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[jojo1967]

I have a system I'm setting up for dedicated media playing, namely music.  I had a E-machine 566 i2 and got ahold of an 800 MHZ nicely quiet system with fairly modern items like USB 2.0, SATA drive capability, and TV Out, Spdif etc (it's a ASUS Terminator C3 which seems to perform ok with Windows XP with the 512 MB of RAM, however music playback has been terrible   The e-machine actually did it better.  I'm considering stepping it to Win 98 SE and seeing what happens.  any thoughts on this?  I have Both XP pro and home, along with win 2000 windows 98 SE, and (ugh!) ME <<< Won't use that one!  Which one might be my best bet? 

I also have some flavors of Linux, but not sure I want to deal with a linux box right now.  Not to mention that JR Media isn't in Native Linux and not sure of the whine status etc.  (been far too long since I played with Linux at a production level. )  So, what do you guys/gals think ?  what's my best option here ?

[Alex B]

Usually Win 98SE is quite unstable with newer devices.

however music playback has been terrible

What you mean by this? Have you tried various output settings in MC? I have succesfully used a 400 MHz PII with W2k Pro for music playback.

You could try to tweak either XP Home or W2k Pro to run better with your hardware. www.BlackViper.com had some excellent information for that, but the site seems to be down. Fortunately an archived copy (text only) can be found here: http://web.archive.org/web/20041123023608/www.blackviper.com/index.html.

[jojo1967]

You know, I didn't even think of that issue.  Although all of my hardware/software for this machine is 98SE compliant, and runs on all windows.....

I'm mainly concerned with CPU time.  XP Pro was using 100 % to play music which didn't seem right since the 566 handled it quite well.

[JimH]

When you say the music sounds terrible, what do you mean?  Skips, pops, etc?  What do you hear?

Make sure you don't have an onboard sound chip and a sound card both enabled.  Disable in the BIOS if necessary.

Another sound card might be worth a try.

XP isn't the problem.  100% CPU could be a visualization problem or similar.  Third party plugins?

[jojo1967]

It's looping, and skipping.  I've tried increasing the buffers etc.  The odd thing is when I play WMA's it's worse than MP3.  really, the music is stoping playback because of the CPU usage.  It's worse with WMPlayer so I'm really stumped here, and grasping straws.  I've tried other sound cards, with the same results.  Both USB and PCI so I'm really stumped.

I'll admit I don't have a fancy sound card, one of the cheapie cmedia 6 channel cards I got at geeks.com for under $10 each, or an USB soundwave Pro 5.1 (SIIG)  I want a new card, and am looking at the creative series but have to wait (Birthday's coming )

The thing that's really getting me with this system, it performs very well, running XP until I try to play music. 

[JimH]

Sounds like the CPU usage is the problem.

Take a careful look at what else is running in the task manager.

If you've tried several sound cards it's probably not that.

It WMP also has the problem, then it's probably below that somewhere.  Sound card driver, for example.

Did you try switching MC playback between WAV Out and Direct Sound?

What about the onboard sound?  Is it disabled in the BIOS?

[jojo1967]

Sounds like the CPU usage is the problem.

Take a careful look at what else is running in the task manager.

If you've tried several sound cards it's probably not that.

It WMP also has the problem, then it's probably below that somewhere.  Sound card driver, for example.

Did you try switching MC playback between WAV Out and Direct Sound?

What about the onboard sound?  Is it disabled in the BIOS?

Yes, CPU usage is the problem, and the answer to all is, YES, I've tried all of those, to no avail.  The sound card drivers are suspect here, but more for some reason Windows kept turning off the codec (Windows Media Audio) which is rather suspicious. 

Perhaps I just go the famous bad install of Windows, but I've even attempted to re-install that to no luck, but then I did it to the same directory without a format of the HDD on the new machine.  I really didn't want to go through the headache, but then I forgot I couldn't just pull the HDD from one machine to another for the upgrade under XP

I've made sure I've used the latest drivers I could find for this thing, and ASUS tells me the machine has MMX in the CPU.

[JimH]

Is the machine on the Internet?  I wonder if it's something goofy like Windows trying to phone home.

Disabled WMA playback?  For unprotected WMA?

Try disconnecting your CD drives.  Master/slave problems?

[jojo1967]

Checked that.... what I was seeing was a "System" process started by system, that takes the remaining CPU.  when I was playing music Media Center was around 35-50 % usage, should be fine I figured....... then bouncing around with the remaining CPU was that system process.  YEs, it's connected to my network, though I don't usually use the Media server to surf, except to update softare. 

So, any more ideas ?

Oh, and the only things that were running, Girder, Media Center, the device control for streamzap remote, and the X10 control to make my remotes work, along with the communication software with my UPS.  That's it, nothing more.  I'll add that the Emachine did that all great, with only minor slow downs because it is a 566 Celeron.  Andn it was running XP Proo as well, witout any of the problems mentioned here.

I'm thinking the install of Windows was bad from the start and something corrupted ?  I'm in process of formatting the drive on this board, with the memory configured and everything put together now.

I've even swapped the DDR Ram on this machine, still not fixed

I'll also add, the Emachine had 256 MB PC 100, This setup has 512 MB DDR PC2100 (256 x 2) (same company, lot number etc.)

[JimH]

Did you try unplugging the CD drives?

Uninstall Girder to test.  Also the streamzap and X10 software.

[jojo1967]

I tried that already, didn't help still had the "System" process taking the remainder of CPU. 

I'd forgotten just how fun trying to network 98 was   works great on the internal network but can't get out to update windows ..... <grr!>  I've really gotten spoiled with XP and not working with 98 for so long LOL

[JimH]

This is starting to feel like the Monty Python sketch where John Cleese has a cheese shop but no cheese.  "Any Stilton?"  "Nope."  "Any Gruyere?"   "No, but we have a lovely selection of cheeses."

How about PIO mode on the drives. 

http://www.tweakxp.com/article37049.aspx

[KingSparta]

neet, neet

[jojo1967]

This is starting to feel like the Monty Python sketch where John Cleese has a cheese shop but no cheese.  "Any Stilton?"  "Nope."  "Any Gruyere?"   "No, but we have a lovely selection of cheeses."

How about PIO mode on the drives. 

http://www.tweakxp.com/article37049.aspx

LOL !!!! thanks, I needed a laugh !  OMG this is just not going the way it's supsed to at all ?!  Ok, Windows 98 SE doesn't want to get to much of the internet, but works great on internal network... except it won't see all of my computer's shares ??!  WTF !  anyway, I know it's just my rusty brain trying to remember this, but DAMN!  Major DNS issues and it just won't do it.... Dare I try ME ?..... Last I remember that OS had trouble and then some.  On the good news.... the sound sounds great in win98 LOL......

[jojo1967]

How about Linspire (formerly Lindows)  anybody have experience with that one?  I've always wanted to play with it, but never did.  I've also got Red-Hat, phat Linux, Corel Linux and a few others. Any ideas on any of them?  I'm pretty sure that wine never really came to full windows compatability so not sure I want to even bother there.

[JimH]

"I'm afraid we have no Linspire today, sir."

http://www.phespirit.info/montypython/cheese_shop.htm

[jojo1967]

"I'm afraid we have no Linspire today, sir."

http://www.phespirit.info/montypython/cheese_shop.htm

"please sir, May I have som.... more?"  quoting Oliver ! 

going on with the cheese store, "spam spam wonderful spam !"

It's good to laugh at this interesting system..... I will say the sound is quite nice, even utilizes the full capabilites of the onboard sound card, not to mention it's actually putting out better output in 98/ME setup.  I'm installing ME right now, might regret it, but hey there is always fdisk and format again.  The CPU is running the way it's suposed to though... perhaps a good thing. <shrugg>

[ama_mmmc]

I could not tell from all this but have you tried Win2k.  I have a Pentium III running that with 3?? ram, and the latest version of MC11 and all works well.  Maybe you should try that.  Unless you have.  Otherwise I am of no help

[jojo1967]

thanks for the advice, I settled on ME, it seemed that was the best for this particular system and equipment..... For some reason this CPU doesn't like to multi-task like it should, and network activity takes way too much on it. 

I'm finally seeming to run solid without too many breaks, and I'm doing updates, copying my music back to it, and of course playing music.  Think it will stay here for a while, but ME ? who would have thought ?  oh well, if it runs solid with good sound output I'm happy.

[hit_ny]

I'd have picked XP pro or failing that W2K. You know an OS that actually has proper multi-tasking and can stay up a heck of a lot longer than the previous versions. I run MC on a P3 Celery with 256Mb. Works fine, i dont use any vizzies etc just cover-art and playback. If you have an intel chipset, you might want to lookup something caled Intel App accelerator, it made a big difference to general system response.

ME is not worth the effort unless you like to do system reinstalls on a regular basis.

[stefansmith]

I have a PIII machine with similar specs, and find MC works fine with XP -- even with a library of 1,100 CDs encoded as APE and displayed as album thumnails.

I find XP works faster than Win98se, ME and 2K, but only with some tweaks:
There are some good tweak guides on the net about disabling certain services and processes that you don't need.
I've disabled:
-themes
-screen savers
-help
-indexing
-error reporting
and so on.
Another thing I discovered is that leaving the PC connected to internet via a network card during the install process leaves me with an install that is very slow. I did a recent clean install in this order:

- WinXP with SP1
- tweak services
- install mobo/Vga drivers
- Install JR media center
- install other apps (open office, Pshop etc)
- install SP2
- Avast! free anti-virus
- anti-spyware (spybot, spywareguard/blaster, adware)
only then do I connect to internet and do windows update.

Another point is that try to avoid Norton security software on slower machines -- I find these to be real resource hogs. I like Avast! for anti-virus, the freeware anti-spy stuff mentioned above and SP2 firewall. Since using that combination I have not had a single problem.

[JimH]

... network activity takes way too much on it. 

Did you try pulling the network card out?

[jojo1967]

to be honest, any win 9x wasn't my choice..... The thing that gets me on this was the Emachine performed better with XP Pro on it, and half the RAM. ?  I really just don't get it, unless there is something bad on the motherboard and it flat doesn't like Win XP variety.... The system itself performed very well with XP Pro on it until I tried playing music.  To make it more complicated at one point it was playing MP3's ok but wma's forget.  It could have been a bad install of XP, though I re-did it a couple of times with the same results.

I didn't think to turn the NIC off, since I planned on it being network accesssable I wanted that to be there as well.  All components are on the motherboard.

Now add one more thing of complexity, the sound card actually sounds better under win 9x than in XP ?

Thanks for all the input, good to have other ideas on an issue like this.

[marko]

did you check the motherboard manufacturer's website (or the eMachines site) for updated, XP compatible audio drivers for your onboard sound?

If you're not sure what MoBo you have, google for Belarc Advisor which is a freeware app that may be able to help.