Choppy DVD playback driving me nuts!!

Hey all Please help me out with this one... I have a refurbished Acer 9410 notebook with Windows XP.
A few months back I was loading CD's into my iTunes and surfing the web when my system locked up something fierce. I had to turn off power without logging off to power down. On reboot it ran a disc check, but started right up.
After that, when pulling cd's and listening to music simultaneously, the audio was VERY choppy-with like a feedback echo or somethin'. Also, the system seemed to lag a bit when I was typing emails and the such. There was a time delay between the keystrokes and the letters appearing.
I cleaned out all excess files using both disc cleanup, defragged the hard drive, and scanned the system with Norton 360 and Spybot S&D. The speed seemed to return and outside of pulling CD's and listeneing to music (which I no longer did) everything seemed fine. That is, until I tried to play a DVD...
When playing a DVD the playback is choppy-both video and audio. There also is a lot of static sounding audio feedback (clicking, popping) that seems to be more prevalent when there is more action on the screen.
I've searched online for days and have tried all I can find. Again I've scanned, defragged, switched the IDE to DMA in device manager, physically removed and reinserted my ram...but nothing has helped. Playback is the same with both Power DVD and Windows Media player.
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Sean

 

Hmm. Would say that your optical drive has decided to pack in. Replacing should fix it.

 

Ugh!!! Is there any way for me to test the optical drive before I do that?

 

You could try switching it back to IDE mode, then download the nero test. It can be found here

 

Thanks. I'll give it a shot. But let me throw this at you first. I just ran a diagnostic on iTunes which required me to insert a pre-recorded cd. This was on NOT in my iTunes library, so it began uploading it. Because of that my entire system is currently slow and choppy-including writing this post. Doesn't that imply some sort of RAM issue?

 

Its possible. Normally you would start getting blue screens with RAM issues, but if it is only a mild fault then it is certainly a possibility. Try running a long RAM test (about 6 hours should catch any faults). Preferably run one off a boot cd if possible. One can be found here

 

run msconfig and take a look at what is running at start-up.

or Ctrl+Alt+Del and take a look and see what is running.

I had big trouble with I-tunes, it kept trying to get on the net all the time.
you may just have a ram hog or you just need more ram.
knowing your OS and how much ram would also be a help to us

 

I have the same problem. And I think the drive has decided to pass away. I'll try to ask someone at Acer for help next week. With any luck I might find out what was wrong.

 

Oops... Right. I have a Aspire 9410 with a dual 1.66 Ghz pentium processor. I have 1G of Ram and am runing Windows XP.

 

As far as start up I have FAR too many processes runing. Currently I'm trying to thin these out.

 

In keeping taskmanager open while playing a movie I realized the CPU is at 100%. I believe this is the problem. But it didn't used to do this (before the computer crashed)

 

OK. Upon further examination my CPU IS NOT at 100% while I watch a movie. Right now as I type this message and watch a flick the CPU's at 50-70%...so that's not it.

 

you need to thin out start-up and then pop over to Blackviper.com.
this will show you what services you can disable safely because windows does like to start-up loads of junk you never use.
have you tried googling some of your processes ?
im typing this on a celeron m420 and cpu just hit 17%. so you have a cpu hog.
and more ram would be nice 2Gb

 

I have started googling processes...great minds think alike Not being computer savy-in my own opinion-I was afraid to start pulling out proceses. When I remove them from the taskmanager list they're gone, right> Thanks for the heads-up on Blackviper.com. I'll check it. And look into more RAM.

 

do like hoggie suggested
BLACKVIPER has an extensive list of processes and what they do and when they are required. Using info on his page will allow you to remove all but the essential processes for your environment.

props to hoggie for his advice.

later,
bigozone

 

no. when you remove or end task there just shut down for that session.
you need to find out what is starting them up and fix from within.
google then read up on them. it does take some work but after a few searches it becomes easier and you start to learn what windows is up to.

good luck mate.

 

Thanks Hoggie