For some reason, whenever my system processes MP3 files I get long hardware interrupts that freeze my system. If I play any MP3s with Foobar2000 or WMP etc. then eventually, maybe 5 or 10 minutes later my system hangs. I can make it happen much sooner if I'm doing something like running a game or installing a large piece of software at the same time as the MP3 is playing. What's weird is that just loading my MP3 files into the Foobar or WMP playlist actually makes the system hang too - quite quickly. The cause of these freezes have been verified as hardware interrupts using Sysinternals Process Explorer, and they last for maybe 20-30 seconds at a time, returning control to me periodically for only a few seconds between each freeze. The system remains like this until I hit the reset button.
I thought maybe it's the MP3 decoder, so I uninstalled the only the codec pack I use - ffdshow with no luck. I reinstalled it and got the same. I tried selecting a different MP3 library within ffdshow, still no luck. Thinking it might be driver problem, I updated to the latest chipset drivers and also soundcard drivers (Realtek onboard). Still no luck. Strangely enough, movies files that have MP3 audio channels embedded play fine for hours on end. As do games, Orthos etc. I even tried setting everything to stock. The system is absolutely rock solid apart from this strange issue.
Here's what I'm running:-
Windows XP Pro SP3
Asus P5QL-E motherboard
Intel E4300 processor
2GB RAM
ATI X1900XT
Onboard Realtek sound card
Gigabyte GN-WP01GS wireless LAN card
2 x SATA HDD
2 x IDE HDD
Any suggestions? No conflicts are listed in the device manager, and it was a long time since I had to resolve anything like that.
I thought maybe it's the MP3 decoder, so I uninstalled the only the codec pack I use - ffdshow with no luck. I reinstalled it and got the same. I tried selecting a different MP3 library within ffdshow, still no luck. Thinking it might be driver problem, I updated to the latest chipset drivers and also soundcard drivers (Realtek onboard). Still no luck. Strangely enough, movies files that have MP3 audio channels embedded play fine for hours on end. As do games, Orthos etc. I even tried setting everything to stock. The system is absolutely rock solid apart from this strange issue.
Here's what I'm running:-
Windows XP Pro SP3
Asus P5QL-E motherboard
Intel E4300 processor
2GB RAM
ATI X1900XT
Onboard Realtek sound card
Gigabyte GN-WP01GS wireless LAN card
2 x SATA HDD
2 x IDE HDD
Any suggestions? No conflicts are listed in the device manager, and it was a long time since I had to resolve anything like that.
