Random Distorted / Garbled Sound In Windows XP

I have laptop Pavilion dv5282 and sometimes sound gets garbled / distorted. Listen to this. Note that this happens only when music/video is playing, i mean only when there should be any sound coming off. I had this problem in the beginning when i purchased laptop, but as a few years passed by, problem disappeared. 2 weeks ago i formatted and reinstalled Windows XP and now this problem came up again. Should i put headphones on, or listen through built-in speakers, problem is still there which should indicate that the problem is with sound card or drivers. When i am watching online video, the problem happens, but i have noticed that if i start playing music in Winamp, the problem disappears, until i stop music from playing.

What should i do to fix this problem?

Thanks.

Sorry but your post is hard to read. I'll do my best to retain information from it.
What browser do you use? Flash players up to date? It sounds like an issue with the browser if Winamp works fine.

What i forgot to mention is that garbled sound happens after Windows XP login screen i.e when i enter password and get logged into system you can hear Windows' sound so i don't think problem is with browsers.

As mentioned in original post, when music sounds garbled and i play song on Winamp, the garbled effect goes away as long as Winamp keeps playing.

Just to note: Winamp is configured to use Direct Sound Output, not Wave Output.

In XP go to Control Panel... Performance and Maintenance... System... Hardware...Device Manager...

Click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers to see a list of your Primary and Secondary Channels. Right click on each and select Properties... Under the Advanced Settings check to see if the Transfer mode is set to DMA if available and that the Current Transfer Mode is NOT PIO. If it is PIO Right click the drive channel in the device list and click Uninstall! This might seem a LITTLE RADICAL, but it will fix the problem.

After you have uninstalled the drive channel, Windows will want to Restart your computer. During that time, it will reset to a DMA setting in most cases. If it does not, then you are stuck with PIO.

I think that my DMA problem was created when I installed a second hard drive. Oddly the Primary was PIO and the newer drive was already set to DMA.

Give it a try! It worked wonders for my sound and the darn thing runs a little faster too!

Ted

It was already on DMA.

Well, I got rid of Winamp because it was causing sound problems on my PC when other programs were running. When I uninstalled it, I LOST ALL SOUND. I had to reset the thing and then uninstall it. GARBAGE! I used it years ago and it hasn't gotten much better...