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March 19, 2024, 09:41:12 AM

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POST COMPUTER PROBLEMS IN THIS THREAD ONLY

Started by Nobody Soup, February 08, 2013, 12:41:30 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Spiteface

Got a weird one.

Bought a CD or two lately, quite cheaply. Tried importing them as MP3s into iTunes for my iPod.  Sounds FUCKING HORRIBLE.  I am not talking about the actual music itself, more that everything is horribly distorted, like I'm listening to a detuned radio. Playing the CD itself sounds the same, too. It also sounds like this in Winamp, VLC and Windows Media Player, so I know the problem does not lie with iTunes.

Bizarrely, the CDs sound just fine when played elsewhere, like through my blu-ray player etc.

My PC is not that old, got it in April last year.  Is it just that this thing has a shite/weird CD/DVD drive? Or is there anything I could try to remedy this?

Consignia

The CD might have some sort of copy protection on it? You might want to try taking a CD image using of those ripping programs, and mounting it in a virtual drive to see if that it plays OK. I'm sure that's possible, although I've never done it myself.

Spiteface

It was an old CD, long before copy protection was a thing.

Consignia

Was it second hand? Might be CD rot. I still recommend ripping it and seeing if it plays. I found that sometimes standalone CD players were more forgiving with errors than PC CD drives.

Quote from: Consignia on February 23, 2013, 06:09:31 PM
Thanks. I was only initially thinking of just a normal hard drive, do you think think it's worth getting an SSD in addition?

You could go for a hybrid drive as your system drive, such as the Seagate Momentus XT. Not as fast as an SSD but more storage for the money so it's a balance between the two.

There were some problems with the Momentus XT's when they first came out a couple of years ago but I believe they've ironed them out now. I'm using a 750GB one now without a hitch and I put a 250GB one in my mums laptop well over a year ago and she's had no problem.

NoSleep

Quote from: Spiteface on February 23, 2013, 07:55:27 PM
Got a weird one.

Bought a CD or two lately, quite cheaply. Tried importing them as MP3s into iTunes for my iPod.  Sounds flipping HORRIBLE.  I am not talking about the actual music itself, more that everything is horribly distorted, like I'm listening to a detuned radio. Playing the CD itself sounds the same, too. It also sounds like this in Winamp, VLC and Windows Media Player, so I know the problem does not lie with iTunes.

Bizarrely, the CDs sound just fine when played elsewhere, like through my blu-ray player etc.

My PC is not that old, got it in April last year.  Is it just that this thing has a plops/weird CD/DVD drive? Or is there anything I could try to remedy this?

Try ripping it with Exact Audio Copy (or XLD if it's a Mac), or even try ripping it on somebody else's computer. It may be jitter caused by reading errors on your computer's CD drive, although jitter is normally overcome when you rip a CD, only showing when you play it in the drive. Which means there may be something wrong with the drive.
There's also the chance that it it is some kind of copy protection as Consignia mentioned. I recall reading something about one company using audible "watermarks" all over their new product which produces distortion even on the FLAC versions of their product. I'll look though my history and see when I was searching for this and post some links.

NoSleep

Here's a link about the audible watermark: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=1a248939b18f26264aada66e7b9bcdf3&showtopic=89818&st=25

That seems to only cover digital downloads, not CDs. A shitty thing to do to paying customers in the war against piracy, nonetheless.

Spiteface

Quote from: NoSleep on February 23, 2013, 08:33:25 PM
Try ripping it with Exact Audio Copy (or XLD if it's a Mac), or even try ripping it on somebody else's computer. It may be jitter caused by reading errors on your computer's CD drive, although jitter is normally overcome when you rip a CD, only showing when you play it in the drive. Which means there may be something wrong with the drive.
There's also the chance that it it is some kind of copy protection as Consignia mentioned. I recall reading something about one company using audible "watermarks" all over their new product which produces distortion even on the FLAC versions of their product. I'll look though my history and see when I was searching for this and post some links.

Took your suggestion and tried EAC, which I used to use back in my student years when I used to trade bootlegs quite a bit.  Anyway, ripped one track with it - took a long time, but sounds fine.  Before it was completely unlistenable (Like I said, sounded like a really detuned radio).  I'll do the whole CD tomorrow, when I'll have a bit more time.

Oddly, I looked at the two CDs that I noticed this problem with. Both come from some part of Warner Bros.

Having had a quick look online, turns out this is a common issue with TSSTcorp drives like the one on this computer and Warner CDs.  People have fixed this by updating the firmware.  I'll give that a shot tomorrow.

Wilbur

Quote from: Consignia on February 23, 2013, 06:09:31 PM
Thanks. I was only initially thinking of just a normal hard drive, do you think think it's worth getting an SSD in addition? I'm rather ambivalent about the graphics output. I was thinking about DVI, but a quick google suggests I might as well go for HDMI.

Definitely get a 256 SSD for the OS. They are now dropping in price and you'll wonder how you ever coped with waiting for your old machine to boot up. 15 seconds on this machine, sometimes I restart it just to be amazed......

Spiteface

Quote from: Spiteface on February 23, 2013, 11:28:07 PM
Took your suggestion and tried EAC, which I used to use back in my student years when I used to trade bootlegs quite a bit.  Anyway, ripped one track with it - took a long time, but sounds fine.  Before it was completely unlistenable (Like I said, sounded like a really detuned radio).  I'll do the whole CD tomorrow, when I'll have a bit more time.

Oddly, I looked at the two CDs that I noticed this problem with. Both come from some part of Warner Bros.

Having had a quick look online, turns out this is a common issue with TSSTcorp drives like the one on this computer and Warner CDs.  People have fixed this by updating the firmware.  I'll give that a shot tomorrow.

Didn't work. So I'm seemingly stuck with a CD/DVD drive that is just crap.

NoSleep

Is it a laptop? Even if it is, I'd suggest replacing the CD drive. I managed to do this on a laptop with no problems (albeit with some clear instructions and photos I found online). If it isn't a laptop the operation couldn't be easier.

If all that seems too much trouble, then buy an external CD drive.

Spiteface

Both of those options are crossing my mind right now.

I also have a Laptop that has the same issue [nb]Samsung, so yeah, I should have known[/nb], but seeing as I hardly keep anything on that, my main desktop thing is what's concerning me.

Hangthebuggers

Quote from: gabrielconroy on February 22, 2013, 02:53:34 PM
For the first one (from Yahoo Answers):

download msvcrt.dll from http://www.opendll.com/index.php?file-download=msvcrt.dll&arch=32Bit&version=7.0.7100.0&dsc=Windows-NT-CRT-DLL and extract to System32.

The second one sounds like it's something to with an update that caused conflicts. You could try disabling it from trying to run at startup altogether, since you presumably don't want to do something like system restore.

Hi again, it's not letting me export it to windows32 as it says it can export it over when a piece of software is using that dll

Hangthebuggers

I hasten to add, I believe this may be an audio error, possibly hardware since this computer used to be used for audio software and editing and my speakers sound a little 'fuzzy'.

I could try putting a different sound card in, but that involves arsing around with drivers and such, so first of all I'd like to fix the .dll errors before attempting any hardware fixes. Any suggestions?

i'll quote my problem again:

QuoteHaving recently got hold of a second hand computer, I keep getting the following error.

'the procedure entry point_except_handler4_common msvcrt.dll' this happens only upon start up.

and I also get this.

'error loading P17RuneE.dll'

I'd probably just reinstall windows but I don't have the disk and the computer has some nifty software on there that I don't wanna lose.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

gabrielconroy

Quote from: Hangthebuggers on February 24, 2013, 06:30:28 PM
Hi again, it's not letting me export it to windows32 as it says it can export it over when a piece of software is using that dll

What processes are running when you open Task Manager? Close any non-essential processes and try again. Also, download CCleaner, delete every startup entry you don't want starting every time you boot the computer (you could also do this through msconfig), and use its registry cleaner too. Then reboot and try copying it over again.

Blumf

msvcrt.dll is pretty fundamental DLL, used by almost all C/C++ based programs, you'll be hard pressed to get Windows down to a state where it isn't being used. In other words you'll have to fiddle about getting it installed via a reboot[nb]Windows locks DLL files that are being used by apps, this is why you have to reboot so often when installing/updating stuff[/nb]

May be worth checking it is actually the cause of the problem, and not just the point were the problem is picked up. I'd say it's the latter as you'd be having a hell of a lot more issues if it was broken. How you go about that? Pffffffftt <shrug>, it's fiddly, I don't know if there's an easy way.

Pseudopath

Quote from: Hangthebuggers on February 24, 2013, 07:00:29 PM
I could try putting a different sound card in, but that involves arsing around with drivers and such, so first of all I'd like to fix the .dll errors before attempting any hardware fixes. Any suggestions?

The P17RunE.dll file referenced in the second error message is definitely part of the Creative soundcard software, so your best bet might be to check the exact model of soundcard (you should be able to check this under Control Panel > System >  Device Manager and expanding the 'Sound, video and game controllers' option). Once you've got this information, uninstall anything soundcard-related (even if it means the sound stops working temporarily) using Control Panel > Programs and Features, which should get rid of the error. You can then download and install the latest drivers from the Creative website to get the sound working again.

weekender

Quote from: Wilbur on February 23, 2013, 02:32:11 PM
Loads of options in that price range. I'd suggest an i5 3500 home build with a SSD and a SATA 6 data drive and 16mb Ram. Stick it all in a SZ77 motherboard. Graphics card can be fairly low end if you dont want to game probably be decided on wether you want dual hdmi or DVI and or VGA.

Consignia - apologies for not following up before now.

I would always defer to Wilbur for specific recommendations, but it seems like the sort of things you should be aiming for are:

An SSD ( These easily worth the additional cost, as Wilbur has stated earlier).  Whether or not you need 256GB is debatable - I think of it as the SSD is what you use for actual 'doing' and external hard drives are used for 'storage', so this probably partially depends on what files you will be debugging.  It's probably worth going for a 256GB job for an element of future-proofing, I guess.

i5 processor (doesn't seem worth going up to an i7 (I'd veer towards this for gaming or video/sound editing) when this will do the job you require and enable you to upgrade other components)

16GB RAM (good level of future proofing, worth going for this but accepting 8GB would probably be fine)

Graphics card - I admit I don't have a great knowledge here, but I think aiming for a mid-range 1GB-2GB job would do you OK, and would support the HDMI dual-monitor set-up that you should probably be aiming for.

Motherboard - Again, I have no great knowledge here other than "I look for a motherboard which lets me fit everything to it that I want", so I'd maybe look at the other aspects first but with a view to upgrading in the future should you so desire.

Monitors - I bought a Samsung fairly recently, partially based on Wilbur's advice that Samsung are making great monitors (the other part was reading consumer reviews about specific models).  I have to say, it's the best monitor I have ever had.  You should get something decent around the £100-£150 mark depending on what size you want.

So with your overall budget in mind I think you should be aiming for £700-£800 for the PC, with the rest on the two monitors that you want to buy.

I'm not going to get into specific model recommendations, but I hope this is at least food for thought.

My next recommendation would be to play around with the customisable options on a few PC sites.  I'd start off with an i5 model around the £400 to £500 mark and then try and upgrade based on what you think is important.  These starting points might be useful; I find them quite user-friendly.

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/Mass-Effect-i5-3470-93p1570.htm
http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/custom/intel-sandy-bridge/step1.html

Consignia

You are an absolute star, weekender. Thanks to Wilbur and Too Many Cochranes as well. All advice is very much appreciated. I'll have a look at some of this stuff tomorrow.

I really should know this stuff, but it's so easy to fall out of step with tech.

Hangthebuggers

Thanks for the tips. It'll give me something to do tomorrow.

Howj Begg

Anyone had experience with this easylifeapp malware? It's on my laptop and I'm getting a new pc this week. I want to transfer files off the laptop to the pc - any serious chance of them being infected? Malware usually just affects system and registry files, right?


Howj Begg

Can't seem to do so. Admittedly I haven't gone in and manually changed the registry and all that malarkey, but I'm not too clever at that.

Wilbur

Quote from: Howj Begg on February 26, 2013, 02:43:41 AM
Anyone had experience with this easylifeapp malware? It's on my laptop and I'm getting a new pc this week. I want to transfer files off the laptop to the pc - any serious chance of them being infected? Malware usually just affects system and registry files, right?

Try malwarebytes. http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Howj Begg

Yes already tried it several times, but thanks. In my googling adventures it seems to be resistant to malwarebytes, as evidenced by several topics on Bleeping Computer. No it's a hard and persistent bugger this one.

What do you reckon then about malware infecting ordinary files, rather than system and registry files?

Wilbur

Quote from: Howj Begg on February 26, 2013, 01:50:06 PM
Yes already tried it several times, but thanks. In my googling adventures it seems to be resistant to malwarebytes, as evidenced by several topics on Bleeping Computer. No it's a hard and persistent bugger this one.

What do you reckon then about malware infecting ordinary files, rather than system and registry files?

Doesn't happen THAT often but I do see it. Have you tried combofix  and or tdskiller ?

Howj Begg

Yeah tried combofix that didn't do owt. tdskiller looks promising. Cheers.

vrailaine

If anyone wants to take a stab at figuring out my stackoverflow question from here, go ahead. I'm convinced I'm missing out on something incredibly obvious. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15096317/sql-syntax-error-regarding-insert-into-statementpossibly-date-related

Blumf

Quote from: vrailaine on February 26, 2013, 07:38:06 PM
If anyone wants to take a stab at figuring out my stackoverflow question from here, go ahead. I'm convinced I'm missing out on something incredibly obvious. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15096317/sql-syntax-error-regarding-insert-into-statementpossibly-date-related

My guess (not a PHP or MySQL user) is that the trick you're trying with the date field is failing. Try passing a whole string (or datetime variable) to it rather than the split up D,M,Y items.

MojoJojo