How to make computer run more efficiently?

How can one make ones computer run more efficiently with the primary objective being to free up processing power for music playback?

I recently installed a M-Audio Audiophile 192 sound card which feeds an outboard DAC digitally (coaxial connection S/PDIF data feed).

I am running MS XP pro on an AMD chipped (1.5 GHz?) ASUS machine with 1GB DDR RAM (I know that obvious solution to my problem is upgrading/replacing all PC hardware. But I am reluctant to do so as I’ll lose access to some very expensive software if I do)

My system still suffers and is not suitable for listening to music thru it when computer is performing any other process. Audible distortion is present anytime computer performs an action (open/close program, open web page, etc.).

I have run msconfig:

1) On General tab I selected selective startup
a. Process SYSTEM.INE file is selected
b. Process WIN.INE file is selected
c. Use modified BOOT.INE is selected
2) On SYSTEM.INE and WIN.INE tabs all boxes are selected (checked)
3) On BOOT.INE tab /BOOTLOG is selected but no other boxes are selected.
4) On services tab I selected hide all Microsoft Services and then clicked disable all.
5) On startup tab I selected disable all.

Performing the above changes 4 and 5 resulted in my system reducing its baseline (no programs open) process running (press ctrl+alt+delt for windows task manager) from near 60 processes to 20 processes. Unfortunately, while this has resulted in improved ability to play music from this computer I am still experiencing far more distortion (signal disruption) than I can accept.

Are there any Windows applications that I shoud consider disabling? What other approaches should one consider?

If anyone has ideas/suggestions to help please write in.

Your system is way overpowered for that kind of thing. You're looking at a buffer underrun issue caused by drivers or hardware (potentially triggered by something in software like too small buffers).

What's your playback software configuration?

What other hardware exists on the system?

Please be extremely detailed here.

Do you get the same distortions if you use the analouge out from the M-Audio Audiophile 192 to your amp?

Hi Axon,

Music playback via: M-Audio driver Delta_WDM_5.10.00.5057v3.exe from pg http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=suppor...ivers&f=785

M-Audio control panel DMA buffer size is selectable between 64 and 2048 with 12 possible settings. I have it presently set for 512 latency (but have tried up to 2048)

Problem exists with all players (Winamp, Power DVD, WMP, Pandora, YouTube, etc.)

System fails to run systeminfo “failed to start because framedyn.dll was not found…” But following was obtained via running msinfo32

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name ASUS
System Manufacturer System Manufacturer
System Model System Name
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 6 Stepping 2 AuthenticAMD ~1261 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Award Software, Inc. ASUS A7V266-E/AA ACPI BIOS Rev 1006, 3/1/2002
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
User Name ASUS\Master
Time Zone Mountain Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 1,024.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 370.45 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 2.41 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys


Answering A Man Eating Duc: the problem is also evident via the Audiophile 192 analog outputs. Additionally the problem was evident long before the installation of the new sound card. Audio distortion is evident using Power DVD even when no other programs are open.

If you're sure the drivers are OK have a look at some of the suggestions here : http://www.pcmus.com/TweakXP.htm#background.

It's aimed at getting the best performance for recording purposes so it's suggestions should be more than enough for playback. I'd suggest trying the basic ones first and only go on to the more esoteric stuff if that doesn't work.

My PC is only slightly more powerful than yours (P4 2.8gig.) and I have absolutely no problems playing music or recording even with lots of other programs running

I'd guess at something else being the problem. I've had lower power systems than that running any sort of music fine.

Maybe your problem is caused by an IRQ conflict. I've had similar problems with my Audiophile 24/96. After reading this article and this article I could solve the problem by changing the location of the PCI expansion cards on the motherboard. Though this highly depends on the specs of the motherboard and the way the PCI buss assigns the IRQs.

Hope this helps.

There is another thing here. I've had before Gigabyte motherboard with KT266A chipset and Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro, and experienced various sound glitches, from clicking sound to total mute for a second or two, even bluescreen. The problem lied in chipset, something about PCI latency, and was fixable with some patch which worked on windows XP with SP1, but not with SP2. Maybe that fix was updated, but I haven't tried it since. I n the meantime, I've upgraded my hardware, and I don't have any problems anymore.
KT133 and KT266 chipsets had all sorts of problems which resulted in sound breaking with some soundcards. Try to find some other soundcard and test it, maybe it will work.

Some years ago I had a similar setup (AMD Atlon XP 1800+) and had similar issues with a M-Audio Audiophile 192. I found other people on the M Audio forum with similar problems and had some e-mail exchange with the M Audio support. Bottom line was something like that the card was not compatible with the chipset -> get another PC or return the M-Audio Audiophile 192. Well I then returned the card and got myself an ESI Juli@ card that has got similar specs to the M-Audio Audiophile 192.
Well and with the ESI Juli@ I had absolutely no issues any more.