Audio tech support question...

[Hatter]

Not sure if you guys could help me with this, but I'll give it a shot.

For the last few months, I've had a problem with this PC in that whenever I watch a video, play music or a game, the audio will cut out anywhere from every few hours to every minute. It's not a problem with my speakers, since when the audio cuts out on an mp3, the song progress will actually pause. I have to stop it (coupled with a small "pop" from the speakers) and move back to where I was in the song. Same deal with videos. With games, I find minimizing and playing a video encoded with 3ivx will "pop" and the audio will be back in progress. It's odd, but it works.

I've installed a ton of codecs over the years, so one of them could be messed up. I've also heard that it might be a motherboard problem, since I have a rather cheap type of motherboard with a built-in soundcard that I'm using. I've heard it's not uncommon to get audio problems with it.

Since I want to try every software alternative before going out and buying a new motherboard or sound card... what can you tell me?

[reboot]

Dig up the original drivers disk for the motherboard, and reinstall the original sound drivers. If that doesn't cure it, you can get drastic and reformat/reinstall, and at the end of the process, find out that it's a flaky sound chip on the motherboard anyhow.
Buy a used SB16 soundcard (about $5) instead.