audio and video is degraded

[cuppajava]

When I playback either audio or video using any medium, WMP,Realplayer,
Quicktime, the audio and video are degraded. Its like the file is slowly
grinding down and speeding up. At points, it sounds normal yet slower than it
should. Even the startup jingle for Windows sounds gravelly.
Please help.

Thank You

 

[Leonard Grey]

Try this:

Open Task Manager and park it in a corner of your monitor. Select the
Processes tab and display the process in decreasing order of CPU usage.
When you experience the problem, look over to Task Manager and notice
with processes are occupying most of the CPU.

My guess is that there are CPU-intensive applications running in the
background - either intentionally or because your computer is infected.

 

[cuppajava]

Thanks for the reply.
The task manager indicates system idle process using 99% or so when the
problem occurs. Just about all other processes were at 0% or so. ???
This audio degradation occurs even when I listen to an internet radio like
Launchcast or Radioio.

 

[Leonard Grey]

If you're very certain that nothing else is running in the background
when you experience the problem I would investigate the following:

1- Speakers not plugged in or blown?
2- ISP throttling your downloads?
3- Undetected malware.

 

[cuppajava]

Thanks again

I use headphones and speakers and am pretty sure that it's not the wiring or
connections.
This would be the first time in 3 years that Comcast has interferred with my
downloads. The problem occurs even when I play commercial CDs.

Do you think I might need to run chkdsk ?

 

[Leonard Grey]

Running chkdsk won't hurt but it's very unlikely that a problem with
your hard disk is causing your trouble.

You cannot compare what Comcast did three years ago with what Comcast is
doing today.

My last idea: Your sound card is damaged or your sound card driver needs
to be reinstalled. Good luck.