I am trying to update the sound drivers on my laptop. A few months back, my laptop's audio began coming through quite scratchy, to the point that I usually completely mute the audio. It is so bad at times that it lags the performance of the rest of the machine, or so it seems.

What information do I need to have on-hand when searching for a more updated sound driver? If I find that the current sound driver I have has not been updated, are sound drivers from other companies typically compatible with various sound cards?

I ran a DirectX Diagnostic (DxDiag) to gather what information I could use to fix the problem. I found out that I am working with the following:

Device: Conexant AMC Audio
Driver:
Name- camc6aud.sys
Version- 6.14.0010.0575 (English)
Date- 4/20/2005
WHQL Logo'd- Yes
Provider- Conexant

Any suggestions?

I noticed something this evening that may help to pinpoint the problem with my computer's audio. I spent an hour or so watching videos on Youtube, and the audio seemed perfect. I was curious to see if something had changed in my audio that fixed the problem, and tried opening an MP3 file. I encountered the same crackling and distorted sound as I had experienced before.

What might that mean?

Bump in hopes that someone, somewhere might have a solution for this problem. I could not find any drivers compatible with my system, and my thought is that either (1) I am not looking for the right thing, or (2) I am not looking in the right places. Help, please!