okay, this is strange;
my audio files are playing back at a lowered pitch and tempo. this happens in both xmms and totem, and apperars to be independant of file format (tested mp3 and wav) and file location (played from cd and hard drive)

I'm running Mdk 9.2 on a Dell Smartstep 250n (2.4Ghz, 512MB, 40G hd, AC97 sound) and haven't made any installations that (i think) could account for this. GKrellM isn't showing any unusual loading while the files are playing.

thanks in advance

-r-

EDIT:ADD INFO

just played some video files (in totem) and found that the audio degradation was present in them as well. types tested were mov, avi and mpg. the video itself was not affected, so a 1 minute file still played in the same amount of time, but there was notable clipping and dropouts as the audio attempted to resync to the video. weirder and weirder...

EDIT:ADD INFO

rebooted to my Windows part to rule out a hardware problem (everything ok using winamp) then rebooted linux and...the problem disappeared. however, i'd still appreciate any input you might have in order to prevent this situation from reoccurring.

All hail the Magic Software Fairies, for they have fixed my box...