Running chkdsk won't hurt but it's very unlikely that a problem with
your hard disk is causing your trouble.

You cannot compare what Comcast did three years ago with what Comcast is
doing today.

My last idea: Your sound card is damaged or your sound card driver needs
to be reinstalled. Good luck.

---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

cuppajava wrote:
> Thanks again
>
> I use headphones and speakers and am pretty sure that it's not the wiring or
> connections.
> This would be the first time in 3 years that Comcast has interferred with my
> downloads. The problem occurs even when I play commercial CDs.
>
> Do you think I might need to run chkdsk ?
>
> "Leonard Grey" wrote:
>
>> If you're very certain that nothing else is running in the background
>> when you experience the problem I would investigate the following:
>>
>> 1- Speakers not plugged in or blown?
>> 2- ISP throttling your downloads?
>> 3- Undetected malware.
>>
>> ---
>> Leonard Grey
>> Errare humanum est
>>
>> cuppajava wrote:
>>> Thanks for the reply.
>>> The task manager indicates system idle process using 99% or so when the
>>> problem occurs. Just about all other processes were at 0% or so. ???
>>> This audio degradation occurs even when I listen to an internet radio like
>>> Launchcast or Radioio.
>>>
>>> "Leonard Grey" wrote:
>>>
>>>> Try this:
>>>>
>>>> Open Task Manager and park it in a corner of your monitor. Select the
>>>> Processes tab and display the process in decreasing order of CPU usage.
>>>> When you experience the problem, look over to Task Manager and notice
>>>> with processes are occupying most of the CPU.
>>>>
>>>> My guess is that there are CPU-intensive applications running in the
>>>> background - either intentionally or because your computer is infected.
>>>>
>>>> ---
>>>> Leonard Grey
>>>> Errare humanum est
>>>>
>>>> cuppajava wrote:
>>>>> When I playback either audio or video using any medium, WMP,Realplayer,
>>>>> Quicktime, the audio and video are degraded. Its like the file is slowly
>>>>> grinding down and speeding up. At points, it sounds normal yet slower than it
>>>>> should. Even the startup jingle for Windows sounds gravelly.
>>>>> Please help.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thank You