# iTunes Crackles??



## taber1205 (Jan 21, 2003)

I am having problems with iTunes crackling when I play songs with the program. I've already been on a very long trail shoring up issues that began with my computer getting bogged down on an original thread I posted. I believe that I have narrowed it down to a problem with the program.

System: WINXP Service Pack 2, Intel Pentium III, 648 MGZ, 512 MB RAM, 80GB and 20GB hard drives, CD Rom, HP CD-Writer Plus

Here's a brief history:

Everything with my system was working fine.
Computer was getting bogged down playing Sim City, games on pogo.com, and itunes was crackling.
Left for work one day and iTunes was working. Came home the next day and the program dumped EVERYTHING. It did not carry a single song in the library and all 52 playlists were gone even though all files were still sitting in the iTunes folder as they always were. Each playlist xml file I found and opened with Notepad showed only the playlists that come with the program and nothing I had created. I'm assuming this issue occurred because of a corrupted xml library file or there was a conflict with my old 20GB hard drive that used to house the old OS and program files (that hard drive has since been wiped).
Did major utitility maintenance: 3 Spyware programs, 2 antivirus, Norton Utlities Disc Cleanup/defragged/etc and what little spyware found were cookies.
I considered that there may be files corruption, so I tried playing mp3 tracks from the library using Windows Media Player and had no sound problems at all!! Of course, the majority of my library is in apple's aac fomat.
I also decided to see what would happen if I burned a CD through iTunes. The CD works great! 
I also get crackling when I play CDs through the CD Rom with iTunes and do not when I use Windows Media Player.
I also considered that it was a specific format causing the issue: mpeg layer 3 or 4. Songs crackle across the board.
Uninstalled iTunes again. Downloaded and installed iTunes 5 today. Songs still crackle!


I think I've narrowed down the problems to one of 2 problems:

*1. It is a problem with the program or program settings of iTunes. Something changed because it was working perfectly for a few years.

OR....

2. It is a system resource issue. It appears that iTunes uses more resources than Windows Media Player. My Norton Utilites program says that my 76% of my cache is being used. I also think it is a resource issue because the crackling seems to be connected more to the flow of the program than sound degradation. The mouse pointer tends to hang at the same time as the crackling. *

So, is there something else I can try?


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## culla (Sep 2, 2005)

have you checked to see what else is running? sounds like number 2 to me  
start/run/msconfig look at start up and uncheck unecessary programs starting up


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## culla (Sep 2, 2005)

start/run/msconfig look at start up and uncheck unecessary programs starting up


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## taber1205 (Jan 21, 2003)

Yeah, I've been there several times already checking things out and have unchecked several things. Most of what is left is Symantec/Norton, Zone Alarm, broadband cable, yahoo messenger, GoBack, and Microsoft find fast.

ccApp
ccRegVfy
SNDMon
RegCon
dump prep 0 -u
LXSUPMON
itunes helper
qttask
zlclient
ypager
GoBack
Microsoft Find Fast
Norton System Doctor

The only 2 I'm not familiar with are CCRegVfy and SNDMon which are both in the system32 folder.


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## culla (Sep 2, 2005)

CCRegVfy and SNDMon are to do with norton but there are a few things that can be turned off


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## taber1205 (Jan 21, 2003)

I went ahead and disabled iTuneshelper, qtask, and ypager. I still have poor performance with iTunes. What is confusing is that I don't have poor performance with any other program that I run. I can have Microsoft FrontPage, a browser, and an FTP program going at the same time with no issues. 

As an exercise, I just turned off Norton Utilities, Norton Antivirus, Zone Alarm, and Roxio GoBack to have minimal program running. I still have poor performance from iTunes. 

Here's my big question of the moment: what does it mean when Norton System Doctor says that 83% of my RAM is being used for cache? This is a fairly frequent reading especially immediately after startup.


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## culla (Sep 2, 2005)

post a hjt log just in case


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## taber1205 (Jan 21, 2003)

Here you go...

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 9:18:30 PM, on 9/17/2005
Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP2 (6.00.2900.2180)

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\LEXBCES.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\LEXPPS.EXE
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccEvtMgr.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\LXSUPMON.EXE
C:\Program Files\Roxio\GoBack\GBTray.exe
C:\Program Files\Roxio\GoBack\GBPoll.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS7Debug\mdm.exe
C:\Program Files\Mediabee\src\py\srvInst\MbXmlRpcServer.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\mgabg.exe
C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton AntiVirus\navapsvc.exe
C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton Utilities\NPROTECT.EXE
C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\SPEEDD~1\nopdb.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\Security Center\SymWSC.exe
C:\Program Files\iPod\bin\iPodService.exe
C:\Program Files\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\zlclient.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ZoneLabs\vsmon.exe
C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
C:\DOCUME~1\User\LOCALS~1\Temp\Temporary Directory 1 for hijackthis.zip\HijackThis.exe

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://news.google.com/
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://www.insightbb.com
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Connection Wizard,ShellNext = http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Window Title = Microsoft Internet Explorer provided by Insight Broadband
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings,ProxyOverride = local.,
O2 - BHO: AcroIEHlprObj Class - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {53707962-6F74-2D53-2644-206D7942484F} - C:\PROGRA~1\SPYBOT~1\SDHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: UberButton Class - {5BAB4B5B-68BC-4B02-94D6-2FC0DE4A7897} - C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common\yiesrvc.dll
O2 - BHO: YahooTaggedBM Class - {65D886A2-7CA7-479B-BB95-14D1EFB7946A} - C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common\YIeTagBm.dll
O2 - BHO: CNavExtBho Class - {BDF3E430-B101-42AD-A544-FADC6B084872} - C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Norton AntiVirus - {42CDD1BF-3FFB-4238-8AD1-7859DF00B1D6} - C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Yahoo! Toolbar - {EF99BD32-C1FB-11D2-892F-0090271D4F88} - C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Companion\Installs\cpn0\yt.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ccApp] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ccRegVfy] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccRegVfy.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Symantec NetDriver Monitor] C:\PROGRA~1\SYMNET~1\SNDMon.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SAClient] "C:\Program Files\Insight\BBClient\Programs\RegCon.exe" /admincheck
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [UserFaultCheck] %systemroot%\system32\dumprep 0 -u
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [LXSUPMON] C:\WINDOWS\system32\LXSUPMON.EXE RUN
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Zone Labs Client] C:\Program Files\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\zlclient.exe
O4 - Startup: Norton System Doctor.LNK = C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton Utilities\SYSDOC32.EXE
O4 - Global Startup: GoBack.lnk = C:\Program Files\Roxio\GoBack\GBTray.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Microsoft Find Fast.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\FINDFAST.EXE
O8 - Extra context menu item: &Yahoo! Search - file:///C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common/ycsrch.htm
O8 - Extra context menu item: Yahoo! &Dictionary - file:///C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common/ycdict.htm
O8 - Extra context menu item: Yahoo! &Maps - file:///C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common/ycmap.htm
O8 - Extra context menu item: Yahoo! &SMS - file:///C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common/ycsms.htm
O9 - Extra button: Yahoo! Services - {5BAB4B5B-68BC-4B02-94D6-2FC0DE4A7897} - C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common\yiesrvc.dll
O9 - Extra button: AIM - {AC9E2541-2814-11d5-BC6D-00B0D0A1DE45} - C:\PROGRA~1\AIM\aim.exe
O9 - Extra button: Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O10 - Unknown file in Winsock LSP: c:\program files\bonjour\mdnsnsp.dll
O14 - IERESET.INF: START_PAGE_URL=http://www.insightbb.com
O16 - DPF: {04E214E5-63AF-4236-83C6-A7ADCBF9BD02} (HouseCall Control) - http://housecall60.trendmicro.com/housecall/xscan60.cab
O16 - DPF: {084F552D-19EB-4668-9788-984CBC781A8F} - http://survey.otxresearch.com/Preloader.dll
O16 - DPF: {0E5F0222-96B9-11D3-8997-00104BD12D94} (PCPitstop Utility) - http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/PCPitStop.CAB
O16 - DPF: {30528230-99f7-4bb4-88d8-fa1d4f56a2ab} (YInstStarter Class) - C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common\yinsthelper.dll
O16 - DPF: {3FE16C08-D6A7-4133-84FC-D5BFB4F7D886} (WebGameLoader Class) - http://i.grab.com/media/d3d944/games/files/222/222.cab
O16 - DPF: {4C226336-4032-489F-9674-67E74225979B} - http://www.otxresearch.com/OTXMedia/OTXMedia.dll
O16 - DPF: {6414512B-B978-451D-A0D8-FCFDF33E833C} (WUWebControl Class) - http://v5.windowsupdate.microsoft.c...ls/en/x86/client/wuweb_site.cab?1110408430793
O16 - DPF: {87056D28-9730-4A47-B9F9-7E890B62C58A} (WildfireActiveXHost Class) - http://media.grab.com/media/35f4a8/games/files/1147/axhost.cab
O16 - DPF: {9B03C5F1-F5AB-47EE-937D-A8EDA626F876} (Anonymizer Anti-Spyware Scanner) - http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/promotions/spywaredetector/WebAAS.cab
O16 - DPF: {AB86CE53-AC9F-449F-9399-D8ABCA09EC09} (Get_ActiveX Control) - https://h17000.www1.hp.com/ewfrf-JAVA/Secure/HPGetDownloadManager.ocx
O16 - DPF: {C4925E65-7A1E-11D2-8BB4-00A0C9CC72C3} (Virtools WebPlayer Class) - http://a532.g.akamai.net/f/532/6712/4h/player.virtools.com/downloads/player/Install3.0/Installer.exe
O16 - DPF: {D54160C3-DB7B-4534-9B65-190EE4A9C7F7} (SproutLauncherCtrl Class) - http://media.grab.com/media/fbd793/games/files/209/SproutLauncher.cab
O16 - DPF: {DF780F87-FF2B-4DF8-92D0-73DB16A1543A} - http://i.grab.com/media/70efdf/games/files/606/popcaploader_v6.cab
O23 - Service: Bonjour Service - Apple Computer, Inc. - C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Event Manager (ccEvtMgr) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccEvtMgr.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Password Validation Service (ccPwdSvc) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccPwdSvc.exe
O23 - Service: GBPoll - Roxio, Inc. - C:\Program Files\Roxio\GoBack\GBPoll.exe
O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\11\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe
O23 - Service: iPodService - Apple Computer, Inc. - C:\Program Files\iPod\bin\iPodService.exe
O23 - Service: LexBce Server (LexBceS) - Lexmark International, Inc. - C:\WINDOWS\system32\LEXBCES.EXE
O23 - Service: Mediabee (Mediabee Desktop Server) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Mediabee\src\py\srvInst\MbXmlRpcServer.exe
O23 - Service: MGABGEXE - Matrox Graphics Inc. - C:\WINDOWS\system32\mgabg.exe
O23 - Service: MSCSPTISRV - Sony Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\AVLib\MSCSPTISRV.exe
O23 - Service: Norton AntiVirus Auto Protect Service (navapsvc) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton AntiVirus\navapsvc.exe
O23 - Service: Norton Unerase Protection (NProtectService) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton Utilities\NPROTECT.EXE
O23 - Service: PACSPTISVR - Sony Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\AVLib\PACSPTISVR.exe
O23 - Service: ScriptBlocking Service (SBService) - Symantec Corporation - C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\SYMANT~1\SCRIPT~1\SBServ.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Network Drivers Service (SNDSrvc) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\SNDSrvc.exe
O23 - Service: Speed Disk service - Symantec Corporation - C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\SPEEDD~1\nopdb.exe
O23 - Service: Sony SPTI Service (SPTISRV) - Sony Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\AVLib\SPTISRV.exe
O23 - Service: SymWMI Service (SymWSC) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\Security Center\SymWSC.exe
O23 - Service: TrueVector Internet Monitor (vsmon) - Zone Labs, LLC - C:\WINDOWS\system32\ZoneLabs\vsmon.exe


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## culla (Sep 2, 2005)

O4 - Global Startup: Microsoft Find Fast.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\FINDFAST.EXE 
(Description: Complete utter waste of space! Part of MS Office - searches disk drives for Office file types and creates an index to make opening them easier. Removing this entry will free up a significant amount of system resources. )

turn this one off see if that helps


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## taber1205 (Jan 21, 2003)

Thanks for the tip; I'd been wondering about that startup item. However, I'm still sitting with the same problem. I can run multiple programs smoothly, but if I even run iTunes by itself it crackles on me. Do you think that iTunes for WINXP is a "heavier" program that would take up more resources? Or, is this problem have something to do with the RAM or CPU? I still don't understand if the readings from Norton System Doctor are good or bad when it says 87% of my RAM is used for the cache.


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## culla (Sep 2, 2005)

i tunes works on my sons comp [p350 64mb ram] so it should work on yours you say it worked fine before

since youv'e removed that 04 item uninstall i tunes make sure it is gone completely run ccleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp 
including issues
do a defrag reinstall itunes


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## taber1205 (Jan 21, 2003)

I've uninstalled itunes, run ccleaner (including issues), defragged the hard drive, and then reinstalled itunes. Same issues: crackling. Just for good measure, I played identical tracks on itunes and Windows Media Player. No problems with Media Player, I'm sad to say. It still surprises me that I'm able to burn and play flawless CDs with iTunes, and yet I can't play the same playlist through the program without sound flaws. 

Still confounded.


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## culla (Sep 2, 2005)

thats weird got me any other takers?


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## AttackRabbit (Nov 28, 2003)

i had the same exact problem. Im not sure what happened but after installed windows xp service pack 2, not only did i tunes start to crackle , but my preferred audio recording/editing software had trouble playing back its virtual project files. Songs would skip, crack, pop, etc. All my other media devices work great. I would be curious as to understand exactly how the itunes audio engine uses codecs to handle different media and how maybe windows updates could have affected this.


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## taber1205 (Jan 21, 2003)

That's interesting. However, I can confirm that I was initially running Service Pack 2 with no problems with iTunes. Possibly, there was a windows update within the last 2 months that could be caused the conflict?? 

I'm wondering if AttackRabbit had the entire library and playlists wiped out as well?


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## taber1205 (Jan 21, 2003)

I did have a guy mention that it is possible that the EQ was whacked. I'm not really sure how to pursue that option other than to make adjustments to the equilizer settings window.


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## AttackRabbit (Nov 28, 2003)

im thinking that something , windows or possibly itunes itself, managed to change some system setting somewhere. or replaced a .dll or other system file in the process of installation. Maybe an audio buffer setting was modified or certain media files are being directed through an in appropriate channel. this is just speculation , but its the only conclusion i can make. I was using samplitude 7.0 pro for years without one problem, with less ram then i have now. Sometime over the last six months , something happened to the way it handles virtual wav projects and it the audio playback is choopy, distorted, and disjointed. The same thing happened with itunes. i feel the pain .


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## tw33ty (Nov 18, 2005)

Hi All,

Funnily enough, I have an identical problem. I have my collection stored on a second PC (100Mb Ethernet) with no other traffic on a switch. 

When I play any track using WinAmp, the song is crackle free. However, as soon as I play it in iTunes, the song crackles and pops.

When running iTunes, the machine is no where nere maxed out (AMD 2600, 1GB RAM, fast SATA drive etc). This machine can run Battlefield 2 for god's sake! Surely it can handle iTunes!

Running XP in case that is the issue. And all tunes are MP3s (Lame encoded ... Uber rips etc).

It seems we are not alone though: (my comments are SHOUTED)

THE LAST SOLUTION FIXED IT FOR ME!!
(Guys, sorry but I had to remove the URLs in order to post ... new member)
_______________________________
Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 12:37:08 -0400
From: gfink
Subject: Re: iTunes Pops and Crackles
I, too, noticed the severe distortion sometimes present in iTunes 3. At first I thought I was overloading my external receiver, or possibly the Mac's internal preamp. I never had a problem with previous versions, and it seemed as though iTunes had maintained all of my previous preferences, so I was truly baffled. In the past, if you adjusted the iTunes equalizer (or SoundJam's, for that matter) to levels that were too high, you could overload the Mac's audio circuitry.
Not so, this time. After extensive testing, I realized it was iTunes's normalizer (Preferences > Effects > Sound Check). Just by having it on, seemingly random passages in music suffered from the pops and crackling, and at any combination of iTunes/OS X volume settings, with or without the equalizer turned on. (I don't use the Sound Enhancer at all.) I'd been waiting for years for someone to implement this in MP3 software, but it looks like I'll be waiting some more. I turned Sound Check off, and now everything's back to normal. As a side note, I have converted my entire (2500+ songs) MP3 library to v2.4 ID3 tags; I would be curious to hear if anyone experiences the same distortion with v2.3 or earlier tags.
Geoffrey Fink 
THIS DID NOT WORK FOR ME
________________________
Anonymous
hey i had the same exact problem. if your on a pc, go into the contorl panel, go to sound or something like that, and change your output channel. its really easy. i found the link somewhere on yahoo or google and now i can't find it. keep looking there is a solution.
_______________________
This page suggests that it might be large collections of music that do it ... I suppose the only way to do this is to remove everything from your collection and try it ...
_______________________
Apple Site: Article Number 93610
THIS WORKED FOR ME! JUST CHANGE THE SETTINGS FOR QUICKTIME AS SHOWN ABOVE (ND REPRODUCED BELOW ... HAPPY TUNES ...

If audio doesn't sound right when you play a song in iTunes or QuickTime Player, the Sound Out setting in the QuickTime control panel may be set to the wrong option, or there may be a conflict between the audio enhancing effects of the sound card and iTunes' Sound Enhancer feature. Things you might notice include:

* A song or audiobook may play too fast or too slow.
* The audio playback may sound scratchy or muffled.
* There is no sound when playing.
* The playhead does not progress.

Try changing the QuickTime Sound Out Setting to improve the quality:
QuickTime 6

1. Click the Start button and point to Control Panel.
2. From the menu at the top of the QuickTime Settings window, choose Sound Out.
3. Select a different option in the "Choose a device for playback" menu.

QuickTime 7

1. Click the Start button and point to Control Panel.
2. Open the QuickTime control panel.
3. Click the "Safe mode (waveOut only)" checkbox.

Some PC audio hardware has audio-enhancing effects that can conflict with iTunes' Sound Enhancer feature.

To resolve these conflicts, do one of the following:
* Turn off the effects for your PC's audio hardware using the configuration software that came with your hardware.
* Disable the Sound Enhancer feature in iTunes:
1. Open iTunes.
2. From the Edit menu, choose Preferences.
3. Click the Effects tab.
4. Deselect Sound Enhancer.


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