Bad Sound Distortion when Playing Streaming Media

Hi All,

I'm not sure how long this has been going on, but I have a problem when listening to streaming audio through Flash Player (like YouTube). When I first play the stream, it sounds very distorted and choppy....even the video is shaky. If I'm listening to a song, it actually slows down during the distortion...almost like a skipping CD.

Once I get into the stream, it smooths out. Sometimes it seems OK, other days it gets really bad.

I do NOT have this problem at all when playing Audio CD's or when playing an audio file stored on my computer. I've noticed that this phenomena only occurs when viewing Flash Player, streaming audio.

I've tried updating my sound card driver but I have a Sigmatel driver and the only place to get it is from the DELL website.....and they haven't posted a new driver since Jan. 2007!
So I then, uninstalled and then reinstalled the current driver....no dice.

This happens in both browsers...IE7 & Firefox 3.

Here are my specs.

Motherboard - Dell DM051 (OHJ054)
BIOS - Rev. A07 (Pheonix)
Chipset - Intel 945G Express Chipset Family
CPU - Intel Pentium D Dual Core 2.8 GHz
RAM - 2 GB, 2 sticks of DDR-2 (1GB each)
Audio - Sigmatel High Def. Audio Codec
Dell Brand Speakers

OS - Vista Home Premium SP1, fully updated
Flash Player - Version 10.0.22.87

Anyone else experiencing this issue?

Any help would be appreciated...

Graphics card or your getting some really horrible streaming. I've also noticed that it may also occur if you have a bit low on RAM.. But 2GB should be sufficient.. I have 1GB and I rarely have problems.. Maybe check if your browser is leaking memory?

Thanks, Swordie for the reply.

Maybe check if your browser is leaking memory?

How would I do that?

Thanks, Swordie for the reply.

Maybe check if your browser is leaking memory?

How would I do that?

Control+Alt+Delete.

You can just see the size on the line next to your browser. I know for firefox it's firefox.exe, IE: Iexplorer.exp and Safari: Safari.exe.
Hopefully it's not leaking memory.

You can tell it's leaking if your getting 500,000K+ of usage when you have 1 or 2 tabs open.

BTW: Have you tried this on different browsers?

Edited by Swordie, 01 March 2009 - 12:37 AM.