I fixed up my home network this weekend so that everything but my son's computer is hooked up to the net. One two Windows XP machines, one Windows 2000 machine, one Linux machine that is proving it's worth as a video encoder, two Geexbox video players, and a notebook (old and slow but good for wireless remote controlling other computers).

I've got nothing on that MP3 playing problem, that's odd.

Thanks for the info last night, Daniel. I was doing 'D' instead of 'C'.

I managed to back up my most important data, but the hard drive is definitely dead, a month after mt Applecare ran out and 6 months (or less) before new iBook models available. Sigh. I'm about to plunge into buying a 100GB replacement drive that will probably make my computer last a lot longer IF I can get it installed.

Anybody ever replace a hard drive on a white G3 iBook? It looks pretty difficult, but doable, according to this guide.

I've done the replacement. It is very intricate and you have to be very patient. Also I highly recommend a very clean workspace and very clearly labeled places to put all the parts as you remove them.

I considered doing the replacement and consulted the guide (or a similar one). But the phrase "carefully pry", when applied to the screen, made me change my mind.

Jon, I'm just putzing around in iTunes on my work XP machine... you might want to go to Edit - Preferences, select Playback and uncheck Crossfade playback, Sound Enhancer and Sound Check (if they're checked) and see if that makes any difference. Next, click on the Sharing tab and uncheck the two upper check boxes if either is checked.

You might also want to reinstall DirectX.

edit to fix the wrongness of "ActiveX"

You might also want to reinstall ActiveX.

How would I do that?

Sorry, I somehow confused ActiveX with DirectX. DirectX is what you want:

[link]

Have you seen this (not sure if it was a link Eddie posted earlier): [link]

Also, you might want to try "Updating the drivers on your Windows PC" [link]

Also, do you have winamp or some other mp3 player on that computer? If so, does it work?

Have you seen this (not sure if it was a link Eddie posted earlier): [link]

It wasn't. I'll give it a good lookover when I get home.

Also, do you have winamp or some other mp3 player on that computer? If so, does it work?

Winamp and Windows Media Player play mp3s just fine, usually. Sometimes there's a problem when I've got another app working, like Eudora, but otherwise no freeze-ups.

I forgot to mention that I have two soundcards in this PC. One that's built into the motherboard, and an old Digidesign Audiomedia III card. Most apps run audio through the digi card.

I did some Windows updates and now I get error messages whenever I try to play anything through the Digi card. The audio apps don't play at all. So I switched over to the built-in audio and things work fine, including iTunes.

I've been thinking of updating the Digi hardware anyway since Digi no longer supports this particular card (it's five years old).

t edit and good news on the MRI, tommy!