"Hi, I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me from such PC-related rants such as 'My PC's crashed - for the third time in as many minutes!', and 'Freeze again and I'll rip your ****in' motherboard out!'."

Ahem! *attempts to regain composure in midst of sugar and caffeine high*

I was hoping someone could help me with the problems I've been having with my sound card (an onboard nForce, methinks). For the past week or so, it's been occaisionally been skipping audio files (like a badly scratched music CD does) and I can also hear 'static' crackling like the kind you get on a bad radio signal. I've reinstalled the sound drivers twice with no noticeable effect, and the only way I can get it to correct itself is to pause/stop whatever's playing and start it again - but this only works for 3 or 4 minutes at the most.

It isn't the audio files itself that're the problem, but rather the access and playback - the skips/crackling aren't at specific parts of the songs/sounds, but at random points which change every time they're played.

I pray someone can tell me how to fix the thing cheaply and effectively, because playing Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory with sound this bad is not good for my monitor's lifespan...