Okay here is the issue I am having- I have a 2 hdd system, with c: as the o/s (win2k) and the second drive partitioned into 2 smaller storage drives- one is 93gigs (d:) and the other is 139gigs (e:). now when i am playing .avi files from e:, the second partition, they play very choppy and with audio cracks and clicks. however, that same file, copied to my 2gig flash drive, plays fine on my laptop and on the same system when played from the flash drive. also, when i copy the file from e: to c: it plays just fine on c:. i had thought this was a memory or video card issue, so i bought a new video card, the ati all in wonder 2006 edition- w/ 256mb. once i installed that and still had the issue, i upgraded my ram from 512 to 1gig of 400mhz ram. so now my system is as upgraded as i could get, but still has this issue. that is when i tried playing the files off different drives, and now i am thoroughly confused. why would a file play better off the c: drive than the e: drive? the e drive is 139gigs, but is only using 99.6 of it. when i analyzed the drive, the defrag program said it did not need defragging. any ideas? i am totally lost on this one... help! thanks so much!

So it is only when you play the avi files directly from the drive that has d: and e: it doesn't play right. Yet it plays fine when copied from the drive to either usb or c:. Right? Sounds like the issue is with the drive. Perhaps DMA is not enabled or its a cheap drive with little onboard cache or low RPM's. Try putting it alone on its own channel as master and see if that makes a difference. Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Suggest they internet search and they learn a skill for a lifetime.

"Perhaps DMA is not enabled... " http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devic...

i have checked to be sure that dma is enabled on the drive, so thank you for that tip. however, now things are getting more tricky on all drives. example: now when using winamp to play music files, and then switching over to my aim buddy list, the computer will freeze momentarily, chop audio into a pissed off robot sound, and then go back to normal. with a gig of ram and a 3.4 processor, i certainly would not expect this...... please, any hints? any clues as to why my system would be so media unfriendly? i am fairly certain i am clean of all spy/ad/malware. but the audio gets choppy when booting up too. this is beyond frustrating, as ive just spent another 300 bucks upgrading my pc... any ideas? thanks for the help!

Unfortunately t-shooting multimedia problems can be difficult, especially when it involves sound problems. It is usually not malware that is causing the problem. It's usually the case that it is software clashes between different programs, or between the resources of different programs, or a program has developed some corrupted files or has some bugs that cause it to interfere with some files. Things you could try. 1. Stop un-necessary Startup programs from running, which could be causing your problem. Start up Msconfig. (Start - Run - type: msconfig , press Enter) Click on the Startup tab. Most people far too many programs that load on Windows Startup. There are only a few entries there that must be started up with Windows - all the rest are optional and whatever program they are for probably can be started up some other way - it just may take a tiny bit longer for them to open. E.g. you may have lines that enable an antivirus program , or enable an anti-adware program, or that enable some feature of them such as checking for updates. You can often clue into what the lines are for by noting the path (where the program is on the hard drive), and by sometimes by taking note of which icons disappear in the taskbar when a line is disabled. Disable any program you figure you don't need to load at Windows Startup by clicking on the small box to remove the checkmark, click on OK, restart when prompted. When you you make a change in Msconfig, the next time you boot two Windows will pop up that have to do with MSconfig ("System Configuration Utility"). If you don't want to make any further changes in Msconfig at that time, just click on the X top right in each window to close them. If you are finished making changes with Msconfig, click on ther small square box in the first windows beside "don't show this message" to insert a checkmark, click on OK - the second window will not pop up, and will not pop up while booting until the next time you use Msconfig to make a change. Try the files that were giving you the problems to see if they still give you problems - if they don't you will then know one of the programs you disabled from loading at Startup was causing your problem. 2. Also try disabling essential programs such as antivirus or anti-adware programs with Msconfig and/or in the programs themselves (with antivirus or anti-adware programs you often have to turn them off in the program itself as well e.g. constant scanning features in anti-virus programs). E.g. a recent update of my anti-virus main scan engine software is causing me grief, including sound problems and slowdown problems in my Eudora email program, that goes away when I disable the anti-virus program - I may have to switch to another anti-virus program. 3. Try the files you are having trouble with with different programs. Most people have several programs that will open certain types of files, only one of which opens them by default when you click on the file itself. Try the different programs (open the file with the programs rather than just clicking on the file itself)to see if they all have a problem with a certain type of file , or only one or some of them have a problem with a certain type of file. If it is only one program that has the problem, try un-installing, installing it, or un-installing it and installing a newer version. If it is all of them that have a problem with a certain file, the file itself may be corrupted. 4. Stuff you shouldn't be doing in any case because it will cause problems. E.g. Never have two or more anti-virus or anti- adware programs or software firewalls running at the same time. E.g. the free Ad-Aware runs only when you execute it - the free Spy-Bot, and the free Microsoft anti-adware utility runs all the time. The free Microsoft anti-adware utility seems to get along with running Ad-Aware, and many other online scans.

1-2.thanks for the tips tubes and wires- those were the things i checked for too. currently the only programs that are allowed to startup are clamwin- my antivirus, clean access-my network access, and a Ram freeing program. so i am sure it is not programs stealing resources. 3. I have tried them from the seperate partition with different programs and some are better than others, but they are all still flawed in some way, however when copied over to c: or a removable media they play fine with every program, flawlessly. does anyone have any other ideas of what it could be? if it was a corrupted partition of some sort, i wouldnt be able to play the files fine on my other drive, so i am out of ideas. thanks for everyones input, i really appreciate it.

Think about it will you? How could malware or any software be a issue when it plays from usb or the c: drive just fine??? Now that you have spent all this time chasing ghosts how about "Try putting it alone on its own channel as master and see if that makes a difference." In other words if it works with usb and c: you have a HARDWARE issue. What you are seeing can be a drive misconfiguration [like using cable select]. Easiest way to test is put the drive as master or standalone [means you have to move a drive jumper] on the 2nd ide channel by itself. If you can then run video, problem solved. Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Suggest they internet search and they learn a skill for a lifetime.