Can't play music with Avast running...

[Lisandro]

Eddy, as far I know, Startup Delayer does not control Services, only startup items (Registry and Folder). I think the problem - if any - will be on the concomitant startup of avast services and other applications  

[igor]

The problem seems to be related to Win98 - so the Delayer might actually help.

[Eddy]

I would say, give the delayer a try. If it doesn't solve it, just remove it. No harm done (if everything works like expected ofcourse and I don't see why it wouldn't)

[lilsassy]

I'm running a 5-year old Dell system, Windows 98, with an nVidia TNT 16mb sound card.  No problems until now.  No problems in Device Manager.  System sounds are playing.  

It's a hit and miss thing.  One time when I boot up the music players play with no problem for the whole session.  The next time I boot up they might not.  Right now they are not.

I downloaded the delayer and will give it a try.  I have a list of things in start-up such as Pop-up Stopper, ACS95 surround speaker system, MS Intellitype Pro keyboard, Logitech wireless mouse, Tweak UI, ZoneAlarm and Avast.  Any particular order?  How far down the process should I put ZoneAlarm and Avast?

[inthewildteam]

Might be totally off-base with this, but a 5 yr old system might be suffering from chip and card creep (especially with Dell cutting corners on system cooling)

Might not an internal clean up, remove and re-seat pci cards etc be helpful?

[lilsassy]

I did that within the past year.  I would think if I were having hardware problems, I would be having sound problems in other areas.  I'm still getting system sounds, I had no sound problems whatsoever until I installed Avast.  I can try reseating the card.  

[igor]

It's just an experiment... but try simply to move avast! to the back. Specifically, the ACS95 thing is audio related - so make sure it's started before avast!, and let us know if it helps.

I understand that it doesn't happen every time... it's quite normal. Normally, the startup programs are started "all together", in a certain sense - and it's just a matter of coincidence which one will be started (or rather, finished starting) first and which one will follow; it's a lottery.