My audio is messed up. Why?

Beer Can · 06-03-2007, 04:20 PM

Okay, I've got a bit of a problem here. Yesterday, I bought a number of CDs, and after I imported them in iTunes and attempted to listen to them, the audio would get grainy and spotty (cutting out now and then) until it got to the point of complete unlistenability. I did a virus and spyware scan, nothing came up. My computer had been on for a week, so I tried restarting. It took forever to do so. It also took a long time to reboot. Again, I did spyware and virus scans, again, nothing. I updated to iTunes 7.2 (had been using 7.1.0, I think), rebooted, this did not solve the problem. Again, though, the computer took longer than normal to shut down and restart. I turned my computer off overnight, thinking maybe overuse had something to do with it. No such luck.

The computer is still functional (albeit a tad slow) with the exception of the audio. I've got finals this week, including a 1,500 word paper to write, so I hope this isn't anything too serious.

My friends have imported the same CDs, so I know it's nothing wrong with them. Webroot Spysweeper and Trend Micro's PC-Cillin Antivirus (both 2006 and fully updated) are my softwares to scan, and I haven't downloaded anything questionable, so I know it's not a virus/spyware problem. I've defragmented the hard drive, and there's plenty of space left on it...

Anyone have any ideas?

DeusExMachina · 06-03-2007, 04:43 PM

What kind of CD is it?
Is it only that CD?

If you think its a virus, try to take a snapshot of the processes in your computer under task manager. I'll take a look at it and see if I can be of any help.

Beer Can · 06-03-2007, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeusExMachina

What kind of CD is it?
Is it only that CD?

If you think its a virus, try to take a snapshot of the processes in your computer under task manager. I'll take a look at it and see if I can be of any help.

Not a virus. Scans have not shown viruses. I've said this. Also, nothing looks out of place on the task manager. But I'll put down a list of processes anyways. Give me a minute.

And we're talking audio CDs. I thought that was clear in that I tried importing them in iTunes?

And furthermore, again, it's not the CDs. It's just when I noticed this problem. My roommate has imported the same CDs without any sign of slowing down or audio problems.

While I appreciate you trying to help, I'd appreciate it more if you'd read what I put down.

EDIT: I suppose I should mention more explicitly that this sound garbling happens to all my audio, including the standard bleeps and blings of Windows XP. Also, while iTunes is not listed on the task manager processes, I've noticed that it sits around 150,000 KB on that list of memory usage. The extra process between the two columns is the mspaint.exe that I opened to work the screenshots with.

t('' ) · 06-03-2007, 05:42 PM

Apple users report serious iTunes 7 problems - vnunet.com

maybe?

WiLLiSTER · 06-03-2007, 05:44 PM

It's probably of no help but maybe try reinstalling your audio drivers? Maybe they became corrupted somehow.

DeusExMachina · 06-03-2007, 05:54 PM

Not all viruses can detected by even the state of the art virus scans. Some viruses will embed their code into a windows process such as explorer.exe, rundll32.exe, svchost.exe. Those are virtually impossible to fix.

If ALL your audio is affected, it COULD be a virus is causing latency in your computer resulting in erroneous data signals. Although I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a hardware problem, aka damaged sound card/speakers whatever. What is the CPU usage? And the Network usage?

Beer Can · 06-03-2007, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kikkoman

Apple users report serious iTunes 7 problems - vnunet.com

maybe?

Ye olde. The issues have been fixed with iTunes 7 updates. This was an issue with 7.0.0, but it was fixed with 7.0.1 and 7.0.2. Given that I was using 7.1.1, which worked fine until yesterday, I doubt that was an issue. To be safe, though, I updated to 7.2, which reportedly fixed a few bugs... but not my problem.

Also, interesting update... I checked youtube, and I noticed the problem is significantly decreased with the videos. I still get the clicking, but the audio at least continues to work, unlike iTunes which grinds to a halt.

Network usage is nil. CPU usage tends to run high when I turn on the computer, longer than it used to, but after a while it goes down, as demonstrated with the task manager screenshots. I strongly doubt it's a virus, as I had no activity that would bring one about for at least a few days prior to the problems, but who knows?

Right now, I'm thinking I should try reinstalling the audio drivers. That seems to be the most likely cause right now. But the question is: how do I go about reinstalling them without a major system overhaul? Again, finals are coming up, so I can't exactly afford to reinstall windows.

WiLLiSTER · 06-03-2007, 10:03 PM

Uninstalling your current drivers shouldn't make anything mess up. Your computer might beep instead of the normal sounds it makes, but aside from that, it should be fine. Then just go find the drivers for either your sound card or motherboard and install.

**helix eternal** · 06-03-2007, 10:15 PM

Sounds (pun lol) like your sound card might be going to pot. If a driver rollback/reinstall doesn't work, you might need to replace the sound card.

Edit: also this may sound stupid, but if you've had this computer for a while (like longer than 6 months or so), when was the last time you opened it up and blew out the dust? Dust builds up in a computer case really bad, and can cause the system to overheat, and that could be affecting your sound card directly from working.

Beer Can · 06-03-2007, 10:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by helix eternal

Sounds (pun lol) like your sound card might be going to pot. If a driver rollback/reinstall doesn't work, you might need to replace the sound card.

Edit: also this may sound stupid, but if you've had this computer for a while (like longer than 6 months or so), when was the last time you opened it up and blew out the dust? Dust builds up in a computer case really bad, and can cause the system to overheat, and that could be affecting your sound card directly from working.

Well, it's a laptop, so I can't exactly open it up... but I've blown out what I can. So definitely no problems there.

I'm working on the driver thing, but I left the driver CD at home, which means I'll have to wait a week for them. As for finding the drivers online... well, I'm not even sure which model sound card I've got. Problem is, my laptop is a Toshiba model sold only through Best Buy, and now it's gone out of circulation. I know the driver names, but apparently the easiest way to search is through the model of sound card.

So basically, yeah, I'm checking sound drivers, but it'll take some time for that. Good news is, I think that's the problem at hand. Just one question: would that result in a bit of slowdown/lag when the computer's starting up/shutting down?

**helix eternal** · 06-04-2007, 08:00 AM

It could, cause when the computer starts up BIOS checks the hardware to make sure it's working properly, and if the sound card isn't working properly it might take it longer to boot up.

Another thing, if you've done a lot of installing, reinstalling, upgrading, etc etc with a lot of programs, your registry can become cluttered up with useless junk, and that's one of the first things windows processes when it starts is the registry. In that case you could try finding a registry cleanup utility that finds outdated/unused entries and deletes them (but ALWAYS back up the registry before you do this because it could delete something you don't want it to)

Beer Can · 06-11-2007, 11:23 PM

UPDATE:

Okay, I got home, found the restore discs, uninstalled/reinstalled the audio driver.

Audio is still messed up, and computer is still running slow. Again, no viruses or spyware found, hard drive is defragmented, and I'm out of ideas.

I strongly doubt it's even a virus that hides itself, as suggested above. The symptoms have not worsened at all, just remained constant.

So are there any suggestions before I go talk to some professional tech support guys, or am I basically just SOL?

Empathy · 06-12-2007, 12:32 AM

try killing any processes you see in the Task Manager that run under the user "Owner" (unless its your virus scanner, dont kill that.) I see you are running 60 Processes, yuck.

Oh and you said you ripped a number of CDs? who knows maybe you got one of those bunk SONY Rootkit discs out there that totally wreck systems? Stab in the wind but I think they were forced to release a removal kit due to a class action suit. Maybe try finding that kit and running it as well?

thoralf · 06-12-2007, 06:47 AM

check if u got any driver unstilled first, if not. then check if wires are plug'd in. and then gert mediamonkey not itunes, medimonkey is much better too! u can use it weith ipod aswell, annd not only take all songs from itunes into the pod, but u can choose wich songs u wasnt into the pod, how nice?

Geschpooklichkeit · 06-12-2007, 09:58 AM

Two things, thoralf:

Make sure you aren't stating the obvious or repeating anything.
Thirty seconds to make your posts coherent and readable go a very long way not just here, but in the real world.