Recently I have begun getting problems with sound skipping on my PC. I had Windows XP Home at the time. After trying the basic things (reinstalling drivers) I ended up trying to uninstall DirectX 9.0c but it all went wrong so I updated to Windows XP Professional and the problem persists. I notice that CPU usage hits 100% when the sound skips. The skip periods are random in occurrence (more things producing sound the more likely they are) and they don't tend to last too long, but they are loud and jarring. I don't believe it to be the sound card, as I have installed a Sound Blaster Live! 1024 value with latest drivers AND tried the onboard AC'97 card and BOTH suffer from this problem. Installing XP Pro seemed to fix it briefly but it has returned. In surfing other forums I see someone has flagged it up as occurring in EQ2 after they installed the .NET framework which I do have installed (didn't perform a full format between changing OSes) however I don't play EQ2. I can get the sound just with WMP 10 playing music.

check out the resources of your system it sonds like your computer is overloaded during sound breaks check for viruses or spyware

These may help . Resources for Troubleshooting Sound Problems in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q307918 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;262256 Windows XP KB Articles About Working With Sound http://support.microsoft.com/common/canned.aspx?R=d&H=Windows%20XP%20KB%20Articles%20About%20Working%20With%20Sound&LL=kbwinxpsearch