Q: When I attempt to preview a song on iTunes, it begins to play but stops after 5 seconds

This seems to be a fairly recent problem. I also have it and there are multiple threads on the board about it. Apple suggests uninstalling ALL Apple components -- including Quicktime, uninstall Itunes and then installing the latest Windows Update/Service Pack. I did that and it didn't fix a thing but that's their recommendation. Others have tried this with no luck.

I just started having the same issue today.  doesn't make any sense, 5 to 10 second previews

this also worked for me, thanks

Didn't work for me Still looking for an answer. Using Windows 7.

I posted this to another thread here:

"I am having the same issue with the preview songs cutting off around the 5 to 7 second mark. It started about 3 weeks ago right after I downloaded an album.

It downloaded but at the end said the download failed due to a network timeout error. I clicked out of the error dialogue box and checked my "Purchased" items folder and it did seem there was a problem, no songs were there only a placeholder of the album cover (or something of that nature). Nothing happened when I clicked on it. However, when I closed and then restarted itunes the entire album was there and there have been no problems with those songs.

Some here are saying they believe they previews cutting off have something to do with the 10.6 upgrade, however I still have 10.5.1.42 and have the problem.

I am running up-to-date Windows 7 Professional with Viper Anti-virus. I don't for a moment think it has anything to do with windows updates, anti-virus or any other 'windows' issues. I believe it is within itunes in its' preview player software.

Dear iTunes, if this thread is being monitored by a rep, please be aware that if I cannot preview more than 5-7 seconds of a song you can rest assured I will not be purchasing any further music through itunes until this issue is resolved and will be taking my business elsewhere in the interim."

I use the ipconfig/flushdns all the time to resolve browser issues, especially when using Twitter. It does not help this particular problem for me.

If people are reporting this solution works, it has to be nothing more than a coincidence, this "solution" makes no sense whatsoever.  I tried it just for giggles and I can confirm like photogirl52 that it does *not* solve the preview cut out issue. 

Here's why it's not the right answer:

The Domain Name System (DNS) allows your computer to match an easy to read domain name (e.g. www.apple.com) to an IP address (e.g. 192.168.101.101) which is what your computer actually uses to connect to another computer.

The DNS resolver cache is just a local copy of all the IP addresses your computer has looked up recently from a DNS server.  All the command above does is tell your computer to forget its recent lookups and get everything from the server again.

This clearly cannot be the problem because the song previews start, then cut out.  That means iTunes was able to successfully look up the DNS entry for the song server, connect to it, and start streaming the song.  There is no way the DNS entry could be the problem because if it was the song preview would not have started in the first place.

Still waiting for an answer.  iTunes/Apple Support says it's my computer... I've tried everything.

I am also having this issue.  First time I've encountered it.  It's been a couple weeks since I've been on iTunes but there were no issues before.  I have a new Windows 7 machine (just a few months old). 

This issue was introduced with my recent upgrade to 10.6.1.7.  Support is crazy to think it has anything to do with anyone's computer: Nothing has changed to my Windows 7 system other than the iTunes upgrade itself.

I tried the flushdns routine above but, no surprise, it didn't change anything.  Previewing a song IS the primary way that I make purchasing decisions so without a fix to this functionality, Apple won't be getting more of my business (3700 songs last year alone).  C'mon Apple, get your act together or, at least, allow folks to back out of an upgrade when things go awry.

I hear you, I feel so unlistened to. I've done everything they said to do and more. I've wasted so much time. The Amazon preview works fine.  So I guess I'll purchase there for a while. 

I have the same problem... previews play for 5 seconds or so... It started a couple of days ago.. I'm off to Amazon for a while or maybe longer...  I rarely visit discussion sites as I can't understand why I should have to read dozens of lame, incorrect and sometimes destructive solutions to my little computer problems when Apple could simply give the correct answer. See you at Amazon Amazon.

Tried the flushdns solution to no effect ... previews still stop playing after just a few seconds.  I, too, began seeing this with the first or second 10.6 version update.  There is obviously something unstable in the song preview platform that my Windows 7 (64bit) machine doesn't like.  Never had this problem, prior to 10.6 - same machine, no changes on my end other than the iTunes version updates.

I, too, have spent $1000's of dollars, here in the last few years.  Certainly this is fixable!!  C'mon, Apple techs ... let's roll!!!

Desirous in Dallas