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!

Yeah, Digi has been pretty bad keeping up with the old cards.

I've got a Digi001 that I need to sell since it's mostly an orphan. I'm even looking at updating one of my Mboxes.

From ThinkSecret:

Apple's Mac mini will be reborn as the digital hub centerpiece it was originally conceived to be, Think Secret sources have disclosed. The new Mac mini project, code-named Kaleidoscope, will feature an Intel processor and include both Front Row 2.0 and TiVo-like DVR functionality.

While the specific model and speed of the Intel processor in the new Mac mini is unknown, sources are confident the system will be ready for roll-out at Macworld Expo San Francisco, in line with other reports Think Secret has received that Intel-based Macs will be ready some six months sooner than originally expected.

[link]

This looks like a neat little application:

A small and simple utility for downloading RSS feeds to your iPod.

Anyone tried it?