What process is listening?

[Anders F]

Is there any tool to find out what process uses what in/out unit?

I have a special problem but I would also like something more

general.



My problem is that some process is all the time listening to

my audio (line) input and putting it to my audio output.

At first, this might seem like a bonus, you just start your

record player and put on your headphone and you can

listen to the music.



I find this irritating. When I try to copy some old vinyl records

to CD using the Audacity program, the sound from this unknown

program is mixed with the sound from Audacity giving it a

hollow, not very pleasant pitch. If I remove the Audacity sound I

can not vary the sound level and I can not hear what Audacity

does to the sound.



I use Windows XP Pro SP2.



Thanks in advance for any help.

Anders

 

[databaseben]

i think you question makes
is sensiable. but any program
that may be awaiting / listening
would be an active one and listed
as a process in task manager.

it is possible that a special program
is being launched at startup via
the msconfig.

in any case you might find a
freeware called taskinfo helpful

http://www.iarsn.com/download.html

i double checked the site and seems there
is an update that I will download as well....

 

[databaseben]

oh, i guess the freeware
version went shareware...

but it will still work for a while...

 

[Poprivet]

Is there any tool to find out what process uses what in/out unit?

I have a special problem but I would also like something more

general.



My problem is that some process is all the time listening to

my audio (line) input and putting it to my audio output.

At first, this might seem like a bonus, you just start your

record player and put on your headphone and you can

listen to the music.



I find this irritating. When I try to copy some old vinyl records

to CD using the Audacity program, the sound from this unknown

program is mixed with the sound from Audacity giving it a

hollow, not very pleasant pitch. If I remove the Audacity sound I

can not vary the sound level and I can not hear what Audacity

does to the sound.



I use Windows XP Pro SP2.



Thanks in advance for any help.

Anders

It sounds like you have Audacity set to "what u hear". Change that and I
bet the problem goes away.

 

[R. McCarty]

Vinyl recordings use a non-flat response curve. Bass is de-emphasized.
To get a normal output, you'll need to have a RIAA pre-amplifier inline
between the turntable and the input to your sound card. This may be
why your recordings have "Hollow/Tinny" sound to them.

 

[Anders F]

Thanks, I have now tried Taskinfo but I am not sure how to
interpret the result. The only process that has consistent
input/outpt is svchost (1 of 6 running) that has a
Rd Rate B/s of 1380 and a Wr Rate B/s of 1470.
Is this not a bit low? If the sampling rate is 44100,
16 bits/channel, stereo (guessing but the sound is OK), should
it not be more?

How good is TaskInfo? When I run a digital
'piano', TaskInfo says it has 0 output although
I can hear it (if I play the record player at
the same I can hear both).

I do not know all programs but none from the
C:\Program Files\Audacity folder is running when
this happens.

 

[databaseben]

well, it can be tricky
to see where the source
of your concern is coming from.

try the process of elimination and
uninstall audicity. Then see
what the situation is....

and let us know...

 

[Anders F]

Well, it did not help. I stopped all programs that are not from
Microsoft, Zone Labs, Intel, Logitech or Kaspersky and it
still plays the same way. Can it be some Microsoft 'feature',
I can't see that any of the other companies could be involved
(assuming that no process has a fake company name).

I really do appreciate your trouble

Anders

 

[databaseben]

could be a rogue driver

log into safemode and see
if the problem occur there too.

hopefully it won't, then the
problem can be attributed to
a third party driver running
under the normal mode enviroment.

so see what happens in safemode.....

 

[Anders F]

If I start in safe mode, I get no music.
I went back to last safe config but it still plays when I
boot normally.

 

[databaseben]

ok,
well it now a bit easier
to sort this out.

go to microsoft.com
and download a freeware
called autoruns.

this program will reveal alot
of information about the
processes and the related
drivers. Thus you wll
be able to see which one
is causing the problem.

you see, in safemode only
microsoft drivers are loaded
into the o.s. But in normal
mode microsoft driver plus
third party drivers are loaded
as well.

at this time take the
precautionary measure
of making a restore point
then exit

next launch autoruns and
browse through all the tabs
to get a feel of the program.

there will be one tab that lists
drivers. Find the one that
is not from microsoft and
resembles something related
to the problem or to the
program that is suspected.

find any entry you beleive
is not from microsoft, check
the box for the line, then double
click the name of that file.

the registry will open and disable
that entry. then reboot and see
if problem is solved.

you can reverse the disabling
the reg key, by unchecking
the line in autoruns and double
clicking it again.

also, you made a restore point
so if you overkill the disabling
you can use system restore to
restore your registry as before.

if the above doesn't resolve
the problem, then maybe
a repair installation with the
windows setup cd is all that
is left..

let us know your stats....

 

[Anders F]

The good If I remove the Andrea Audio Stub Driver
the problem disapears.

The bad If I remove the Andrea Audio Stub Driver
all sound disapears.

I do not know how much this says but:
If I change account, it does not affect the playing, it goes
on all the time.

If I try to record the sound from the Microsoft utility
Sound Recorder it works OK if I run it from my
administrator account.

If I try to record the sound from the Microsoft utility
Sound Recorder I get the message "Another application
is recording audio. Stop recording with this other
application and then try to record with Sound Recorder
again." if I run it from my limited account.

I found the following not exclusive Microsoft drivers but
I do not think the problem is with them.
Andrea Audio Stub Driver, Andrea Electronics Corporation /No sound at all!
Modem Device Driver, Broadcom Corporation
2* Microsoft Corp., Veritas Software
4* Intel Corporation
3* Kaspersky Lab
2* Logitech, Inc.
OMCI Device Driver, Dell Computer Corporation
Direct Parallel Link Driver, Parallel Technologies, Inc.
SafeDisc driver, /No Publisher
Sony USB Lower Filter Driver, Sony Corporation
2* Zone Labs, LLC
TSKNF700 Kernel Driver, Igor Arsenin / TaskInfo



it works OK if I run it from my
administrator account.

 

[databaseben]

ok, well you
in a lot better position
than before.

obviously a driver
was replaced.

a repair installation with
the windows setup cd
might help.

maybe running a sfc /scannow
might help as well.

you can get more details
of the above from microsoft.com

however, you may also conduct a
research and find out more
about the drivers. I suppose
you can compare safe mode and
normal mode with the freeware.

and i think that microsoft.com
will have a technical listing of
the standard drivers required by
the o.s.

in any case i think you be able to return
your system to the state it was
before the problem arose now. The
issue was simply a bump in the road.

g.l. and keep us updated...

 

[Anders F]

I think I will let it be for now, the problem is irritating
but not something I can not live with.
I can not make a repair installation or run sfc, if I try
I am told that my system is newer then then that on
instalation CD, probably because my system is SP2
while my CD is SP1. To make a totally new installation
is more trouble then it is worth.

Many thanks for your trouble. If I find out what has
happened, I will let you know on this group.

Anders

 

[dB]

ok, i can understand that.

one thing that you might want to
do since you have uninstalled that
software is to clean up the registry.

i use a freeware called eusing on
a regular basis with good results.

another thing to consider is that
you can uninstall sp2 like any
program via add/remove programs.

then your cd should work.

then afterwards you can reinstall sp2.

also, check at the dell website
maybe they have the standard
sound drivers for your system avail
for downloading. If you have a sound
board then you might remove it or
reinstall its sound drivers.

At least we tried and did get somewhere...

(i'm going to unflag this posting. if you find
anything or want more help, create a new posting)

g.l.....!