System sounds issue with Win2K

[hhpwang]

Hi there,

I have a machine that sometimes takes a really long time to play the .wav files that have been assigned to system events. For instance, the "bing!" tones associated with a new IM or a dialog box opening sometimes take as long as five seconds to play. During the wait time, the entire machine freezes up, and it appears that the hard drive is looking for the file. If I'm burning a CD on my 12x burner and this happens, forget it -- guaranteed buffer underrun. I'm really at a loss as to why this happens. Any help would be appreciated!

Since I don't really know what system info is relevant to this problem, I'm posting my machine's system summary from sandra below -- thanks again to anyone who can help!

Processor(s)
Model : AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1800+
Speed : 1.53GHz
Model Number : 1800 (estimated)
Performance Rating : PR2214 (estimated)
Type : Standard
L2 On-board Cache : 256kB ECC synchronous write-back

System Mainboard
Bus(es) : ISA AGP PCI USB SMBus/i2c
MP Support : No
System BIOS : American Megatrends Inc. 07.00T
System Mainboard : ECS K7S5A
System Chipset : Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) SiS735 CPU to PCI Bridge
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 133MHz (266MHz data rate)
Installed Memory : 256MB DDR-SDRAM
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 133MHz (266MHz data rate)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : Plug and Play Monitor
Adapter : RADEON 8500/RADEON 8500LE

Physical Storage Devices
Removable Drive : Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive : Maxtor 91366U4
Disk Drive : ST340016A
Disk Drive : eUSB Compact Flash USB Device
CD-ROM/DVD : SONY CD-RW CRX160E
CD-ROM/DVD : AXV CD/DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device

Logical Storage Devices
1.44MB 3.5" A: N/A
Hard Disk C: 2.9GB (569MB, 19% Free) (NTFS)
Hard Disk D: 980MB (673MB, 69% Free) (FAT)
Hard Disk E: 15.6GB (8.8GB, 56% Free) (NTFS)
Hard Disk F: 15.6GB (590MB, 4% Free) (NTFS)
Hard Disk G: 3.9GB (1.2GB, 32% Free) (FAT32)
Hard Disk H: 3.9GB (2.1GB, 53% Free) (FAT32)
Hard Disk I: 3.9GB (263MB, 7% Free) (FAT32)
Hard Disk J: 3.1GB (2.3GB, 74% Free) (NTFS)
CD-ROM/DVD K: : N/A
Removable Disk L: : N/A
CD-ROM/DVD M: : N/A

Peripherals
Serial/Parallel Port(s) : 3 COM / 1 LPT
USB Controller/Hub : SiS 7001 PCI to USB Open Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub : SiS 7001 PCI to USB Open Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : Generic USB Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Mass Storage Device
Keyboard : Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse : Microsoft PS/2 Port Mouse (IntelliPoint)

MultiMedia Device(s)
Device : MPU-401 Compatible MIDI Device
Device : Standard Game Port
Device : Creative SB Live! series(WDM)
Device : Game Port for Creative SB Live!

Communication Device(s)
Device : SoftK56 Data Fax Voice Speakerphone CARP

Printers and Faxes
Model : WinFax (Photo Quality)
Model : WinFax
Model : HP LaserJet 4L
Model : Fax
Model : Acrobat Distiller

Operating System(s)
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Ver 5.00.2195 Service Pack 3

Network Adapter(s)
Networking Installed : Yes
Adapter : SiS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter

 

[liquidtech]

It sounds to me like you need a defrag really bad lol. Besides that ... make sure you have the right drivers for your sound card. Generic drivers, innapropriate, or corrupted drivers many times cause strange ghost problems. It may also be a problem with some of your system files being damaged or missing, try running some kind of diagnostic software like system works to find registry or system file problems with your o/s.