Choopy sound issues

I am having a problem .. where the sound from my computer is constantly choppy. Any ideas on why this is happening. It will be fine but if i play and MP3 and go on the net it gets choppy.. or type alot?

would it be a the sound card?


I have

P3 800
256 Ram
XP... some on board Via (Legacy??) Sound card

I have the same problem on my home computer. Also, sound generated by anything than raw pcm data (CDs) has severe static issues if more than one sound is playing back simultaneously. That's an issue with the motherboard based sound...takes more resources than a dedicated pci card, not to mention it the mobo-based sound probably just sucks. You may consider getting a dedicated card.

At work though, I had the problem too. We had this terrible anti-virus software that was the culprit. Click on a link, and the sound skips and system hangs for five seconds or so. This system had a specialized SB card. Many other things would trigger it too. I uninstalled the anti-virus software and all was fine. Try temporarily disabling any anti-virus software and see if things let up.

Thanks alot for the info... I actually jsut reformated my computer.. No AV software.. i stoped believing in them..

I feel AV software is a conspircy. The companies make the anit virus software as well as the virus to make money on their AV software.. ok my shoot in the moon theory.. but i dont use em.. I prefer firewalls and such.. download with caution.. and internet mail..

I am going to try to get a dedicated sound card. ive had this problem from day 1. and ive had the computer for almost 3 years now.