I wanted to convert some video and post it on the net. So, I went to Best Buy and found what I needed and put it on my laptop. Ever since then my sound or video skips. I have since deleted the software, but it still skips. I have ran updates on viruses, spybot, updated drivers, removed and added windows media player, itunes, and have tried any other trick that my friends or google can spit out. I have also downloaded the CCCP codecs, and even tried VLC. I am at a loss on how to fix this. Any comments or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!!!

How much free space do you have on C, and what is the total size of C? What did you buy? " I have since deleted the software, but it still skips." You don't delete software that you can un-install in Add/Remove Programs - deleting software often causes problems. Did you un-install it properly? If you didn't, install it again, then un-install it properly. Did you change which sound drivers you have installed, or un-install then and then install again? If you did, ones you get randomly from the web are likely to not work properly. The proper sound drivers are (probably) on the Acer web site in the downloads for your model. Un-install any software for the onboard audio you find in Add/Remove Programs. Install the proper sound drivers using it's install or Setup program or by running it's self executing download. If you point Windows to the location of the sound drivers while booting or when the desktop first loads when it doesn't find them automatically, the sound drivers and associated apps will often NOT install properly.

Have you tried a System Restore to before the day you installed that 'Mysterious' program.

Answer to Tubes questions first: Cdrive is 35 GB with 2 GB left, My D drive is a full 35 unused. Excuse me, yes I unistalled from Add/Remove Programs, this was over a year ago, and I do not remember what software it was. I got the sounds drivers from the Acer website. I used their execute files. They work properly, because I am getting sound, unless I am missing something your saying. Aegis: I tried several restore points after the uninstall none of restore points would work after that point, and still haven’t.

You probably need to free up some space on your hard drive on C. Not having enough free space is a common problem on laptops and all by itself can cause all sorts of problems, including your sound skipping. Why is your D partition empty? You DO NOT have to install most programs that did not come with the Windows installation on your C drive partition. If you choose other than the default installation choice, or change it to another drive letter, you can install most programs on any drive partition. Did you load Windows from a regular Windows CD? Do you have any symptoms that might be caused by malware? Updating the anti-malware programs won't necessarily make it find malware. Did you scan the entire C partition with the software? How much ram does the computer have? What load % is there on the cpu when the sound skips? Does it skip all the time, or only when certain other programs are running? You loaded the right sound drivers and apps, but are you sure you loaded them properly? Your sound working doesn't necessarily mean it is working properly. A common mistake people make is they point Windows to where the sound drivers are, when Windows detects the sound device and you let it search for drivers automatically and it doesn't find them - doing that usually results in the sound drivers and associated apps not working correctly. If you're not 100% sure you used the proper install procedure, un-install the sound drivers, and install them again, by using the self executing download that runs the setup of the drivers and apps, or by extracting the files from the download and running the Setup in the extracted files.

I didn't use Windows to find my drivers I found them on the Acer website and installed manually, not thru windows. I had originally deleted my Realtek 97. Then, I had to go find it and re-install it. I understand the need for going thru every procedure issue with me, becuase you don't know me. I am in my third year of Computer Engineering, and I or my buddies can't even figure this one out. I was seeing if you might be able to relate us to something we have not thought of.

We can only go by what we are told, and the accuracy of it. Having a computer related education doesn't necessarily translate into you being a good troubleshooter. You should have known better than to say - you deleted software when you had actually un-installed it. - you updated anti-malware without mentioning you had run full scans with the software. The vast majority of what I know about computers is through personal experience (since 1998 - update - oops - 1989), and through many years of exposure to what actually caused problems in threads I have answered (since 2002, on another site), or read in threads like these, not what I was taught or read about. There were no personal computers in schools when I went to school. Many of the people who have answered here for a long time have had similar experiences rather than a lot of formal education. I asked about how much free space you had on C because having not enough of it is a common problem people have with laptops, especially when they have relatively small hard drives, and with brand name computers and computers in general, that still have only one hard drive. I insisted you make sure you had the right sound drivers and had installed them properly because that is frequently the cause of problems with sound. It would do no harm to try un-installing them and installing them again. You not remembering what you got off of Ebay and installed and un-installed doesn't help at all. If you keep email for a long time, did you do a search in your email? Otherwise, without further info from you about what you have installed that might be causing this problem, the only thing I can suggest off the top of my head is to try a Repair "Install" of Windows procedure ("Repair you existing Windows installation", or similar) - the second Repair choice when you boot using a Windows CD - that takes less than an hour to try - you will have to re-register some Windows Update files afterward, and possibly need to re-install some Windows Updates, but it's worth a shot.