Your startup sound may sound choppy, contain popping sounds, or pause while it is played. This issue occurs only with some hardware devices and drivers loaded. This issue does not affect the functionality of Windows XP or of Windows Vista.

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To work around this issue, use either of the following methods.

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Method 1: Turn off the startup sound

Windows XP

To turn off the startup sound in Windows XP, follow these steps:

1.	Click Start, click Run, type mmsys.cpl, and then click OK.
2.	Click the Sounds tab.
3.	Under Program events, click Start Windows.
4.	In the Sounds box, click (None), and then click OK.

Note Sometimes, there may be no workaround for this issue in Windows XP. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Windows Vista

To turn off the startup sound in Windows Vista, follow these steps:

1.	Click Start , type mmsys.cpl in the Start Search box, and then click mmsys.cpl in the Programs list. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue.
2.	Click the Sounds tab.
3.	Click to clear the Play Windows Startup Sound check box, and then click OK.

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Method 2: Mute the system sounds

Alternatively, in Windows XP or in Windows Vista, you can mute all systems sounds. To do this, click the Volume icon in the notification area, and then click to select the Mute check box.

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Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

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