Winamp 5 - Troubleshooting

If your multimedia files are playing slowly in Winamp 5, you can try speeding up Winamp at the expense of other software programs' speed. This is done by increasing Winamp's processor priority class from Normal to a higher class, presumably focusing more of the computer's attention on running Winamp and less on other activities. While this can be done via the Windows Task Manager, this tip shows how to do so from Winamp itself.

Note that changing process priority is not necessarily recommended by Winamp or MalekTips, and may result in your computer becoming unresponsive. Make sure you have no other running applications or open documents first!

1. Access the "Winamp Preferences" dialog box. You can click on the "Main Menu" button, choosing "Options" - "Preferences". Or, right-click on the title bar and choose "Options" - "Preferences". Or, press Ctrl + P.




2. When the "Winamp Preferences" dialog box appears, click "General Preferences" in the left side of the window.

3. In the right side of the window, underneath "Priority Class", raise the slider from "Normal" to "High" or "Realtime" (be careful!).





4. Click "Close" to close the dialog box.

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If you install and uninstall a log of plug-ins for Winamp 5, you may find that when you select plug-ins to run or configure, their displayed names may be incorrect. This is because Winamp 5 uses a cache to hold Visualization and DSP/Effect plug-in titles, and sometimes this cache may get incorrect information. Luckily, you can easily flush this cache if your plug-in titles are incorrect:

1. Right-click on the Winamp 5 title bar, choosing "Options" - "Preferences".

2. When the "Preferences" dialog appears, click "Plug-ins".

3. In the right pane, click "Flush plug-in name cache".

4. Click "Close" to close the dialog box.

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If you use Winamp 5 to play streaming MP3 files from various websites or radio stations, you may have come across instances where the music playing stops for a few seconds (a buffer underrun). When this happens, Winamp 5 must re-buffer, or acquire, more of the song information from the Internet. While breaks in Internet access can normally occur, if you notice underruns happening on almost every song, you can configure Winamp 5 so it buffers more of the music before playback. This may cause you to wait a few more seconds before playing streamed information, but once the music plays, it is less likely to stop in the middle.

1. Right-click the Winamp 5 title bar, choosing "Options" - "Preferences".

2. Click "Input" underneath "Plug-ins".

3. Double-click "Nullsoft MPEG Audio Decoder".

4. When the "MPEG audio decoder settings" multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the "Streaming" tab.

5. Move the "Streaming Prebuffer" slider all the way to 100%.

6. Click "OK" to close the settings dialog box.

7. Click "Close" to close the preferences dialog box.

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If you are unable to play videos or DVDs from within Winamp 5, or if you can start playing videos but they eventually crash Winamp 5, you may need to tweak Winamp's settings to not use a "best performance" feature called Hardware Video Overlay. By disabling this feature you may allow Winamp 5 to play video on incompatible graphics cards, albeit more slowly than before.

1. Right-click on the Winamp 5 title bar, choosing "Options" - "Preferences".

2. When the "Preferences" dialog appears, click "Video" underneath "General Preferences".

3. In the right pane, underneath "Advanced Video Options", uncheck "Allow hardware video overlay (recommended - best performance)".

4. Click "Close" to close the dialog box.

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If you play Midi files with Winamp 5 and have a complex Midi setup, you may have noticed that, by default, Winamp outputs to the device(s) listed in the Microsoft Midi Mapper. Sometimes this is beneficial, but if you have external keyboards or other Midi playback equipment and you'd rather Winamp 5 output Midi files to another specific device, do the following:

1. Right-click on the Winamp 5 title bar, choosing "Options" - "Preferences".

2. When the "Preferences" dialog appears, click "Input" underneath "Plug-ins".

3. Double-click "Nullsoft Midi Player".

4. When the multi-tabbed configuration dialog appears, click the "Device" tab.

5. Click the pull-down underneath "Device" and choose your desired Midi output device.

6. Click "OK" to close the configuration dialog, then "Close" to close the Winamp Preferences dialog.

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