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On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 02:10:31 -0700 (PDT), witan <...@gmail.com
On Jul 3, 4:58 am, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
I suggest you should check whether your harddrive had reverted to PIO
from DMA: it happened to my computer. I found a working solution at
http://winhlp.com/node/10 It involved downloading and running a VB
script file, resetdma.vbs from http://winhlp.com/tools/resetdma.vbs .
I said "working solution" because of my suspicion that the problem may
be actually connected with some mechanical defect or deficiency in the
hard disk, causing the disk to spin-up too slowly. Microsoft "support"
web page http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472 says "IDE ATA and
ATAPI disks use PIO mode after multiple time-out or CRC errors
occur" ...etc. However, the solution recommended in the Microsoft page
did not work for me.
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On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:57:21 -0400, Paul <...@needed.com
Your Ethernet card is a RealTek 8139, and likely has more overhead
than a normal card. Still, if I had to choose Ethernet or USB for
a network connection, I'd choose the Ethernet. And if there is
any protocol conversion required, between the broadband modem, and
the computer, I'd buy a router that can handle the conversion
automatically, so the computer is totally oblivious to how it
is getting its network connection. (My router handles the PPPOE
that comes from the ADSL modem, so my computer doesn't have to
do it.)
For a toy to play with, you could try this.
http://www.thesycon.de/dpclat/dpclat.pdf
http://www.thesycon.de/dpclat/dpclat.exe
They also mention another tool called RATT from Microsoft here.
http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=584782&page=0&view=c ollapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1
But really, you have to be methodical, and keep track of the stuff
you've been messing with, to hope to narrow the source of the problem
down.
On older computers, a BIOS setting called "Delayed Transaction" was
one fix for sound problems. Adjusting PCI Latency (which affects
how long any PCI device stays on the bus), was another tweak. But
in the current day, it seems software is doing a lot of the
messing up, and fixing it is a lot harder.
Paul
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On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:50:19 -0400, Paul <...@needed.com
Hmmm. I tried running dpclat.exe, and my antivirus software got
tied up in knots. Tried to do a shutdown and the computer wouldn't
shut down. Had to do a reset. Tried it a second time, and this time,
the AV rejected the driver the program was trying to install. So
when you go to use that tool, you may run into a bit of trouble.
I had a similar experience with a framerate measurement tool for
gaming. Program tried to add something into a bunch of games,
and the AV software went nuts. So depending on how aggressive
your AV software is, you may not get it to run.
Paul
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On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 02:51:12 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Paul" <...@needed.com
How did you know that?
Thats right, onboard.
I will try to change back to USB anyway to eliminate that.
Trouble is it take a good while to boot now.
Gonna try uninstalling ubuntu.
But I will try sound in ubuntu first and see if it has the same problem.
Should be a good test if it uses different software for sound.
I think it will, but I will check on their forum, I am new to it.
Maybe sabotaged windows?
Thnaks for the help.
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On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:13:50 -0400, Paul <...@needed.com
I think you mentioned it in another post.
By the way, have you looked in Task Manager (control-alt-delete),
to see if any software is running at 100%. Sometimes, something
gets stuck in a loop, and then there aren't a lot of cycles
left to run the sound tool.
Paul
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On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 03:26:38 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Paul" <...@needed.com
Yes I can't see anything odd, except that often when the 'green bar' is 100%
ish
of often it shows it at about 66% idle or something like that, its bit
weird.
Oh and one other thing, you know the connection icon in the task bar,
it is flashing on light blue, like it did when I had a local area connection
set up.
I don't think it should, it is like I have made the internet my local area
network
or something. But I don't think it is that, I have disabled sharing.
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On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:55:02 -0700 (PDT), half_pint <...@yahoo.com
On 3 Jul, 03:13, Paul <...@needed.com
Hi Paul!! This is Lord Turkey Cough under his very old name :O)
I had to use this because I am using ubuntu and I don't have my
Outlook express to login as the Turkey lol.
Anyway I can tell you that sound plays fine in Ubuntu a little hard to
test
because I don't have any appilcations to load the CPU, just surfing
websites to put a load on the CPU, but the sound is perfect even with
'heavy surfing', also I can play several youtube videos at once and
the sound is mixed perfectly.
And the mouse pointer drag has gone, infact it seems very very fast!!
I am beginning to like ubuntu now!!!!!!!!!
So I guess that elimanates all hardware and comms issues??
Anyway ubuntu is pretty dammed good, certaintly compared to to my now
screwed up windows!! (should not say that here though!!).
I will try a few things back on XP, virus scans and defragging
(perhaps).
Narrow it down a bit anyway I guess!!
I am a bit lost with out windows, this is all so new to me.
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On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 01:12:45 -0700 (PDT), half_pint <...@yahoo.com
On 3 Jul, 03:55, half_pint <...@yahoo.com
I do have a theory that Ubuntu screwed up windows in a
'operating system war'?
Sounds plausible?
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On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 04:30:33 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"half_pint" <...@34g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
OK back on as Turkey, I will run a virus scan.
Took almost 10 mins to boot up. (in XP) ubuntu 2 mins.
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On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:40:29 -0400, Paul <...@needed.com
Some of my boot time, is all the screwing around the AV does.
My system would boot a bit faster, if it didn't have an antivirus
program scanning stuff at startup.
It is going to be tough to figure out what is upsetting the audio.
Start by looking at the Task Manager, because there may be an
obvious thing you added recently, and seeing the software
names listed, might remind you of what was added.
Another thing that can mess up the audio, is if the hard drive
is operating in polled mode, instead of in "DMA if available"
mode. In polled mode, the processor moves the data from the
disk to system memory, and that can be quite a bit slower.
And add enough latency, to make audio skip. A disk can
switch to polled mode, if Windows detects too many errors
coming from the disk.
Paul
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On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 15:55:20 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Paul" <...@needed.com
So how do I tell which mode it is in?
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On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 16:32:21 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Paul" <...@needed.com
Thanks I will have a loot at that.
I have a lot of things to 'look at'
However it seems to me in a way that it is not caching properly, for
example if I play a song it should all be cached in memory when I go back
the
start of it, but there are still stutters.
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On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 16:24:53 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Paul" <...@needed.com
I have removed my anti virus for the time being.
It takes long enouth to boot up as it is.
I also removed one other programs I updated.
One thing I have not removed yet is Ubuntu, but that is
on another drive and is not booted up (dual boot system).
I may have to try removing that too.
On the other hand I might be better off switching to Ubuntu altogeather.
If I can't sort this out I may have to anyway.
Incidently I can gets stuttering on sound at with the CPU
usage graph well below 40%, maybe its an average and there
are hidden peaks? (But it seems fine on ubuntu)
Also I have 1.25 gig ram, 640meg of ram is available, there should not
be much disk IO.
Anyway I will try various things, I have done a viru scan and it found some
stuff but it looked harmless and its all removed and no real difference.
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On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:57:16 -0400, Paul <...@needed.com
You could also reinstall Windows, if you're interested
in fixing it, without understanding what caused it.
Sometimes that is the lesser evil, if you don't have
any more time to waste on it.
If the CPU is running 40% and music stutters, if
you look in Task Manager, do you see any individual
task "peaking" at the time. I've had cases where
someone will post a problem like yours, and they
see a task run for a fraction of a second, and
then disappear from the Task Manager. Look more
carefully at the Task List, and correlate the
skip or stutter of the audio, with whatever new
task shows up or is using cycles.
Paul
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On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 17:33:46 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Paul" <...@needed.com
There don't seem to be anything unusual, I am quite familiar with
what it usually looks like. I even killed off a few things.
I will try uninstlling ubuntu now.
This is my boot.ini:-
===============
[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
c:\wubildr.mbr="Ubuntu"
====================
Incidently Ubuntu is on drive f: not c:
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On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:37:21 +0100, Baron <...@linuxmaniac.nospam.net
Ubunto won't make any difference ! Its not running inside windows !
--
Best Regards:
Baron.
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On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 17:39:06 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Baron" <...@registered.motzarella.org...
Yes but who knows what it did during the instalation?
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On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 18:21:03 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Paul" <...@needed.com
Just an update, the sound is definately affected by disk IO,
songs sound worst at the start and then settle down, once the
file is loaded apparently. Also for example opening this news
group caused stuttering which stopped when it was opened.
The CPU did not seem high at those times, it seemed 'disk bound'.
Or at least the IO is screwed, it takes about 10 minutes to boot up
and open a web browser.
Maybe the disk hs problems?
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On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 19:40:20 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Paul" <...@needed.com
My system came with winidows pre-installed, so I have
no windows disk as such. However it does have a recovery
partition on the disk, and at start up there is some sort of
option to enter 'recovery or roll back' or something like that,
I can't remember the exact wording.
I am not sure what this does.
I also burnt a recover disk a while back, over a year.
I am not sure what is involved in this, I guess it just restores windows
and its drivers back to an older state?
What state is that? Last boot up? I would need to go back several
days or more, would that be possible?
I guess I will have to try that at some stage anyway.
I am also woondering if the disk is 'getting faulty'?
I will have a go at running benchmarks on that, but last time
I tried it just kind of hung for over 10 minutes and did not appear to
be doing anything, I killed it offf as I needed he comp,
Will try again later.
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On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:56:26 -0400, Paul <...@needed.com
The recovery partition will "blow away" the C: drive. It
doesn't do something like a repair install, and instead
just replaces the whole thing. You'd lose your data files
if you did that (so back them up, if you're going to try it).
You can download a disk diagnostic, from the web site of the
manufacturer who made the disk. If the disk is screwed, you'll
get a diagnostic code which basically tells you the drive is
bad.
Another thing to check, is the SMART statistics. But I don't
know how to read them, so even if you posted the SMART
values from the drive, I couldn't make sense of them.
If you buy a new disk, again, the web site of the disk manufacturer,
will have a tool for moving the data from the old drive, to the
new hard drive. I don't know if the recovery partition is
handled properly by such utilities or not.
If the HDTune benchmark won't run, it probably means there is a
bad spot in the drive somewhere. A surface scan looking for errors,
could well run into the same kind of trouble.
One way or another, you need to backup your data, just in case.
A new drive is a good place to try it.
Paul
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On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 02:50:56 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Paul" <...@needed.com
OK I have a good drive F: it is 250 gig. So the (c:) 80 gig drive will
easilly fit on it.
What I would like to do is copy C: onto F: so that I can boot from F:
That kills two birds with one stone as F: was recently defragged.
The C: drive is actually partitioned into C: and D: (the recovery
partition).
C: and F: are both NTFS formatted. D: is FAT32.
Can I copy C: to F: so that F: is bootable?
Note ther is some other data I wish to keep which is already on F:
so I don't want to overwrite that.
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On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:26:48 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Paul" <...@needed.com
Thanks!!!
That sorted it out (eventually), should havel ooked at it earlier but I had
so many ideas going through my mind, I though that probably won't
work at the time.
It was whilst I was backing up my data I realised it was going to take
forever at the pace it was doing it, so I though I would give it a shot.
I kind of realised that the kind of thrashing the disk was taking whilst
backing up meant it must be in pretty good shape, so it was probably
something
else.
The disk I/O thing made sense, I don't understand it all but it was clear
that
disk access was part of the problem somehow.
I had to install SP3 wich took forever, then that didn't work, but there was
a work around
thing which required loads of rebbots.
Anyway it seems to be sorted now so many many thanks for your help.
I wish I could say the same thing to microsoft however.
I blame them 100% for the trouble they have given me.
What I think of them is not printable here.
Anyway I guess I backed up some of my data, ableit at a painfully slow pace.
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On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:28:24 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Lord Turkey Cough" <...@newsfe17.ams2...
Many thanks to Paul for sorting this out for me. (see my previouly dated
post in thread).
No thanks to Microsoft for causing the mess in the first place.
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On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 01:22:44 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Lord Turkey Cough" <...@newsfe17.ams2...
Ah Ha I might be getting somewhere, I was running SiSoft Sandra to bench
mark my drivers, the second drive tested in about 5 mins, reasonable
results.
HOwever the first driver, the one with XP on was running for 15mins and then
came up with a mesage the driver is too fragmented or something like that,
and
to defrag.
I will have to do that. When I have time.
I am also worried about the drives 'health' I am not sure if I can hear it
'ticking'.
Anyway I need the computer now so I can't defrag yet.
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On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 02:16:18 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Lord Turkey Cough" <...@newsfe17.ams2...
Hmm... I just noticed my page file is on the C: drive.
I used to have it on a seperate drive F: but before I installed ubuntu to
it. I put it back on C: which needs defragging.
Anyway it's back on F: now (seems quiter, maybe cos there is no fragnmented
swap file).
I set C: to no swopfile, and put one on F: however I am not sure if c:
will use the one on f: or manage without. I have 1.25 gig of ram, thats a
lot
for my usage, it should not need the swopfile anyway.
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On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:00:55 -0400, Paul <...@needed.com
Defragmentation should only be done on a healthy disk. It involves
moving a lot of data around, which increases the odds of damaging
something or losing files. You'd want to surface scan the disk
first, and see if it is clean. Based on what you've indicated
so far, I would not defrag it.
The next time you try the test, write down exactly what the error
message was. It might be complaining about errors, or the length
of time it is taking the disk to respond.
I'm thinking backups are the way to go right now, before you lose
something.
Paul
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On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 02:42:24 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Paul" <...@needed.com
I was thinking similar, but I think that means too over night runs
unless I can schedule one after the other.
My comp wil lbe pretty unusable with them going on in the back ground.
(In it's current condition).
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On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 08:57:13 +0800, "Onsokumaru" <...@ninja.village.jp
"Lord Turkey Cough" <...@newsfe17.ams2...
You can defrag and still use the computer.
You might try running chkdsk to see if there are any bad sectors.
Get HD Tune, look at health tab and run a scan, or get SpeedFan and click
SMART, select drive and click perform in depth analysis. This will give you
some info on what the data means and what is important.
You could have a drive developing bad sectors, or you have picked up some
malware, though usually malware can be spotted under running processes in
task mamager.
If you suspect the drive is sick, back up you data. Better would be to make
a disk image so you can just replace the HDD and restore the image and get
back to where you were quickly.
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On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 02:36:56 +0100, "Lord Turkey Cough" <...@invalid.com
"Onsokumaru" <...@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
On win98 it would say data changed restarting.....
Yes where wiould that be error checking in disk management properties tools?
Will have a look.
Yes I was worried myself.
I have 109gig free in F: the drive is only 80gig so I can fit the lot on.
Will take a while though. It took an age to copy accross 700meg, a CD worth.
There is definately something wrong.Should I defrag or back up first?
I think I will defrag over night I don't think my PC will be usable with any
major
operations going on. Eeven copying that 700 meg screwed up my online poker
game
somewhat, made me miss my turn sometimes!!
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On Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:35:41 +0100, Baron <...@linuxmaniac.nospam.net
Lord Turkey Cough Inscribed thus:
If you are using CC data or Internet banking, I would back any data I
didn't want to loose and then Nuke & Pave !
You have no idea what may be hiding in the dark nooks an crannies of you
machine.
--
Best Reagrds:
Baron.
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