Why is Windows Media Player distorting?

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   For ease sometimes I just set up a playlist in WMP and play it at random. Lately I've noticed that after a while it starts to distort and I have to restart the computer. This has happened on 3 different computers. Any ideas?

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knet94 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Young Croc Joined: 31 March 2008 Location: NW London Status: Offline Points: 1482	Post Options Post Reply Quote knet94 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Why is Windows Media Player distorting? Posted: 26 November 2016 at 6:29pm
	For ease sometimes I just set up a playlist in WMP and play it at random. Lately I've noticed that after a while it starts to distort and I have to restart the computer. This has happened on 3 different computers. Any ideas?

levyte357- Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Old Croc Joined: 27 July 2012 Location: UK, South East Status: Offline Points: 8004	Post Options Post Reply Quote levyte357- Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 26 November 2016 at 7:15pm
	Are you using built in sound card or external?
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Sypa Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Young Croc Joined: 21 February 2013 Location: Croatia Status: Offline Points: 894	Post Options Post Reply Quote Sypa Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 26 November 2016 at 7:42pm
	Question is why are you using windows media player? http://www.foobar2000.org/download Edited by Sypa - 26 November 2016 at 7:44pm

nickyburnell Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Old Croc Joined: 06 February 2005 Status: Offline Points: 4410	Post Options Post Reply Quote nickyburnell Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 26 November 2016 at 11:16pm
	Or VLC Media Player.. Suspect the, "onboard software inbuilt sound" is stealing too much ram and/or cpu over time? Lev??
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levyte357- Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Old Croc Joined: 27 July 2012 Location: UK, South East Status: Offline Points: 8004	Post Options Post Reply Quote levyte357- Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 26 November 2016 at 11:33pm
	Which version of Windows Ken? Try £10 usb key sound card, see if it works better.
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knet94 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Young Croc Joined: 31 March 2008 Location: NW London Status: Offline Points: 1482	Post Options Post Reply Quote knet94 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 November 2016 at 12:35pm
	Lev, I'm using external sound cards. Operating system is Windows 10. I have 3 external sound cards. @ Sypa only use it for convenience. @ nicky I do also have VLC which I am using now and will monitor the situation. Your explanation sounds the most feasible so far.

odc04r Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Old Croc Joined: 12 July 2006 Location: Sarfampton Status: Offline Points: 5483	Post Options Post Reply Quote odc04r Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 November 2016 at 1:04pm
	Worth watching the windows task manager (ctrl-alt-del and task manager) when it is happening. If there is any process that begins to take a lot of CPU time or RAM it could be your cuplrit. Another thing to check is any AV s/w entering a scheduled scan or any s/w running an update in the background you can't see.

knet94 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Young Croc Joined: 31 March 2008 Location: NW London Status: Offline Points: 1482	Post Options Post Reply Quote knet94 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 November 2016 at 2:14pm
	Yeah did try that but didn't see anything obvious.

levyte357- Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Old Croc Joined: 27 July 2012 Location: UK, South East Status: Offline Points: 8004	Post Options Post Reply Quote levyte357- Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 November 2016 at 2:57pm
	Ken, what is machine make/model, CPU, Mem size, Hard disk size, age of machine? Is Bios up to date?
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knet94 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Young Croc Joined: 31 March 2008 Location: NW London Status: Offline Points: 1482	Post Options Post Reply Quote knet94 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 November 2016 at 7:48pm
	Remember this happening on 3 different machines and 3 different soundcards. The one that I am using this moment is quite old, perhaps 5 years. It's a HP 2.4ghz with 4 gig of RAM. CPU isss AMD Athlon and there's 1tb hard drive. The updates are always applied. That's all the info i have.

levyte357- Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Old Croc Joined: 27 July 2012 Location: UK, South East Status: Offline Points: 8004	Post Options Post Reply Quote levyte357- Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 November 2016 at 8:39pm
	Could be ancient sound hardware, wrestling with Windows 10. Grab yourself a used £150 Dell E6420 laptop with Core I5 CPU, 4Gb Ram & Windows 7 COA. Update to latest Bios. Upgrade to Windows 10 for free. Sure your problems would disappear.
	Global Depopulation - Alive and Killing.

knet94 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Young Croc Joined: 31 March 2008 Location: NW London Status: Offline Points: 1482	Post Options Post Reply Quote knet94 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 November 2016 at 10:19pm
	Thanks for the advice Lev but this machine was upgraded from Windows 7. The other 2 machines are newer HP laptops upgraded from Windows 8 with newer external sound cards. These exhibit the same problem when listening for long periods.