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[MrVegas]

I'm running MC10 on Windows XP with 256 Megs of RAM and Pentium 4 (not SUPER fast, but fairly fast).

When I use MC10 for simple song playback it never gets through a song without hiccuping.  What I mean is there are these random pauses, like for a fraction of a second, all through the playback.  It makes the listening experience intolerable.

Do I need to shut down every other running process in the background, like Norton antivirus, Spysweeper, AOL Instant Messenger?

[hit_ny]

I run MC 10 on a P3-700 with 256Mb RAM on XP SP2.

Not noticed much bumps, here's what i have.

- i defrag my drives on a regular basis.
- i use a utility called intel app accelerator that has made a big difference in terms of access times. Its only availble for certain chipsets.
- i use Direct sound, for playback as opposed to wave out. It uses less resources than wave out on XP, Sp2. When i was on W2k it was the opposite.
- i dont use visualizations at all cept for cover art. Mostly because my video card isnt supported for the spiffy 3-D stuff.
- i dont run much else on the comp cept for MC, its my media computer.

[JimH]

Try closing other programs to test, but you may need more memory.

Virus?  Spyware?

[MrVegas]

How do you use DirectSound instead of Wave out?  Is that a setting inside of XP or MC?

[hit_ny]

in MC

Play->Playback Options->Playback Options->Output (mode) choose Direct sound instead of the default Waveout from the pull down menu.

[Mastiff]

Also do you have more than one sound card on the computer? In my rather large collection of sound cards (I test a lot, and I use a lot, probably at least 15 sound cards in my computers around the house and in the car) there are some that simply didn't want to behave when there were two cards (active or inactive) on the same computer.

[JimH]

Thanks, Mastiff.  You reminded me that sometimes the motherboard's audio has to be turned off in the bios.

[Mastiff]

Actually I had one SoundBlaster Live! Value that didn't even care if the onboard card was deactivated. It played nicely in any computer without an onboard sound card, but had the stutter (normally every 15-20 minutes or so) in any computer (I have tried it in 5-6 different computers just for fun) with an onboard sound card, even if it was turned off in the BIOS!  ? In the end I gave it away...

[MrVegas]

Also do you have more than one sound card on the computer? In my rather large collection of sound cards (I test a lot, and I use a lot, probably at least 15 sound cards in my computers around the house and in the car) there are some that simply didn't want to behave when there were two cards (active or inactive) on the same computer.

You might have just hit on something.  Yes, I have an internal card and an external DMX 6Fire card.  How do I disable or turn off the internal card?

[Alex B]

You can usually disable it in your motherboard BIOS settings (before OS boot).

I have a DMX 6fire 24/96 and it works flawlessly with the CMI9739A audio circuit on my MSI MB. I can use all three modes (Wave Out, Direct Sound and ASIO) without problems. It is even possible to listen to Zone2 with the internal card at the same time. What is your motherboard and what drivers (maker, version) you have installed? Have you tried to change the settings in Terratec ControlPanel?

[MrVegas]

I have a Sony Vaio P4 machine (about 2 years old) .... don't know which motherboard - or - drivers.   

Can you help me with the DMX settings?

I'm rather stupid.

[Alex B]

OK. If you don't need the internal card you could first try to disable it. Check from the Sony manual how to access the BIOS if you don't know.

Then install the newest drivers from Terratec's website: http://supporten.terratec.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewsdownload&sid=107. You should uninstall the previous version first. (Windows Control Panel > Add or Remove programs > DMX 6fire Control Panel). The default settings should work with a P4.

It is possible that you have conflicting devices and disabling a device (the internal souncard in this case) may help.

[MrVegas]

Thanks for the tips.  I will look into these things and see what I can do.

[MrVegas]

Oh my God!

That did it!

I disabled the "Onboard AC97 Audio Controller" in the system BIOS and re-started the computer ..... and  .....

the playback is PERFECT ... no hiccups, stutters, its great!

Thanks everyone for all your help!

[Mastiff]

The Multi-Zone Tsar strikes again!  I mess around with so many configurations of different sound cards that I tend to find weird problems like that. Glad I could help! 

[GHammer]

The Multi-Zone Tsar strikes again!  I mess around with so many configurations of different sound cards that I tend to find weird problems like that. Glad I could help! 

Off to Weird & Wonderful with this then!