My computer has recently started "stuttering" every couple seconds. I first noticed this with audio -- it would loop a bit of sound every couple seconds; but then, trying it with video I noticed that the image would freeze for half a second every couple seconds as well (in sync with the audio stutter). So far, I've tried... 1. Resetting my computer 2. Cold booting my computer (shutting off completely, waiting a few minutes, turning back on) 3. Manually reinstalling my audio drivers 4. Manually reinstalling my video drivers 5. Running scandisk 6. Running defrag 7. Running SpyBot: Search and Destroy 8. Running a virus scan (Sophos) 9. Making sure all my other drivers were up to date 10. ctrl-alt-del and checking the task manager to make sure nothing was eating up too much memory (doesn't appear to be). I shut down pretty much all the non-essential processes, but the problem continued 11. ctrl-alt-del and checked the performance tab; CPU and memory usage does not seem to spike when the stuttering occurs. My system: Dell Vostro 1700 laptop Windows Vista Ultimate Dual 1.8ghz processors 2.0GB Ram NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT video card SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC I haven't had any hardware changes recently -- I watched a movie the night before the problem started, and it worked fine -- when I woke up the next morning I noticed the audio stuttering. I'm pretty much at my wit's end -- any idea what the problem might be and/or what my next step should be?

As always, I would start with the event viewer. Start, run, eventvwr.msc

I would agree with quapo and check your event viewer. Sounds like a software issue. Was anything installed or updated before this issue happened? Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel. ~Homer Simpson~