my songs sound distorted on Itunes 10.5 HELP

I forgot to mention I'm using

Windows XP, SP3

AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+

2.08 GHz, 2,00 GB

64 bit suggestion is not applicable to this problem.

Is it reasonable to expect Apple will fix this issue?

I've not yet seen any posts from the iTunes team !!!

One more for the list. Bought the iPhone 4S (1st apple product for a long time PC user). Hopefully they get on this problem I'm in process of converting from WMP to itunes and wamo... I installed itunes on 2 of my 4 pcs. The 1st machine is a Dell runnig Vista with an Intel Quad Core. Everything including MP3 work fine. The 2nd machine an older pc MSI MB AMD VIA running XP pro. This is the problem machine with iTunes. It's also the machine thats hooked up to the home audio system. MP3 have heavy distortion.

Hopefully they get this sorted out soon. I see great potential, sharing the library on WiFi and controlling home audio with the remote app from my iPhone.

Just in case someone from Apple support reads this, the problem is not just with the AMD chipset. I have an old computer with a pre INTEL Pentium IV chipset on which I run iTunes and I have the same sound problems.

I've narrowed down the problem of bad playback sound to MP3's only.😎

When I import WAV files from CD's, or from Audible.com (not sure what kind of files these are), they playback fine.

Also, When I import MP3's and copy them into the iPod they play fine from the iPod.

That should tell some techi at Apple where to look to make an update to fix this darn problem. 😉

My apologies for being repetitive. But the information below may help members that are new to this discussion regarding severely distorted playback of mp3s and media not purchased from the iTunes Store. There are quite a few Apple Support discussion threads on this topic. Try this search for "distorted" with activity in the last week and you will see many active discussions. shin_shin has identified the lack of SSE2/SSE3 on older Pentium 3 and AMD processors as the possible cause for this issue in this thread.

Some members chose to stay with iTunes 10.5 and wait for a patch. If you wish to go back, here are Apple's instructions on unistalling iTunes 10.5 and other components, and the link to iTunes 10.3. (iTunes 10.4 could not be located on Apple Support).

iRemoving and Reinstalling iTunes, QuickTime, and other software components for Windows XP

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1925

Removing and reinstalling iTunes, QuickTime, and other software components for Windows Vista or Windows 7

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1923

Tunes 10.3.1

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1103

If you don't like following links, the following instructions may also be helpful, too (Warning - All libraries and playlists may need to be rebuilt using this method). You will either need to rebuild your iTunes libraries or you may be able to find the required "iTunes Library.itl" file the following folder: \My Documents\My Music\iTunes\Previous iTunes Libraries. Restore the previous file to \My Documents\My Music\iTunes (copy and rename it to remove the date info).

Here are revised steps to downgrade from iTunes 10.5 to 10.3, 32 bit

1. Copy My Music/iTunes folder to a safe location
2. Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs - Uninstall iTunes
3. Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs - Uninstall Bonjour
4. Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs - Uninstall Apple Application Support (optional)
5. Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs - Uninstall QuickTime (optional - QuickTime will be automatically reinstalled with iTunes 10.3)
6. Run CCleaner Registry Cleaner and Restart (optional/recommended - dll error during start-up will be resolved after iTunes 10.3 is reinstalled)
7. Download iTunes 10.3 from Apple (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1103)
8. Run iTunes installer
9. Import music file containing mp3s (iTunes - File - Add File to library)
10. Test playback of files (should be good).
11. Restore the files you saved in Step 1 by copying the folders from back-up file to the following folders in My Music\iTunes\iTunes Media:
    1. - Automatically Add to iTunes
    2. - Books
    3. - Downloads
    4. - Mobile Applications
    5. - Music
    6. - Podcasts
12. Restart iTunes and you should be back in business.

If your iPhone is iOS 5, you will need to refrain from syncing with iTunes until Apple sorts this problem out. Interestingly, I also needed to unistall and downgrade Safari 5.1.1 back to 5.0.5. Safari 5.1.1 broke QuickTime and files played back with video, but no audio, even after iTunes was successfully downgraded.

Thanks for your post above MercuryComet, I too have:

Windows XP

AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3000+

2.17 GHz, 1,20 GB

I followed your advice step by step, but after reinstalling iTunes 10.3.1, I get the following error message:

The file "iTunes Library.itl" cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes.

Any ideas how to solve this problem?

Many thanks,

Andrew

Received this yesterday from the Apple tech thats been following my (our) issue since this started.

"Good news! You can sync your iPhone.

I got confirmation that the issue does not transfer to the iPhone through sync. Engineering is still working on being able to play music on iTunes."

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the update philfromwaterloo, this is the info that I have been waiting for: That Apple engineering is aware of our issue and working on a fix. I had already synced my iPod touch and iPhone 4S shortly after this problem and realized they were not affected by the issue. It seems that just iTunes and any CDs burned in iTunes are affected.

I hope they fix this issue soon!

It mostly does transfer to iPhones. It did to my 3GS. However I have the option set to convert to lower quality AAC files to save space. This reencoding process must be what messes up the files on my iPhone. It has nothing to do with ios 5 because when I transfer songs to my 2nd gen iPod with ios 4.2 the songs are distorted also. The iPod also has the AAC conversion set.

I believe that earlier threads also report that streaming Internet Radio stations were also affected. That was also my experience; both MP3 files and Net Radio were distorted. I rolled back to 10.4.1 and all is well.

Andrew, luckily iTunes does back up previously created libraries. In your iTunes folder there is a iTunes library back up folder. There you'll find a ".itl" file with date from when you still had an older v

Edison of iTunes. Use that file to replace the one that is the current one on the directory level above the library backup. I'm am being a little vague hoping you are familiar with the iTunes directories.

In my case the solution was to search and locate this file then delete it. The 10.5 library will not talk to earlier versions of iTunes.

You will have to drag your music files back in to rebuild the library gain, unfortunately. That was what I had to do.

If you have already downgraded to 10.4 or 10.3 all you will need to do is re,ove the library file. At next launch of iTunes a new library envelope will be created that is compatible with the older version.

I'm now also evaluating "Songbird" just in case a solution to this problem is not forthcoming. [sigh]

My problem with downgrading iTunes is that I already updated all my devices to the latest OS. So my devices will not be seen by previous versions so iTunes.

Hi Dennis,

I want to follow your directions on how to revert back to 10.3 or 10.4 but I can't locate the .itl or the .xml files that I will need to use to access the music after I move the iTunes music file into a new install.

Can you tell me where they are supposed to be in XP, SP3. Can they be in other places? Yes, I have my Windows Exlorer set to see all files 😀

Thanks,

Tom

The"itl" file I removed (trashed in my case) was located in:

C:\Documents and Settings\USER_NAME\My Documents\My Music\iTunes

Where USER_NAME is the account name on your computer where you are logged in.

In my case iTunes is installed on Drive #2 of a 2-Drive system but some functioning components of iTunes are stored in that folder which is Drive#1 where Windows is installed, (ot unlike files that are installed in the Application Data folder or similar).

There are instructions in this thread for using a back-up library from an older version if saved which I did not try. I simply deleted the library file and allowed the application to create a new one (which I had researched here). SInce I was only dealing with about 450 entries I didn't mind reloading my music and starting over.

I do find it disturbing that Apple has yet to issue a fix for this. I show that I rolled back to version 10.4 on Oct. 16 after a few days struggling with 10.5. It is now November 5.

If they no longer wish to support the chipsets in question they need to state that up front, or build in to the installed a hardware check to warn users.