MP3's play fine (winamp) if the computer is not using the net..if I open mail, a web page or Norton updates that when the problem happens..Same with videos (WMP) it studders as its playing and dling at the same time. AWE64SB using IRQ5 and Earthnet is using IRQ11 along with ACPI IRQ holder for PCI IRQ steering. Any help or advice correcting this would be greatly appreciated... bobma

If you are using an onboard sound chip some stuttering may be inevitable. I would suggest you check for spyware. Try AdawareSE and/or Spybot search & destroy. The fact that when you are online causes problems may indicate spyware. Find both here: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fi...

Mine does the same thing--songs play OK if the computer isn't doing anything else. I'm using winamp too but I don't think it's a winamp problem. I think if you start doing something that requires hard drive access then the drive must momentarily drop reading the mp3 and do the other activity. Most of the time multiple tasks just slow things down as the drive jumps from one to the other. But with video and audio files you get the stuttering. Might be a ram thing too. 512 is quite a bit for 98 but it's at the point where memory problems start. Here's an MS link: http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... (note at the bottom where it describes how the AGP aperature can intensify the problem.) Even though the ram is there, 98 doesn't handle it very well. You may want to try altering the vcache line in system.ini.

Try disabling audio acceleration in control panel, multimedia. Worked for me.

Mine does the same thing in WMP & MusicMatch. I assumed it was because the NIC and sound are both on IRQ11. I'm gonna try dave01's idea. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

I ran Ad-Aware,SpyBot and Spyware Blaster. Nothing found..Searching on Google I found this site.. http://www.thpc.info/ram/vcache98.html They listed a Freeware program listed under quick fix called Cacheman..Ran the program and it said no vcache settings..Clicked standard settings and rebooted..The studdering has decreased by at least 50% I will play around with different settings to see if that helps, and will post here..Thanks everyone for posting... bobma

I've not found Cacheman (and similar) usually make a large difference, but fine if it's helping. It may really be down to what is given in #2 and that Cacheman happens to be altering settings in the same area. I think that dave01 is referring to the setting that is given as "hardware acceleration" (correct me if I'm wrong Dave). In which case simply lowering it a notch or two might help. DerekW