Hi all.

I'm just about ready to pull my hair out. I've been battling my computer's sound for over a year now, and can't seem to get it dialed in.

Let me give you the quickest rundown I can:

I've got a Presario 6000 Series with XP Pro, Athlon XP, 384mb RAM, Radeon 9200 128mb, 40Gb & 3Gb (those are internal, I've got a Maxtor 80Gb USB drive) drives, and Realtek onboard 10/100 ethernet. I started off with a Creative SoundBlaster 16 PCI...even after numerous attempts to update drivers, reinstall, roll back, etc.-I got very poor quality of sound. And my advanced options in Windows Sound Control wouldn't enable (bass, treble..). I'd also notice skipping in the audio in most video files. I heard almost a 'muddy' flow behind my .mp3s. I used Winamp 2.91 at this time. I tried everything, nothing worked.

Recently-I had to do (Don't ask, can you say viri? First time for everything) a fresh start and formatted my drives, and reinstalled XP Pro. I decided to try upgrading my sound card and drivers. So I went out and purchased a Creative Audigy LS, figuring this would cure my ails. It hasn't. New card, new problems. I installed the card and drivers as prescribed, but not Creative's MediaSource-piece of junk. The quality of sound is much better, sure. But now whenever I play my .mp3s with-now using-Winamp 5.0-I get that skipping, dragging and loud, occasional pops. Other media players seem to not skip and pop, but they also don't sound nearly as good as Winamp. I'm not running a lot of apps, not using visualizations, and surfing and all that crap. And my game and video sound is fine. 384mb should be plenty of RAM, shouldn't it? I've got over 16Gb of music, but it's 99% on the external drive. I disabled onboard sound in BIOS Advanced Options, but I admit I disabled it after full installation of the Audigy. And I'm not given the option to disable or remove Legacy in my Hardware Manager. What else can I do? I love music and am one of those people who can't stand imperfections in it. It's making me insane. I've got my hardly over a year-old rig dialed in and souped up right to where I want it, except for my ongoing sound problems. Any suggestions-advice? Is there a hardware conflict here? Is there a bug with Winamp 5 & Audigy?

Your help would be much appreciated, as I've exhausted myself with this damn problem.....feel free to email or reply in the forum!

Matt M.
Rochester, NH