Bad Music Playback in WMP 10

[Guest]

I recently had to reformat and obviously update everything. Since I did that,
I have had really bad problems with WMP 10 playing music. The sound is very
scrathy and distorted whenever I play music that I have either saved to my
HDD or from playing a CD. However, DVD's play and sound perfect? If I go onto
a website where there is music or sounds, it is perfect quality. Windows
systems shutdown sound is perfect but Windows system start sound is, again,
scratchy and distorted. I have tried re-installing the drivers etc, many
times but to no avail. There are no update drivers so that is not an option
either. I have a feeling that something went wrong when I was doing the
Windows update with WMP 10 after the reformat and update but what, I don't
know? The sound card is a C-Media CM-18738/3DX (cheap I know but it suits me)
but I don't think that the sound card is the problem here? Maybe I have to
remove WMP 10 and reinstall it again if that's possible? Many thanks in
advance.

 

[Guest]

Not sure if I can help, but maybe I could help troubleshoot.
Your DVD probably has a direct connect to your sound card via a small
Audio cable.
Your CD drive and HDD are processing through the IDE Cable to the Mother
board to the Sound Card. You may start by going to Volumn, click on advanced
and see where the levels are. Check your settings for the input etc, Are
your speakers amplified and if so do you have them plugged into the Headphone
jack (amplified output) or the Aux Output of your soundcard. They should be
plugged into the Aux Output of the card.
Try it.

 

[Guest]

Forgot to say that all plugs and sockets for speakers are OK. Green in green
and black in black (Creative Inspire 4.1). Cheers!

 

[Guest]

Hi and thanks for the advice. I checked everything that you suggested and
even took the volume levels down quite a bit but nothing positive happened.
Funny that you mentioned a small audio lead attached to the CD/DVD rewriter?
There is a small lead on the sound card but for some unknown reason, both
ends are plugged into the two sockets that sit sid-by-side on the card? It's
been like that for ages and not being a computer 'teckie', I thought nothing
of it? Should one of the ends of that audio lead go into the rewriter then
and if so, which socket does the other one stay in on the sound card? Sound
was OK even with the small audio lead as it is now until recently (last
week)? God! I wish I knew more about computers! Thanks again.

 

[Guest]

The two connectors on your card are TWO Audio Inputs, So you could hvae a
DVD plug into one and the CD into the other. As it is looped currently, an
Input is connected to an input.. No Harm. It WOULD be a problem if it was an
Output (carrying voltage) hooked to an Output.
You checked all of the Source inputs on the Mixer of the feature of the
soundcard?
Go to WMM10 and check the player Options. I would suggest NOT have
Digitial selected and see what happens. (I do not have MM 10 where I work and
am writting you)

 

[Guest]

Unfortunately, whilst I remember seeing the digital/mono part of WMP 10 when
I first set it up, I can't seem to find it now but I think I did set it to
digital, so that could be the problem? I have always had it set to digital I
think and never experienced a problem like this before?

 

[Guest]

Resources for Troubleshooting Sound Problems in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307918

 

[Guest]

I'll be going home in a couple of hours and I will let you then, where the
Option for digitial etc is.

 

[Guest]

I think it must be the sound card now? I have tried the sound troubleshooter
a few times before but nothing helps so it might be time to invest in a new
sound card on payday? It's just strange that it works perfectly on some
things but not on others but that's computers for ya? Thanks for all your
help everyone anyway. Cheers!