Music skipping in WMP11 20 seconds before end of song

[lougreen]

I was wondering if anyone else is having this problem and had a solution.

Whenever I play music directly off my hard drive from a playlist in WMP11, at 20 seconds before the end of the song, it skips and stutters for about 1-1.5 seconds. I'm almost certain that this is when WMP is buffering the next song. I updated the firmware and software and still have the problem. I just don't know how to fix this thing.

I'm using Vista on a Dell. The Dell technicians don't have a clue (what else is new).

These forums have been a life-saver in the past and I was hoping someone could help. All suggestions are appreciated.

 

[corkyg]

If you are playing directly off your HDD, buffering is really not a factor. I would suspect something else in the software chain of events. Try reinstalling WMP 11.

Does it do it without the playlist, i.e., File, Open, Select and Play?

 

[lougreen]

If it's not buffering, then I'm really in the dark. It only has this skipping problem if the song is part of a playlist. File, Open, Select, and Play does not cause this problem (so long as I'm selecting only one song and a playlist is not created). Further, the last song of a playlist does not skip. Thoughts?

Thanks for the help.

 

[corkyg]

I would delete the playlist in question - that does not delete the music. Then create a new playlist and test it. It doesn't have to be huge for that purpose - say about 12 songs or so.

Data is used from a hard drive at a much faster rate than from a music CD. The music CD requires no buffering, so why would the HDD? Buffering is usually only required when burning a CD or streaming sound or video from the Internet.

 

[VashHT]

What kind of files are you playing? I found that with .wav files WMP would do something similar to what you described, it would go through most of the song then skip the end of it for some weird reason. Also, have you tried playing it in another player as well?

 

[lougreen]

Thank you both for the suggestions, but I already tried those. The problem occurs on every playlist I create that is greater than or equal to 2 songs. I use strictly .mp3 music files so that they'd play on every player in case of situations such as this.

VashHT, I tried playing the songs in other players such as winamp and itunes and do not have this problem. I'm pretty sure the problem is with WMP11. I also updated both the drivers for my system components and updated Vista and its components.

Any other suggestions? I'm all ears.

 

[mzkhadir]

do you have fade on in WMP 11 ? I dont even know if WMP11 does fading. Check your settings.

 

[lougreen]

Fade is not on for WMP11. Good suggestion, though. I thought you were on to something. Damn...

 

[cyclo]

I have exactly this same problem on a Dell Inspiron 6400 running Vista Home Premium which I just got yesterday. WMP11 stutters 20 seconds before a song ends when playing playlists but not when playing single files.

I tried disabling "connect to internet" thinking that WMP accessing song info for the next track might be causing the stutter but to no avail. I have been streaming and playing back video over the LAN using SlingPlayer and I have not encountered any stuttering.

I suspect it is WMP11 related. I might end up using WinAmp or some other alternative if I don't find the solution.

 

[cyclo]

I found the solution here...

Windows Vista Forums....

Basically here is what needs to be done:

Control panel
Sound
Speakers/Headphones
Enhancements
***** DISABLE all enhancements ******

This cured the problem although the music now sounds thinner but this itself could be fixed by equalization.

 

[corkyg]

I guess that's why I never have the problem.

a. I don't use enhancements b. I don't use playlists. I play hundreds of MP3s in albums on CDRs. Playlists don't work because the disks are not always the same.

 

[Firsttime]

Thanks, I was having this problem with my Dell 1501 and was stumped. Cyclo's suggestion worked.

 

[lougreen]

That solved the problem for me, too. The Indians at Dell "only" took a week to give me the same answer. Then I ask, "well, what if I don't want to disable the enhancements?"

To which they respond, "We'll have to get back to you in the next day or so." This was 4 days ago. I hate outsourcing...

 

[cyclo]

I don't mind the outsourced tech support that Dell uses, this is after all one reason why the prices of their hardware remain low. Oftentimes the answers to problems such as this can be found by working google anyways. The stutter problem is not only Dell's, other manufacturers who use the same audio chip (SigmaTel) also have the same problem. This will probably be fixed by a future driver release for the audio or a patch could be made to disable the enhancements by default.