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View Full Version : "broken record syndrome"

seahawkdan
08-19-2003, 11:10 PM
my system: pentium 3, 933 mb, 128 mb ram, geforce4 mmx 440 video, soundbaster live! sound card. when playing video games (usually) my system randomly 'hiccups' and sounds like a broken record (remember those?) where whatever sound is occurring at the time of the hiccup repeats itself, and pressing any key does not stop the repeat. i must reboot after that. the hiccup occurs randomly within the same game; or even with a different game. i can play one game all the way through with no problem, and the next game barely gets started before the hiccup occurs and i have to reboot. any ideas of what i need to look at (other than paying for a new system)? thanks in advance....
Budfred
08-19-2003, 11:31 PM
Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif

I would consider adding more RAM, since video tends to be RAM instensive and this could be the cause of the problem. The other thing is to shut down as many background programs as possible, for the same basic reason....
Whyzman
08-20-2003, 01:19 AM
You might want to try installing the drivers only...leave all the other EAX stuff and mixers...

You might also want to have a look in Device Manager while in SAFEMODE and see if there are perchance any "ghost drivers" (duplicate entries). If there are any multiple entries you would need to remove all instances, reboot and allow Windoze to locate and reinstall the device.
gwallen4
08-20-2003, 07:48 PM
Does the computer have to be rebooted everytime the sound hiccup occurs?
seahawkdan
08-20-2003, 08:02 PM
sandman - not every time; sometimes it can be stopped by pressing the escape key a few times. but most times i have to reboot.
gwallen4
08-20-2003, 08:28 PM
Sounds like a pretty ordinary "freeze" to me. When something goes wrong and the computer locks up, the sound card just tries to keep repeating the same sound over and over.

Unfortunately, a computer freezing can be from a whole mess of causes:

1) Heat: Open her up and see if dust is clogging the Cpu heatsink.
2) Power: The power supply unit can't keep up with the demand.
3) Component failure: disconnect all non-essential components - drives, cards, etc., leaving only the boot harddrive, video, keyboard, mouse. I have seen Cd-Rom drives, and Lan cards do this, but any component can fail, including motherboard components.
4) Bad drivers - sounds less likely here, since sometimes you can play the game and it doesn't crash.
5) Random crashes can also be caused by the game software, a deteriorated operating system, viruses.
6) Bad memory - doesn't sound likely.