Fix for distorted sound in itunes ver 7.0

I have been searching and trying all the suggestions i can find. My music is distorted, choppy and too fast. Everything worked just fine, after i upgraded, until about a couple of hours ago. then that was it. Also when i run songs off the ipod through Itunes, I get the same result, but yet the Ipod by it self runs fine.

Ditto the crackling problem - tried the quicktime fix suggested but was already set at 44.1khz/16 bit. Crackling/skipping went away for a bit but comes back at random. Oddly enough seems to be sometimes triggered by using the scroll wheel on my mouse to scroll down my itunes library. Could be a coincidence. haven't tried connecting iPod yet - think I'll wait for a bit before I try that

I've got ver 7 on my system, and I've had none of the problems mentioned. I allowed iTunes to get its update/download (used run vs save option). The conversion for the gapless format took some time to run; then converted our 2 iPod Photo 60s. Both are working fine as well. I wasn't even aware there was a problem until I checked these forums. Best of luck to all suffering from the pox.

My problem is with running video games. iTunes plays normally when i am running the game, but whenever i connect to a server and go online, it starts to skip and is distorted.

Any answers?

THANK YOU! Fix worked perfect. I thought I was about to reinstall my library.

did not work for me - already set to 16 bit, 44.1KHz (the way it worked peferectly in v6.05.02).

I have this problem on two laptops running WinXP. I heard about it in advance and have kept the desktop on the old version. One problem is that sharing music libraries is now impossible between the two versions.

This problem with crackly sound is the very problem I had with Windows Media Player 9, and why I happily switched from that to iTunes a couple of years ago. Thus I expect Apple is going to lose customers quickly if it does not sort this out (hope you are listening). WMP 10 seems to have been fixed...

This is further evidence that Apple is on the back foot, rushing product to compete and, worst of all, failing its supporters.

PC Windows XP Pro P4 2.2GHz, 1GB RAM

PC Windows XP Pro P4 2.2GHz, 1GB RAM

Since my last post, I have uninstalled Itunes 7, cleaned the registry and dumped all files with the name Itune, including my library. rebooted, reinstalled version 7 add ed one song to the library, SAME GARBAGE. Then I did the above mentioned again, reinstalled version 6 and I once again have tunes. WOO HOO!!!!!! I will wait till this issue is fixed.

Ok, i did some tests.. this worked for me and it seems to be driver related, though i'm not sure, perhaps the devs for iTunes can help?


Click start
Click run
type dxdiag in the box
click ok
Click the tab up the top that says "Sound" or "Sound 1"
There will be a slider about 2/3rds down the page.. slide it until the text changes to "Basic Acceleration"


Now try your apps. This seems to indicate a sound driver problem, but it's interesting to note that it didn't occur in iTunes 6 or with any other application.

This is my soundcard info:
SB Audigy 2
driver name: ctaud2k.sys
driver version: 5.12.0001.1164
date: 8/12/2005
WHQL Logo'd: yes

So i either need to bag Apple or Creative, unsure which one though, since it worked b4 upgrading to v7...

Since my last post I have found out that even in Itunes 6, my videos have no audio. It's almost like a codec thing.
My specs:
Audigy 2 ZS
Driver Name:ctaud2k.sys
Date:18/11/2003
Driver version : 5.12.1.442
Yes I know the version is out of date, but u cant get the surround mixer on the newer version. I have never had a problem with the older version, and as the saying goes "if it isn't broke, don't fix it".

itunes 7 being released was the only thing to asuage my sadness from the recent death of my 3rd gen ipod.... and the sound was all scratchy and skippy. changing the settings in quicktime did not work at first, what fixed it for my was also setting the prioity higher in task manager. misery loves company tho, so i was glad there was a forum for this. i was worried it was something with my comp, which is not bad but not exactly state of the art. thx for the help all. and what is up with apple releasing itunes with a problem like this??

This did not work for me. My rate was already at 44.1khz, and 16bit, so I changed it to 48khz, but there is no difference. My music plays fine, until I start doing something else on my computer; then it gets all distorted and choppy, and speeds up the music. It did not do that until I installed iTunes 7. I love to listen to music while I am working on the computer, or even playing games. Now I can't do anything else on my pc without messing up the sound. Please help!

worked, thanks, i was pulling my hair out...

Thank you!

The fixed worked just like you said it would. Quite a relief, I thought at first all the songs were either corrupted or I needed to reboot after the install, since I run Windows XP! 😉

my itunes will experience this problems whenever i play a game like oblivion :
1. the song play speed suddenly picks up (a 3 min song in 15 secs)
2. crackling sounds

It fixed my problem. i assume it was set to 24 bit in itunes 6.5 or w/e the version was before. specs: Pentium D, 3.0 GHZ, SB Audigy 2, GeForce 6800 256MB