Saveen Reddy's blog

This is just what i was looking for - I recently got a Dell Dimension 9200 and had the same problem, which was very annoying. This works for me too!!

Nice fix, cheers dude.

You are a genius - worked great, after I had tried lots of other stuff... but the funny thing is that I didnt have any enhancements checked (active) - but checking "disable enhancements" made it work perfectly

thank god, no more skips 20 sec before the end of each song!

Great - this  fixed my stuttering issue too.

Of course you can find this nugget on the Micro$oft site - NOT!

Cheers Saveen, thank god someone knows what they are doing! Cheers Microsoft & Dell for nothing..

Hey wow, this worked very nice for my Inspiron E1505, I've been having that problem for a while! Thanks guys!!!

Man, you are genius, that fix my problems too!!

thanks

Thanks. Sometimes I was waiting 15 seconds and more, to start a song on Media Player 11.

Using a DELL PRECISION M65 Laptop.

With deactivating as shown it works well!

:-)

WOW, just Beautiful!!!  I was trying to find out how to uninstall WMP11 from my new Dell Laptop with Vista for this Exact reason. No need to do that anymore.

Many Thanks!!!!

Thanks did the fix, and it corrected the 20 second skip at the end of each song, however by disabling my unchecked enhancements, I've lost my surround sound. (Logitech x530 speakers) Anyone else have this problem, same thing happens in their new Media Center.  

I just brought a asus pro31fseries laptop. I also got the same problem when playing audio on wmp11 my sound card is the same as in the picture but it doesn't have a enhancements tub. Is there another way to resolve this trouble.

i also have a new asus pro31fseries which does not have the enhancement hub on it i have tried everything  please help if possible

Wow that worked perfect on my new Inspiron 6400, thanks!

I have windows xp home edition and win media player 11 installed itself recently. at first i thought it looked awsome then i tried to listen to music on it and the music was skipping and studdering. There is no "enhancement" check box anywhere when i click "sound" in the control panel. how can i stop it with win. xp ?? i have a relatively high performance gaming machine so i know i have the resources. Win. media player 11 sounds like crap with the skips. Please, what can i do????

This is an update to my above question. I rolled back from win. media player 11 to win player 10 and my music was still skipping. win. media player 10 had not had that problem before the upgrade to 11. I tried everything and at first, nothing worked. I have a computer i built for gaming and with my gigabyte motherboard came a program called "easy tune 5". It allows you an easy way to overclock your computer. I have never had a problem with it or anything gigabyte makes but turning off easy tune 5 and rolling back to win media player 10 seems to have stoped my skipping problem.

As A note: My processor was never even close to being maxed out when my music skipped.

YES! Thanx.. although i am completely baffled as to how the enhancement option has any effect when all of the boxes are unchecked anyway! I too thought that it was a permanent problem and my new pc wasnt going to be as good for my music collection as i had hoped. Cheers for the info!

Thank you so much for this information! Now I've got one less thing to irritate me while I work.

I hated listening to the media player because of the skipping, but now I can enjoy my music in peace.

I currently am running Windows Vista ultimate on a 32-bit PC and have the exact same problem. However, like a few other users, my speakers do not have an "enhancements" tab.

I have uninstalled my audio driver and reinstalled the latest version "Realtek AC '97 Audio". If anyone has some new ideas, I'd really really really appreciate it.

THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH!!!

this absolutely worked for my inspiron 6400!!!

Thanks again you're a techno genius!!!

Worked Great for my XPS M1210!!! This was very annoying, why would Microsoft and Dell do something dumb like that...

dude, thanks.  the fix works!  delayed starts and constant stutters was driving me completely nuts.

Doing this fix helped me, I had been searching for a fix since I got this Dell Dimension E521 but found nothing until now. Turning off the SRS isn't recommended by me, since the sound quality goes down, instead use this fix!

ya, Im running Windows XP with WMP11 and Im experiencing stuttering of music about every 10-15 seconds. also, I have weird flickering of my monitor while I run WMP11, I think it could be because of wireless network drivers.

I'm so glad that somebody figured this out before I spent hours on the phone with Dell.  Nice job!  Thanks for posting the solution.

Would also like to add, this works for Gateway systems too, such as my GT5412 with the Sigmatel onboard sound.

This is fine and a great fix, but not an acceptable solution for me

The Creative audiy sound software that I spent extra money for is now disabled and I am forced to use media player 11 sound equalizer, which does not compare.

DELL should not sell preloaded software directly to the consumer whose drivers arent compatible.

This is

Hi,

tried your fix, but it has not worked. any other suggestions (I used to have a dell, but returned it because of the skiping problem. Now I have a Toshiba P205-S6287 with the same problem)

Yahoo player skips as well, Real locks up.

HELP!!!

Thanks

GREAT POST; I WAS IRRITATED WITH THIS PROBLEM; THANKS!!! I hope the driver apears soon...

Thank you - fixed finally!!  I've got a Dell Latitude D820.  This was driving me nuts for months!  You rock!  Just like some people above, nothing was checked in enhancements, but checking the disable enhancements checkbox fixed the problem.  Woohoo!

Re delayed starts, skips and stuttering in Windows Media Player / Vista. Thanks,  but this is not a satisfactory solution for me.  Why are Dell selling these machines when they are obviously aware that they do not function correctly?  When you pay extra for enhanced facilities you do not expect to be told to disable the same enhancements that you have paid extra for!  After spending two hours on the phone to Dell they have not returned my call or emails.  I have had no explanation from them as to the reason why my machine is malfunctioning.  Maybe soemone can advise me as to who is now responsible for the provision of the correct software to enable Media player to perform properly on my Dell Dimension E521?  Is anyone actually working on this problem? If so, who?  Many thanks for any help anyone can provide.

Problem is finally solved by dell:

New sigmatel audio driver released which solves the problem.

Also rear speakers work again!

My PC: Dell Dimension 9200 - Winows Vista 32 Bit

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=nl&cs=nldhs1&l=nl&s=dhs&releaseid=R157052&SystemID=DIM_PNT_9200_XPS_410&servicetag=48CJX2J&os=WLH&osl=DU&deviceid=8907&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=2&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=3&fileid=209657

Thank you so much for that.  I have downloaded and installed the recommended driver above from Dell labelled R157052 and all is now well.  Gone are the delays and end of track skips.  All speakers are now functioning correctly.  You are a STAR,  thanks once more.. now all that is required is for Dell to advise everyone who bought this system from them!  

Thanks so much for this - it was driving me crazy

Thank you so much for this, this has been buggin the crap out of me ever since I got forced to use Vista.

really would appreciate some help. I play music on windows media, and the song or any song skips several times during play. The same song played on real player does not skip at all. Never had this problem before. Whatever info can be provided would be helpful . XP home. Thanks JERRY

Thank you so much! This instantly fixed all of my problems with Windows Media Player!

Thank you so much!  Almost dumped WMP 11 for an alternative player but this did the trick.

thanks man, good fix... got a dell inspiron 1501 and had same problem.. cheers

Great and very useful info!  I have a Dell and was having similar issues with the choppy endings about half a minute before the end of audio tracks in Windows Media Player 11.  I had wondered if the issues were related to Media Player automatically retrieving media info from the internet.  Checking "Disable all enhancements" worked as a temporary fix.  I've now installed the new Sigmatel driver.  Like you, my experience with the install process wasn't smooth (several reboots needed), but the end result seems to have been successful, and problem is now resolved, no more choppiness or stuttering at the end of tracks.  Thanks very much!

superb advice , disabling the enhancements  have  done the  trick perfectly . thanks  for that

Asked several tech people ...all of which were baffled.  Works great now!!  Been dealing off and on with the issue since February 2007!

Thanks!

SOLUTION WITHOUT DISABLING ENHANCEMENTS:

on the dell website it gives you a link to download an updated sigmatel audio driver, however this driver ineffective, also disabling the enhancements stops surround from working, here is the driver that fixes everything, i was so relieved.

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=nl&cs=nldhs1&l=nl&s=dhs&releaseid=R157052&SystemID=DIM_PNT_9200_XPS_410&servicetag=48CJX2J&os=WLH&osl=DU&deviceid=8907&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=2&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=3&fileid=209657

Thank you for your page I fixed my Media Player errors 100% by changing the sound properties. Vista Dell Inspiron 1501.

The clincher that did it for me was to remove the selected Exclusive mode in the advanced Tab.

So Dell just replaced my old Inspiron 8500 operating on XP with an Inspiron 9400 operating on Vista. My WMP was doing the exact same thing, taking forever to start a song while displaying "changing media" in the bottom left. The songs would also start skipping as if my RAM was being over worked. THANK YOU whoever posted the quick fix by disabling all the enhancements. Kudos on adding the pictures. It now works perfectly! You saved me yet another hour on hold with Dell's great support team.

This helped a lot. I got the XPS 2010, and after spending a few grand, I was a bit dissapointed that the music skipped. This makes it a lot better now, and fixed the one complaint I have with this machine!

I know everyone else has said the same thing but THANK YOU!!! I just bought my laptop and it has been great except for this one thing, now its Perfect!

FABULOUS!  One of our computers is a late model Sony Vaio laptop that came with WMP11.  We chose to move all our music there and use it as input to our receiver and distribute to speakers all over the house!  We did all kinds of analysis to try to figure out what was causing the stuttering anywhere from 10-30 seconds (depending on the buffer time setting) from the end of the song.  After several hours and no solution, we Googled the problem and came up with this listing!  Even tho' it's not a Dell, and the screens didn't look the same, it worked!

A kazillion thank yous!!!

thanks a million you fixed the problem that had been pissing me off for the last 2 months. It was just that simple.

Thanks so much for the fix "Disabling Enhancements".  I am curious though about the driver link pasted by Raggo which bypasses the need to disable enhancements - is the language Danish or what?  And how did he/she discover this driver which fixes the issue in a non-English language?

God Bless you! I was starting to think I was going to have to abandon WMP for Winamp or iTunes or something in hopes that one of those programs wouldn't cause my songs to skip/delay, however I have used a variety of media programs in the past and found that WMP is the most organized and easiest to use. Thanks a bunch!

Thanks...disabling enhancements works perfectly!

<Enters generic 'thankyou' post here...> Cheers!

Perfect workaround and fix. My Dell Inspiron 6400 now works fine when using Media Player 11. Thanks.

My two computers running XP Pro have the "media changing" delay with internet streams, but not with local files that I remember.  If I stop playback in Media Player 11 then press play, it delays by many seconds while it posts that lame message, whatever it means.  Is it trying to access media rights or something?  This makes no sense, however, because the first time or after a long time stopped, it starts playback quickly!

I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 with Core 2 Duo and 2 Gigs RAM, and an Asus P4 with 1.5G RAM.

My speakers properties box does not have a "disable enhancements" option,instead it says "disable sound effects", and if you tick that box it kills the sound. The choices under it are different too, so I'm not sure what to do about the 20seconds before the end of the song break up thing; and disabling of the of the SRS WOW effects thing in the media player did not work either. Can anyone help? I have an acer (new) pc, running Vista basic.

Yes, indeed you are one cool dude! This stuttering was really frustrating me - a brand new PC, bags of memory, and it sounds like it's struggling!!!

Such a simple fix, and it now works a treat. Thank you!

Thanks! Works brilliantly...I was getting so annoyed with the stuttering 20 secs before the end of each song...i can now enjoy full tracks!!!

can't play mp3 anymore on media player 11 on xp. my pc is a compaq presario.

message in the bottom is MEDIA CHANGING but never play the mp3 file.

I noticed that the problem started whn I installed itunes. My mp3 files play great in itunes and vlc player but won't start playing in wm11.

On the other hand avi files play very well on wm11.

I tried to fix with the solutions proposed but don't have these options in xp to cancel all enhacement.

anyone have an idea?

I tried playting a mp3 and I had the media changing hang and never playing the mp3.

I tried to stream a mp3 from a website and it said do you want to download a codec.

Since then my mp3 all play in win media player again.

Insane as it seems, a brand new inspiron 1525 delivered on May 13 still does this and while there is some improvement, there is still issues with the player. Nuts!! Back to DELL with it. Shame on both, M-soft and Dell for this!!

Thank you for your blog. I thought I was losing my mind.

Thanks. That's all I can say.

It is people like you who help people like us (in a fix looking for immediate solution) to just find you guys out...and solve our problems.

THANKS SHIPLOADS, n TRUCKLOADS friend.

Thanks a lot.

Thanks, this worked a charm! It was driving me nuts.

Sweeeeeeet. My kids love me again!

This only partially improved my issue. I've got Vista 32 bit w/SigmaTel running on a RAID 10 SATA2 array, 4 GB of 800mhz DDR2 and a 3.16Ghx Intel (dual core E8500). I SHOULD NOT be having these issues if it is "throughput" related. My system kicks ass so it must be a driver/WMP version problem. Other posts on the net say to just go with Winamp. I am just about there.

Disabling enhancements helped but didn't eliminate it. Whenever I download anything or surf the net WMP stutters like a nervous child. I'm about ready to back hand it then send it to bed without any dinner.

Thank you SOOOOO much for the fix!!! :)

Sorry to say but installing the Dutch Dell updated sigmatel audio driver didn't help me. Music still skips (although not quite as bad as before) unless I disable enhancements but then I lose the 5.1 speaker setting. I'm using a Dell C521, Vista and WMP11. Seems that most of the folks happy with the "disable enhancements" workaround are playing through 2 desktop or laptop speakers and not surround sound. Anybody got a fix for us with more than 2 speakers? Are Dell doing anything about it?

Thanks! This helped me out with my Dell D620 and Windows 7 Ultimate x64