When my computer (Compaq evo minitower, 512 RAM) starts up, the musical signature (Windows XP SP2, legal, automatic updating) is scratchy. When I play music it is often scratchy too (particularly when something is working in the background, such as a browser starting). Happens with both Windows Media Player and Winamp. I've run CC cleaner, checked spyware (Ad Aware SE and Spybot) and viruses (Nod32), upgraded Windows media player, upgraded sound driver (SoundMax integrated audio - I don't know how to remove and reinstall audio drivers, but I was able to check for upgrades via Device Manager); I tried chkdsk/r and Device Manager; they show all is fine. I removed my video card, problem persists. Every now and then CPU usage is flat at 100% and that's usually when the sound goes bad, so I guess (?) it's not a hardware problem. Speakers are at same volume and position they've always been. Other programs also work more slowly too. Only new devices in area are video card (which I took out) and a second hard drive, but these were installed and working several weeks before the problems. Most of what I do is Office, browsing, email and listening to music. The master hard disc (40GB) is about 75% full, when I defragmented, I noticed quite a big percentage of the files showed up as red on the report meaning (I think) that many files stayed fragmented, but to some lesser extent this has always been the case. Any suggestions will be welcome.
