I thought I'd put them both in one thread to save time, even though they aren't related.

Problem #1: When playing MP3's (with any player) I get skips sometimes when I try to use other applications (such as surfing the net). Is this a RAM issue? I have 128MB and I have very little running in the background. Whatever it is, it's driving me nuts! :mad:

Problem #2: Not really a problem, but every so often I see a Java icon in my system tray. I didn't install it, and it's not there all the time. Also I cannot close it from the tray. WTF is up with that? It's making me a little nervous. :confused:

I think you need to upgrade with more ram Buc. I had the same problem with 256MB, but after I upgraded to 512MB it hardly ever occurs unless I have been online for days at the time.

#1: ya beef up your RAM
#2: can't u give it the vulcan nerve pinch (ctrl-alt-del) and see if it appears on the task manager? not sure on that one...maybe look at which programs go on the taskbar at startup
this can be done by typing in start>run: msconfig (in windows98...)

You didn't say if you are using Windows 98, NT, 2000, etc...

1) More RAM is not *necessarily* the answer. I can tell you this much, when I had my original 98 machine with 128 MB of memory, it was great. I doubled to 256 and saw ZERO performance increase. That's right, zero. Windows 98 has such $hit memory management that 256, 384, 512, and so forth just don't make much of a difference. I was expecting somewhat better performance after shelling out the money, but it didn't happen. NT, 2000, and XP have much better memory management, as well as multi-tasking. I have 384 in my machine and with 98, you don't see any better performance, but with 2000, it is much better. Sure, go ahead and add another 128 but I won't be a bit surprised if 98 doesn't improve.

I had the EXACT same problem with my MP3s. I would be playing a song, have something going on in the background, then if anything read or wrote to the hard disk, my MP3 would stop for up to 5 seconds, skip, then resume. My solution? I bought an IBM 7200 RPM drive. Now when it does skip, the time is cut in half. Almost all problems I had relating to skipping video, music, and everything else either went away or was cut in half.

So I would definitely look for a 7200 RPM drive. Maybe 256 memory under 98 will help you, but in all the 98 machines I've seen with 128 or 256, I saw zero difference in performance.

2) Something installed java. Netscape, Opera, god only knows. The Java Virtual Machine doesn't come with Windows. I've installed software and suddenly found 5 new things installed. It got there somehow. If you didn't install it, something else you installed did. I believe under Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove you can get rid of it. It's been over a year since I screwed with it personally.

Originally posted by aaron
You didn't say if you are using Windows 98, NT, 2000, etc...


Yikes! Good point. My machine is running Windows ME.

Anyway, thanks everyone for the help! :)

Something else you forgot to mention. What player are you using for MP3's? Media Player is a pig, plain and simple! I prefer using Winamp with DFX installed. Although I hear that Coolplayer runs pretty lean also. RAM is cheap enough right now that it couldn't hurt, but like Aaron said - Don't expect great things. Memory management in 9x pretty much blows. Both 2000 and XP handle it much better. Why... I'm running 640 MB's with barely a hiccup. :D

As for your second question. I have seen that before. I believe it was called Java Web or something. I had it installed on my system once, but I can't remember what app put it there. Maybe Opera? Look in both "msconfig" and your startup folder and see if you find anything that says "java" in there.

Let me know.

Originally posted by Shakey
Something else you forgot to mention. What player are you using for MP3's? Media Player is a pig, plain and simple! I prefer using Winamp with DFX installed. Although I hear that Coolplayer runs pretty lean also. RAM is cheap enough right now that it couldn't hurt, but like Aaron said - Don't expect great things. Memory management in 9x pretty much blows. Both 2000 and XP handle it much better. Why... I'm running 640 MB's with barely a hiccup. :D

As for your second question. I have seen that before. I believe it was called Java Web or something. I had it installed on my system once, but I can't remember what app put it there. Maybe Opera? Look in both "msconfig" and your startup folder and see if you find anything that says "java" in there.

Let me know.

Ohhh good point Shakey! I forgot about asking which media player was in use. I use Winamp which does excellent. Media Player sure as hell does use a lot more resources! It is good for watching movies, but for music I think it really sucks. I haven't used anything else for music, so I can't really say.

I definitely DON'T recommend using windows media player for your music.

As we have mentioned nolanbuc, you might go ahead and put another 128 meg stick in your machine to give you 256, but as long as you are running Windows 9x, don't expect much... if anything.

As for Windows ME, I can't really say. My understanding is that it is pretty much just Windows 9x in sheeps clothing. I can't say for sure because I never installed it at home.

Personally, I would recommend switching to Windows 2000. I use 2000 Pro at home with 384 megs of ram and with NT/2000/XP you CAN see a performance increase. Well I take that back, with XP I had nothing but problems and I hate it with a passion.

Still, 2000 runs DirectX 8 and overall is a decent little OS with good memory management.

So I can't say if adding another 128 megs to Windows ME will help, but it can't hurt. Worst that will happen is nothing.

I really recommend trying 2000 if you want to stick with Windows. I was afraid games, video, and such wouldn't work under 2000. They surely do. The only problems I have had is my video capture card is very dull under 2000, so I have to reboot to 98 to get a good bright picture, and my digital camera software doesn't run under NT/2000.

Other than that, it's not too bad.

I use a variety of players, the most often are Winmp, RealOne, or WMP 7.0. It skips on all of them (Winmp was actually the player I noticed it on first). I tried Coolplayer once, found the interface clumsy. BTW, what is DFX? :confused:

I'll try the RAM, it couldn't hurt. I wonder if allocating more HD space for virtual memory would help?

I am a techno peasant next to you guys but XP makes everything smoother. On 2000 we were always skipping. Couldn't afford extra RAM at the time so our solution at the time was to drag music right over from disc into the hard drive...viola no jumping, skipping etc. That has to be driving you buggy buc :)

stop laughing... he might want a simple answer :)

No one is laughing, Zel. It's actually a valid point. Files will run faster off of your hard drive than from CD.

BTW. Are you stalking me in my own forum? :vibrator: Cause that would be great! ;)

And Buc. DFX is a kind of enhancer for Winamp. Kind of like a super EQ/Amp. You can check it out here - DFX (http://www.fxsound.com/dfx-overview.html).

I had the exact same problem with ME. Go ahead and fork out the money for the extra ram. It WILL make a difference. Trust me!! :p

Originally posted by Flix
I had the exact same problem with ME. Go ahead and fork out the money for the extra ram. It WILL make a difference. Trust me!! :p

Da flix has spoken!:D thanks! :thumb:

And thanks Shakey! :thumb:

ya i noticed a difference when i upgraded from 128 to 256 and i'm using win98 (tho i'm about to do a full cleanout and put on w2k when i find some time)