Disable Microsoft Software Wavetable Synthesizer, My Music’s Cutting Out…
We recently encountered a system that had an intermittent sound problem. After running for a few days, any music played would fade and recover repeatedly. After researching the problem, we started with a typical round of updates to the usual suspects. Those being sound card drivers, codec’s, any media player software being utilized for playback. At first this seemed to resolve the issue, but after just a few days, the problem returned.
Not only was this a problem with our media players, but it was also effecting streaming online music. Our current favorite online music service is Last.Fm. After Pandora’s recent decision to limit users free listening to 40 hrs a month.
So at this point we were able to eliminate our browsers and media players, as these were both up to date. The next thing to rule out was our hardware. This was simple enough as the hardware is a home theater system that’s utilized by other devices, all of which never have an issue. By process of elimination were left with drivers and media enhancement software’s.
As it turns out there’s an enhancement loaded by windows, our version being “Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit”. That particular enhancement goes by the name of “Microsoft Software Wavetable Synthesizer”. When opening your sound properties from the control panel, you’ll typically see 3 tabs across the top of the window. These are, Playback, Recording, and Sounds. You’ll more than likely be on the Sounds tab by default. If windows sounds drive you nuts, as they do us, this is a good opportunity to disable them. Simply choose “No Sounds” from the drop down on the sounds tab. In Vista you also have the option to load the startup sound separately.
Now select the “Playback” tab, and double click the upper device, usually called “Speakers”. If you’re not sure which device is your default playback device, play some music and look for the device with active levels. Double click that device and navigate to the “Advanced” tab. If selected, unselect both boxes under “Exclusive Mode”. Don’t be tempted to increase your sample rate on this tab. Typically the defaults are optimal, and increasing them could lead to an exaggeration of what we’re here to fix.
Keep in mind systems will vary in these areas depending on drivers, system setup, and so forth. So you’re settings may look slightly different. Next choose the “Enhancements” tab. Disable everything on this tab, if possible.
Now restart you computer, and the issue should be resolved. We mention earlier in the article that as part of our diagnosis, we updating system drivers and codec’s. In the long run, regular updates will lead to a much more positive computing experience, and will drastically reduce the number of errors you encounter. Let us know if this was helpful by leaving a reply below. Happy computing. 
Media Player Skips When My Browser Loads a Page..
I had this very same problem with my brand new Microsoft Vista X64 machine. At first I though it was the fact that I was using the newest version of Firefox. But after a bit of research we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t actually the browser causing the system lag, it was the audio codec. Most people are having this issue with Sigmatel HD Audio Codec. In my case it was Realtek HD Audio. Luckily for everyone reading this, the fix is quite simple.
Toshiba Satellite 1800 laptop, the display is blank but works when hooked up to an external monitor.
Here’s a question we recently received. My Toshiba Satellite 1800 laptop display is blank but it works when hooked up to an external monitor. There’s any number of things that could cause this issue. So we’ll try to cover everything we think would cause this issue.
1. The first question we’d ask is, was the operating system recently reinstalled? If so do you have the correct drivers installed for the system?
2. The second thing we would look at is the display itself. While the screen may be blank it can still be displaying an image. Take a flashlight and shine it at an angle to the screen. If you can see the “shadow” of your screen, and your mouse moving around, the problem is most likely a LCD backlight problem, or an LCD inverter problem. If the backlight went out suddenly, its typically the inverter. If the light faded over time, its typically the actual backlight. Seeing that an external monitor works, this is more than likely the answer to your problem.
3. If you can’t see a “shadow” of your display and you haven’t taken your computer apart, and you haven’t reinstalled your OS. Then it’s most likely not a display issue. The next step is to diagnose the video card. This is a little more in depth, but in most cases, if a video card is suspected to be the problem, it should simply be replaced. This doesn’t apply to all laptops. Most laptop motherboards use integrated video cards.
Hopefully this was helpful. If you have any follow up questions, please feel free to ask.
After I Uninstall Norton 360 I Can Ping Websites, But Not Browse The Web
I’ve never been a big fan of Norton. Their products always seem to slow systems down, and seem to cause more problems then they resolve. This system was no different. Norton 360 had been uninstalled through add remove programs. Norton ended up leaving bits and pieces of itself all over the computer. Which left the machine in an unusable state. Using a command prompt we could ping google.com, which means DNS is ok. We then attempted to rebuild the Winsock, which again didn’t work. It was at this point we knew the problem had to be Norton. After a bit of googleing we found “The Norton Removal Tool” After we ran this little gem the computer restarted, and we were back in business.
After the repair we loaded on Avast Professional. Avast is an excellent anti-virus that’s uses far fewer resources than Norton. We also recommend AVG anti-virus.
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