audio problems

i have an older quad core computer that is having audio problems. Older as in 8 yrs 
old.
At any time the audio in a movie, or music, may start skipping, stuttering or just be scratchy.
If i restart the machine, all audio plays fine... until it does not.
The time from normal sound to bad sound can be 20 minutes or a couple of weeks... 
but it WILL happen again. This problem has been going on for about 6 months now and starting to get on my nerves.

I re-installed my realtek and creative audio drivers, and in the end, i even re-
installed windows - how is that for drastic solutions!
Anyways... i use creative speakers and whether i plug them into the front of the PC, 
using the microsoft drivers, or plug into the back and use the sound card, results 
are the same. Even if i use HDMI into my tv and run sound out of my tv speakers, i 
get the same intermittent audio problem.
all of this makes me think it is a deep internal issue with the mother board... but 
i welcome any other suggestions.

Does this have a removable/replaceable sound card? You always want to replace the least expensive things first. If it's the motherboard, that could be costly, perhaps EOL.

-Bill

bdahm wrote:Does this have a removable/replaceable sound card? You always want to replace the least expensive things first. If it's the motherboard, that could be costly, perhaps EOL.

-Bill

yes, do have a replaceable sound card... but that only carries the hdmi out sound... the front jack is the headphone jack from the motherboard and that is what i use for my creative lab pc speakers - and is having the problem..

also, as i mentioned, the hdmi into the tv gives me the same exact issue... so both outputs have same problem... and since all sound originates on the mobo... i think that is the culprit... 
still open to ideas...

another issue i forgot to mention that happens with this audio problem:

sometimes, not always, when i am tranferring files between disks or onto USB thumb drive... OR... opening several tabs at once in chrome or FF (like a folder that i tell to "open all bookmarks")... the audio will begin immediately stuttering and/or even slowing down.
Now, today, when this was happening, i opened up task manager and watched my system resources as i opened more bookmarks and also copied large files over... and believe me, none of my resources were being strained...
still had plenty of RAM available
still had plenty of CPU left
plenty of disk left 
all these are headings in task manager which define the state of your resources, so i figure it is not being strained, YET, i get that wonky audio...

ding dang darn... whats a guy to do?

Eight years is a good run, but all good things must come to an end. In all those debates you hear about whether you should turn off your machine every night, someone invariably mentioned the stresses the hardware goes through as it heats up and cools down. It wouldn't take much for a crack to develop in the solder in the motherboard where your audio component is. 

-Bill

yes, i agree.. 8 yrs is a very good run for one of the first quad core intel chips ever. As for turning it off... i never turn off but do sometimes reboot... and lately with these issues, rebooting more than once a day grates my last nerve. 
Normally i might reboot once a month or so - after installing big time MS updates or so... but now... hanging by a thread (of patience)