toshiba laptop music slows down by half

[pid]

Dear all,
I need some advice on this. I have a Toshiba Tecra 1.5 GHz, 512 Mb.
Recently the sound/music is playing up in that:
1) with the fist boot up, every bit of sound/music slows down by half.
Kylie Minogue sounds like Frank Sinatra.
2) But with a reboot, the sound playback speed returns to normal!

However, this happy state of things didn't last. Now the sound/music
just stays half speed. I have tried the following:

1) scan for virus. Done it three times in a day. Nothing found.
2) scan for spyware. found some cookies. removed them. still no go.
3) removed/inactivated more labour intensive software e.g. Flash MX,
Norton anti-virus, Zone alarm. still no go.
4) defragmented the harddrive twice. no go.

I have contacted the toshiba people who were less than helpful. Can
anyone please help?

regards, Bernard

 

[Lance Zielinski [MSFT]]

Hello Bernard,

Having Kylie Minogue sound like Frank Sinatra is a crisis any way you look
at it... Let's see what we can do to figure out the cause.

Have you installed anything recent? Something you can say "Ah yes, my music
was sounding correct before I installed it."?

First of all, what are you playing your music on? Is it Windows Media
Player, or is it something like Musicmatch or Winamp? Have you updated your
media player software to the latest version?

Are you playing your music from your hard drive, or from a network share or
a streaming music site? Network latency can occasionally cause these
problems.

Try updating new sound drivers and the latest version DirectX. Basically
you're giving your audio devices a major tuneup by doing this. After you've
done this, do you still experience the same problem?

Let's look at the device manager while this is happening. Press CTRL +
SHIFT + ESC to open the device manager. Click on the processes tab. Click
on the CPU tab so that the highest number is at the top. When your music is
slowing down, you may see your CPU is being used 100%. This is the way to
find out where all the resources are going. What's using the most
processer time?

If you can run through these steps and get me some information if we are
still having problems, I'd appreciate it! This way I can further assist you
while we troubleshoot our way through it.


--
Lance Zielinski
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

=====================================================

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=====================================================

 

[pid]

Hi Lance,
Thanks for the detailed reply.

The most recent software i have installed prior to the problem were
yahoo messenger an Kazaa. Since then, I have removed both offending
parties.

I am running the following:
1) windows media player 9
2) direct x 9.0
3) the music files come from the hard drive

I have tried the device manager as well. CPU usage jumps between 0 to
9 %. and the PF usage around 210 MB.

The funny thing is that the sound also slows down with the windows
opening and closing theme.

truly desperate, Bernard

 

[Lance Zielinski [MSFT]]

Hi again Bernard,

More questions as we search for a solution!

What about updating your audio drivers? Have you done that yet?

Can you tell me which Tecra you have? Does it matter if it's docked on
undocked when this happens?
When was your last BIOS update? Sometimes firmware updates will drastically
change a computer system's performance for the better.

Here's another thing to try.

Click Start, Run, "dxdiag" (w/o the quotes) and press <ENTER>
After the DirectX Diagnostic Tool finished gathering information, click on
the Sound tab.
Move the hardware acceleration slider down from Full Acceleration to a lower
setting of your choice.
After changing the acceleration, check to see if you are still having the
Sinatra Syndrome with Kylie.
You can also test DirectSound and see if the changes help.

I will look around a bit more on my side as well. If you could try these
ideas, and the driver and BIOS updates, I'd appreciate it. Let me know if
any of this helps. I will keep looking for solutions in the meantime!


--
Lance Zielinski
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

=====================================================

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader

so that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================




======================================================================
Original message:
======================================================================
Hi Lance,
Thanks for the detailed reply.

The most recent software i have installed prior to the problem were
yahoo messenger an Kazaa. Since then, I have removed both offending
parties.

I am running the following:
1) windows media player 9
2) direct x 9.0
3) the music files come from the hard drive

I have tried the device manager as well. CPU usage jumps between 0 to
9 %. and the PF usage around 210 MB.

The funny thing is that the sound also slows down with the windows
opening and closing theme.

truly desperate, Bernard
======================================================================

 

[pid]

Hi Lance, yes i have updated to direct x 9.0b. My laptop specs as
follow:
1) 1.5 GHz centrino
2) 512 MB RAM
3) Windows XP professional

I have also tried all the acceleration settings of the dxdiag. Still
no success. Sinatra is not in a hurry to leave, it seems.

I don't have a docking station. But the BIOS update sounds promising.
How do i go about doing an update of the BIOS?

Bernard

 

[Lance Zielinski [MSFT]]

Hi Bernard,

It was the model number I was hoping to get from you, that way I can see if
there's any product-specific issues with the Tecra. From the configuration
you've described, would it be an M2?

As for the BIOS update, you can get it from Toshiba.

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_home.jsp

Look up your system and select the BIOS. It's always good to read up on the
BIOS to see what fixes they've implemented into it. The BIOS download
should have instructions on how to update your machine.

You may also want to consider asking Toshiba Tech Support if this is a known
issue on their systems, seeing as this Tecra is fairly new. If it's being
encountered by other Tecra customers, the Tech Support folks will know and
have some solutions to provide you as well.

Please let me know if this works for you. I will seek out more information
from you today.


--
Lance Zielinski
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

=====================================================

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader

so that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================


===============================
Original Message
===============================

Hi Lance, yes i have updated to direct x 9.0b. My laptop specs as
follow:
1) 1.5 GHz centrino
2) 512 MB RAM
3) Windows XP professional

I have also tried all the acceleration settings of the dxdiag. Still
no success. Sinatra is not in a hurry to leave, it seems.

I don't have a docking station. But the BIOS update sounds promising.
How do i go about doing an update of the BIOS?

Bernard

===============================

 

[pid]

Hi Lance,
It is an S1 actually. I have checked the toshiba BIOS update.
Downloaded the V.1.9 (the same as my version) BIOS. Installed it.
Still no success.

I will post a message on the toshiba board again. But I must say the
last time I haven' had much luck with them.

I have been thinking, could it be a problem in the registry?

Bernard

 

[Lance Zielinski [MSFT]]

Hi Bernard,

I am now pinging some of our internal discussion groups to see if they have
any ideas we could try.

I haven't completely run out of ideas yet, though! One more to go...

Click Start | Control Panel
Select Sound and Audio Devices
Click on the Audio Tab
Under Sound playback, click the Advanced button
On the Advanced Audio Properties page, click the performance Tab
You'll noticed the same Hardware acceleration slider from DXDiag.
There's also a sample rate conversion quality slider, slide it down to the
middle.
Click apply, OK.
Try your audio. Do we still have Kylie sounding like a Sinatra tune?

Please let me know how that goes, and I will also provide any feedback I get
from the internal discussion groups.


--
Lance Zielinski
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

=====================================================

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader

so that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================



Original Message:
=================================================

Hi Lance,
It is an S1 actually. I have checked the toshiba BIOS update.
Downloaded the V.1.9 (the same as my version) BIOS. Installed it.
Still no success.

I will post a message on the toshiba board again. But I must say the
last time I haven' had much luck with them.

I have been thinking, could it be a problem in the registry?

Bernard

=================================================

 

[Lance Zielinski [MSFT]]

Hi Bernard,

Another thing comes to mind.
Please check your device manager for any yellow triangles with black "!"
marks.
Right-click My Computer, select Manage
Click on Device Manager in the Management console.

Let me know if any of this items listen therein are displaying the dreaded
yellow triangle. ;-)

Thanks!


--
Lance Zielinski
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

=====================================================

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader

so that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================

 

[Lance Zielinski [MSFT]]

Hi Bernard,

I have Chris from Windows Media Core services joining this thread to provide
further input on your issue. Hope he can get your squared away with his
vast media knowledge!


--
Lance Zielinski
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

=====================================================

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader

so that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================

 

[Chris [MSFT]]

Hi Bernard,

If you could, please download and run the wmdiag utility (available here -
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c33b924e-a2ae-4f22-
93ea-287753c52926&displaylang=en) and post the resulting .CAB file. I'm
suspecting a faulty codec, but its hard to say without some system
information.

Thanks!
Chris[MSFT]
===
Additional Information -
WMP FAQ -
http://www.nwlink.com/~zachd/pss/pss.html

Movie Maker FAQ -
http://pws.chartermi.net/~papajohn/MM2.html

Plus! DME FAQ -
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/plus/dme/FAQ.asp

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

--------------------

From: (e-mail address removed) (pid)
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support
Subject: Re: toshiba laptop music slows down by half
Date: 13 Feb 2004 08:22:01 -0800
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Message-ID: <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>

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Hi Lance, yes i have updated to direct x 9.0b. My laptop specs as
follow:
1) 1.5 GHz centrino
2) 512 MB RAM
3) Windows XP professional

I have also tried all the acceleration settings of the dxdiag. Still
no success. Sinatra is not in a hurry to leave, it seems.

I don't have a docking station. But the BIOS update sounds promising.
How do i go about doing an update of the BIOS?

Bernard


"Lance Zielinski [MSFT]" <[email protected]> wrote in message

Hi again Bernard,

More questions as we search for a solution!

What about updating your audio drivers? Have you done that yet?

Can you tell me which Tecra you have? Does it matter if it's docked on
undocked when this happens?
When was your last BIOS update? Sometimes firmware updates will drastically
change a computer system's performance for the better.

Here's another thing to try.

Click Start, Run, "dxdiag" (w/o the quotes) and press <ENTER>
After the DirectX Diagnostic Tool finished gathering information, click on
the Sound tab.
Move the hardware acceleration slider down from Full Acceleration to a lower
setting of your choice.
After changing the acceleration, check to see if you are still having the
Sinatra Syndrome with Kylie.
You can also test DirectSound and see if the changes help.

I will look around a bit more on my side as well. If you could try these
ideas, and the driver and BIOS updates, I'd appreciate it. Let me know if
any of this helps. I will keep looking for solutions in the meantime!


--
Lance Zielinski
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

=====================================================

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader

so that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================




======================================================================
Original message:
======================================================================
Hi Lance,
Thanks for the detailed reply.

The most recent software i have installed prior to the problem were
yahoo messenger an Kazaa. Since then, I have removed both offending
parties.

I am running the following:
1) windows media player 9
2) direct x 9.0
3) the music files come from the hard drive

I have tried the device manager as well. CPU usage jumps between 0 to
9 %. and the PF usage around 210 MB.

The funny thing is that the sound also slows down with the windows
opening and closing theme.

truly desperate, Bernard
======================================================================

 

[pid]

Yes, I have checked the device manager as well. No yellow triangles.
And thank you for inviting the windows media support team. I look
forward to hearing from them. Still desperate, Bernard

 

[pid]

Hi Lance,
Have you heard from Chris yet?

Bernard

Hi Bernard,

I have Chris from Windows Media Core services joining this thread to provide
further input on your issue. Hope he can get your squared away with his
vast media knowledge!


--
Lance Zielinski
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

=====================================================

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader

so that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================

 

[Lance Zielinski [MSFT]]

Hi Bernard,

Sorry that I keep posting top level... I seem to be experiencing technical
difficulties with posting three levels down.

He's posted. He asked you to run the WMDiag utility at the following
location:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...4e-a2ae-4f22-93ea-287753c52926&displaylang=en)

And post the CAB file that you create.

Another thing I remember about Windows Media Player 9... the fact that you
can adjust music speed. Mayhap that you're running Kylie slower by
accident?

To play content at variable speeds
1.. Play content.
2.. On the View menu, point to Enhancements, and then click Play Speed
Settings.
3.. In the Enhancements pane, move the Play Speed slider to the speed at
which you want to play the content, or click the Slow or Fast links.
Let me know if THIS works for you. Otherwise, we await your CAB file
so we can peek at it and see if you've got some system issue.

--
Lance Zielinski
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

=====================================================

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader

so that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================

 

[pid]

Thanks Lance. I have generated the text files with WMDDiag. Where
should I send it to?

I have also tried speeding up the media player as directed. Trouble
is, although Kylie has resumed her former pitch with playback speeding
up, her voice has gained a horrible vibrato!

Bernard

 

[pid]

Thanks Lance. I have generated the text files with WMDDiag. Where
should I send it to?

I have also tried speeding up the media player as directed. Trouble
is, although Kylie has resumed her former pitch with playback speeding
up, her voice has gained a horrible vibrato!

Bernard

 

[Sharon F]

Thanks Lance. I have generated the text files with WMDDiag. Where
should I send it to?

Remove "online" from Lance's email address shown in his post.

 

[ccdw]

My Tecra S1 had started to play windows sounds slowly yesterday. Software I
presumed. After reloading the drivers and messing with the codecs I gave up,
trashed the HDD, rebuilt the software and.......same fault! :-(

Then I discovered that this only happens on a warm boot.
I shut down windows so the laptop powers down and did a Cold boot and my
windows sounds are now ok.

Its a bit annoying that I have to cold boot everytime but at least its fixed
my problem for now. Im Not sure if this will work for everyone though.

My Laptop has worked fine for nearly a year now so this is possibly a
systemboard problem.
Hopefully this can be fixed with a firmware update, maybe toshiba will find
a fix and release one soon.

Cheers
Dave

 

[pid]

Hi Dave,
Thanks for sharing your experience. I too have tried the cold boot
strategy and it sometimes works and sometimes not. What I did discover
a few days ago was that, (probably by black magic), the sound got back
to normal speedplay during Warcraft 3! I have no idea how this works.
The following was the sequence of events:
1) laptop startup
2) tested sound with windows media player: kylie minogue sounded like
sinatra
3) then started warcraft 3
4) exited warcraft 3
5) bingo. sound problem fixed. kylie sounded as she ought to sound.

Have you had this experience with other programs?
regards, Bernard

 

[Lance Zielinski [MSFT]]

Hello Bernard,

That is truly interesting! Let me clarify, after firing up WC3, your audio
has gone back to normal?

I suspect that is has something to do with codec initialization, but I am
not sure. I will have to look into that.

I will bring this information to the Windows Media folks. Thanks for the
update. I will also keep track of this thread since it appears no one got
back to you previously. I do apologize for that. :-(


--
Lance Zielinski
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

=====================================================

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader

so that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================