Audio suddenly stops, have to constantly restart

[soul1]

hey guys, I have this really annoying issue with my computer, what happens is the audio on the computer stops all of a sudden and I can't get anything out of it, I have to restart the computer and then its OK again, but then it happens again and again. Sometimes my computer can be on for a while without a problem and then it will happen, while other times, it could just be a few minutes or an hour and it stops, so in other words theres no method to the madness! I used to run winamp and I thought that that was the problem and then i got itunes, but it happens in itunes as well. There is no error message or anything. Also, I've noticed that when this occurs if I try and view a video, that it will play the video but it would stop/start by itself a lot (without audio of course) so it affects the video playback as well somewhat.

I'm running XP media centre edition.

any help is appreciated, this is starting to get really annoying.

 

[AlbertLionheart]

Have a look at the event log and see it you can find any error or warning markers. Get there by Control Panel > Admin Tools > Event views > system log.

 

[rickk1]

My guess is that your computer's virtual memory is low. You may have 2gb of ram but your system may have software that is hogging resources.

When was the last time you rebooted?

How many icons are showing up down by your clock on the lower right side of the desktop? More than 2-3? It is possible you need to reconfigure your startup programs.

Click start then run then type the following command: msconfig

After typing msconfig, click ok. When the configuration window is opened, locate and click on the tab call startup. While this window is open, surf to http://sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

Leave the webpage open and then while looking at the config window under that startup tab, notice there are checkmarks next to items listed. Each item listed is a program that is running all the time. Some programs may be turned off and others not. Enter the item's name into the search function of sysinfo's webpage then click search. Read the info given about it then decide to remove or keep the checkmark for that item.

Note that turning off an item does not prevent it from ever running again...it merely prevents it from running all the time. Removing the wrong checkmark may also prevent your system from protecting itself or possibly booting. Be careful what you disable.

After you have gone all the way through the startup list, click on Apply then OK then reboot your system.

Try this and let me know.

 

[soul1]

Have a look at the event log and see it you can find any error or warning markers. Get there by Control Panel > Admin Tools > Event views > system log.

i just did this and I get "W32time" error quite a bit, does that have anything to do with it?

 

[soul1]

My guess is that your computer's virtual memory is low. You may have 2gb of ram but your system may have software that is hogging resources.

When was the last time you rebooted?

How many icons are showing up down by your clock on the lower right side of the desktop? More than 2-3? It is possible you need to reconfigure your startup programs.

Click start then run then type the following command: msconfig

After typing msconfig, click ok. When the configuration window is opened, locate and click on the tab call startup. While this window is open, surf to http://sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

Leave the webpage open and then while looking at the config window under that startup tab, notice there are checkmarks next to items listed. Each item listed is a program that is running all the time. Some programs may be turned off and others not. Enter the item's name into the search function of sysinfo's webpage then click search. Read the info given about it then decide to remove or keep the checkmark for that item.

Note that turning off an item does not prevent it from ever running again...it merely prevents it from running all the time. Removing the wrong checkmark may also prevent your system from protecting itself or possibly booting. Be careful what you disable.

After you have gone all the way through the startup list, click on Apply then OK then reboot your system.

Try this and let me know.

hmmm last time i restarted? maybe a day or two ago, usually when the audio dies I restart and it comes back and then the same problem happens. I have about 7 icons showing up near my clock.

I just did the msconfig thing you mentioned and unchecked a couple of boxes. So we'll see if that does anything. thanks.