"Overlaying" loud static and squelches when system plays any sound. Realtek ac'97

My brain hurts. HP Pavilion a430n with realtek ac'97 int sound. Problem appears to start on xp loading screen. I see the loading bar freeze for a split second and speakers pop and static starts. I have uninst/reinstalled realtek driver, checked speakers, checked volume levels, used a clean boot via msconfig, downloaded kcodec and installed......no luck. All sounds are affected. Maybe the card is dead? Motherboard Manufacturer name: ASUS A7N8X-LA, HP name: Focus-UL6E XPsp3 pro
Thank you for any reply

 

That computer from 2003 does not have a sound card. The sound is delivered through a chip on the motherboard.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=c00063027

You might be able to use an external sound card that connects through a USB port.
examples
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?N=100008658 600011978&IsNodeId=1&Submit=ENE