Music / game audio skipping.

[USAFBrandon]

I had an account on here before, but i've been through air force training and i forgot my log in.

First, my system specs. Just for reference.
Windows XP Professional SP2
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Black Edition 5000+ @ 2.61GHz
Mainboard: ASUS M2N-SLI
Video: GeForce 8600GT
Sound: PCI-e Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme
Drives: 3 total
(1) Western Digital 500GB
(2) Seagate 300GB

My problem is this. Any time I play music or games, from time to time the music will skip a split second. Literally, it sounds like it snags for a second, then backs up and plays over what it snagged at in a split second.

Funny thing is, it does it with iTunes, Winamp, and WMP. I have tried using onboard and my soundcard for audio. I did a complete XP reinstall to try and fix it. I have transferred the music to and from all 3 drives and a 1TB portable with the same results.

Personally, I think it may be something to do with the processor and the board. However, I will admit that i am not up to date with drivers anymore, considering i used outdated drivers in the XP reinstall process. Even though before I did the reinstall, it was running more current, almost lastest drivers, and music was still skipping.

I'm lost here, ladies ans gents, and any input, suggestions, are much appreciated.

[Rik from RCE]

Being an Asus user too, the first thing I would say is to make sure that all your mobo drivers are up to date and see if that has any impact on the problem.

[gerbil]

Does it happen with audio tracks on your hard disks? Or only with those played from optical drives? If the latter, go into Device Mgr and select your optical drive, > properties and uncheck Use digital audio playback.
Just something to try...
Does airforce training do that sort of thing to one? Brain washing...?

[Avasulthiris]

I suggest finding the latest audio driver for your computer, make sure they are the correct ones!
If you try a new sound card, make sure you have the right audio drivers for that too.

It cant be anything else on the motherboard. The only other thing it can be besides your drivers and your sound card is the memory buffer for your sound, which is unlikely.

Definitely one of those 3 options. Good luck

[Rik from RCE]

Quoted from first post.
Sound: PCI-e Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme