I have XP pro, Matsonic MB, 512 Mem, 40 Gb Wd, Adelphia.net high speed and the sound plays great but hicups every so often that I can not record songs to cd or even play any music. Windows sound on startup also does it. In fact all my sound has this problem. On Bd sound was turned off and sound card installed only to do the same thing. I am about to disable the adelphia.net to see if it is causing the problem. I have all updates and use Norton Firewall. Norton Anitvirus, adaware, spybot and spysweeper. I have had this problem before the spyware programs and have worked on this for a while. All ideas you may have will be tried. Thanks to all for any help. I have built PC since the 80's and still have a lot to learn.