This rehashes a topic that was discussed upthread in 17.0.31. I poked around and didn't see anything more recent, so am reopening it.
I upgraded to 17 from 16. I seldom had this issue before the upgrade - it's much more frequent now.
The setup is straightforward: The upstairs PC is the server, with music both on the C and a large number of attached external drives. Server particulars are as follows:
Microsoft Windows Vista 6.0 Service Pack 2 (Build 6002)
Intel Core 2 2665 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 4194 MB
I run an 802.11n wifi system, and the downstairs PC/client connects to the music library through the server. Signal strength is very good at the location. (The downstairs unit then connects to my audio system through an external DAC, but I don't think this beard on the problem.)
The great majority of my files are FLAC and APE, and I've elected conversion where necessary. I have prebuffering set at 6 seconds.
There are times the client plays flawlessly. Other times, it will play 60-90 seconds, burp, and then shift to the next file in the playlist. This repeats itself continuously. I can't purge it by closing and reopening MC or even rebooting the client.
Oddly, I use the server in my office, over the public access wifi, and it plays seamlessly even though the office client has far less horsepower. I can't recall more than 1-2 incidents over many months. And I seldom had this problem with 16.
Any help would be appreciated. I'm getting tired of jumping up to fiddle with the client. Thanks.