Music pauses when selecting files or searching

  • Thread starter Thread starter Danny Kewl
  • Start date Start date
D

Danny Kewl

I have Windows XP Pro. I usually have Winamp on while on my PC so I can
listen to mp3s. When I open a folder and start selecting a bunch of files
holding down the left mouse button and scrolling, or if I use the Search
function, many times the music will cut out, or at least be sporadic while
the search function is going on, or until I'm done selecting a bunch of
files. How do I fix this so my music isn't interrupted? I'm running an 3.5
year old Pentium 4 with 1.5 Ghz speed, you would think this could handle it.
Thanks.

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Windows XP is not a true multi tasking system.

It does only one thing at a time, so every now and then buffers etc are
emptied, data transfers need to be completed etc. or one application has to
wait until the second has an interrupt which gives control back over to the
first.

Faster CPU and more memory tends to mask this.
 
I just noticed I posted this in ".hardware" by mistake, I meant to post in
in the general XP group, sorry about that. However, since it's here, will
the newer "multi-threading" or "hyper-threading" (whichever it's called)
Pentium 4 help me here, or some kind of tweak? Or is there no way around the
problems with the buffers and interrupts? Thanks again.

--
 
Hyper threading requires that the software is written to take advantage of
these services.

A faster CPU, FSB, Memory [size and speed] will all make things better.

By the way, if you play CDs [CDA or MP3] and your CD player is connected
direct to the sound card using separate cable - not just the IDE interface
cable, it will use the sound card processing and not be passed through the
processor or windows - hence just like a stand alone CD player. You should
have no problems. This may not be possible if you have an on board sound
card.
 
Danny Kewl said:
I have Windows XP Pro. I usually have Winamp on while on my PC so I can
listen to mp3s. When I open a folder and start selecting a bunch of files
holding down the left mouse button and scrolling, or if I use the Search
function, many times the music will cut out, or at least be sporadic while
the search function is going on, or until I'm done selecting a bunch of
files. How do I fix this so my music isn't interrupted? I'm running an 3.5
year old Pentium 4 with 1.5 Ghz speed, you would think this could handle it.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Listening off the Net, or to local files?

If local files, this is expected behavior, the system
need to access the same drive/directory that the files you're
listening to are in to search them for whatever it is you want,
and things naturally get interrupted.

If you're listeing off the Net, this should not happen (and does
not happen to me) unless your connection software has issues
with exclusive access to the processor.
 
I'm listening to files stored on an external Western Digital 120 gig hard
drive connected via firewire, which shows up as "drive D", and most times
the files I'm selecting or searching are also on the same external drive.
Guess the replies make sense now, again, I thought the system should be able
to handle all this without the glitches. If I buy a hyper-thread P4, will
that eliminate the problem, or if I network another PC in? (It's an older
Pentium 1 w/ Win 98). Thanks again.
--

V Green said:
Danny Kewl said:
I have Windows XP Pro. I usually have Winamp on while on my PC so I can
listen to mp3s. When I open a folder and start selecting a bunch of files
holding down the left mouse button and scrolling, or if I use the Search
function, many times the music will cut out, or at least be sporadic while
the search function is going on, or until I'm done selecting a bunch of
files. How do I fix this so my music isn't interrupted? I'm running an 3.5
year old Pentium 4 with 1.5 Ghz speed, you would think this could handle it.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Listening off the Net, or to local files?

If local files, this is expected behavior, the system
need to access the same drive/directory that the files you're
listening to are in to search them for whatever it is you want,
and things naturally get interrupted.

If you're listeing off the Net, this should not happen (and does
not happen to me) unless your connection software has issues
with exclusive access to the processor.
Click to expand...
 
Danny Kewl said:
I'm listening to files stored on an external Western Digital 120 gig hard
drive connected via firewire, which shows up as "drive D", and most times
the files I'm selecting or searching are also on the same external drive.
Guess the replies make sense now, again, I thought the system should be able
to handle all this without the glitches. If I buy a hyper-thread P4, will
that eliminate the problem, or if I network another PC in? (It's an older
Pentium 1 w/ Win 98). Thanks again.
Click to expand...

You can throw all the processor you want at it,
it won't matter. It's a disk I/O / data throughput issue.

If you stream files over the network, that's the same as
streaming them off the Net, and should work fine.
--
Click to expand...
 
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