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Troubleshooting tricks for common problems
Alas, all is not perfect in the digital audio revolution. Here are some gotchas to watch out for.
Avoid incompatible formats. Make sure your player can read the files you need it to read. If you've got a bunch of RealAudio tracks, but your player can only handle MP3 files, it might as well be Greek. But don't worry--software like RealOne can convert your files to match your player's needs. The player's packaging usually indicates which file formats it reads.
Check for broken files. When you download a file, make sure you've got it all. If your system is taxed using too many resources at once, the ripping software may not encode the entire track, or your PC may give up in the middle of transferring a file to the player. Sometimes you'll get just a 30-second clip of a several-minute track. You might also think a clip you downloaded from a free file-sharing service is intact, only to find out later that you've been had. Check the files to make sure they're complete on your player before you take it on the road. And close other applications when you rip and transfer the files to allow enough resources for the job. If you have a problem, though, it may not be the software's fault--it could be a hardware issue instead.
Beware of mislabeled files. If you use a free file-sharing service, you may also be led astray by the file name. Not all files are as they appear--even the music companies confuse things by entering bad file names on tracks they plant on Kazaa. You get what you pay for, and you may waste download time if you go this route. Be sure to check that anything you download is virus-free--make sure your antivirus program's scanning engine is enabled in the background.
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