have to be typing inside MC, it can be in Excel, Outlook... whatever.
My keyboard is a Microsoft Internet Keyboard with *zero* multimedia functionality on it. It uses the standard PS/2 connector. I checked all through the hardware manager for any potential conflicts in memory or IRQ and couldn't find any.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Could it be the keyboard that's causing it, or is it more likely a BIOS problem? I have never heard of this happening before, and am quite astonished that a simple thing like typing can corrupt the audio in MC.
Any help is appreciated!
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Media Center Registered 10.0.113 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 2181 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 324 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1400 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.60 (1021) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-1999 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: N/A
Ripping / Drive Y: YAMAHA CRW-F1E Mode:ModeSecure Type:Auto Speed:Max
Drive Z: Mode:ModeSecure Type:Auto Speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive Y: YAMAHA CRW-F1E Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:44 MaxSpeed:44 BurnProof:Yes
Drive Z: Memorex DVD+/-RW Dual-X1 Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:5 MaxSpeed:5 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: No / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None