Hey all. I have a bit of a problem with my girlfriends laptop. Here is a short rundown of what is going on. Basically, when attempting to listen to any audio, the sound skips horribly. The problem even extends to the Windows startup/shutdown tones. I have done a complete format and reinstall of XP, with still no avail. I did notice that it was doing a lot better for the first couple of weeks after the install, but it is back to where it was before. It's nothing virus/trojan related, I have done an extensive check of all that. I have checked the hardware acceleration setting under sounds in the control panel, and have adjusted it to different levels, with pretty much the same result. I'm not sure what the next step would be, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

The fact that it was ok after the reinstall would tend to eliminate hardware as the problem. It seems more logical that some bad software was picked up later. I would suggest using the Task Manager to check the running processes to see if one is using a lot of the CPU cycles. Try rebooting daily if that isn't being done.

Have you tried updating disabling and re-enabling your sound drivers? I too would rule out hardware if re- installing Windows worked as a temporary fix. It's probably best to look over your most recently installed applications and attempt to pin down any new programs that may have interfered with the sound settings. It's also possible that as your computer begins to use more memory and space, the performance may be dropping and resulting in sound skipping...ie, not able to process it properly and quickly enough. http://www.pcfixreview.com

Kirsty, but if it were software related, it wouldn't relate to the problem with the startup tones skipping. I checked all the processes that were executing on startup using Autoruns, but nothing out of the ordinary...still a mystery.