terrible crackling static noise

[robyn smith]

i own a sony vaio laptop.  when i turn it on, 3/4 of the time, i hear this terrible crackling noise. the noise is constant. the other 1/4 of the time, the sounds goes on just fine and works great the whole time the computer is on. i have updated all of the drivers and tried the sound with headphones – no luck with either. i am working on xp. because the sound works some of the time, i don't think it's my speakers or my sound card. it just seems like the sound either "catches" or not. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance!

[robyn smith]

oh, i tried to update my soundcard - soundmax integrated digital audio, but it says i need to insert a cd and my computer didn't come with one. and i could not find the update on the soundmax website. i am not sure if this is the problem though that causes the terrible noises.

[merlin]

http://www.cappuccinopc.com/drivers.asp  its also possible that the wave startup sound file is damage try to use another one to disprove this.ok