Sound and video skipping every second on the second. Help plz.

Just for starters so it doesn't have to be asked down the line, here's the basic specs.


Amd XP - 1700+ processor
768 MB of sd ram
Geforce 4 TI4200 64MB card
Generic sound Card.
Win XP home edition - Up to date with all patches and security fixes.

Now the problem I'm expierencing is one I have never expierenced before so I really don't know how to deal with the problem.

Here are the problems as best as I can put them.

Any time I try to play any audio or video either alone or together, (IE a movie file.) the thing stutters pretty much every second on the second. It doesn't matter what mp3, movie file, or game that I'm playing, it freezes for a split second on the second. Then, about every 1 1/2 minutes, the computer freezes up for about 4 to 6 seconds and resumes normal operation..until the next eventual freeze up.

I've defragmented my hard drive, made sure my drivers are all up to spec. Direct X is completely updated. My computer is virtually clear of any spyware considering I use 4 different programs to clear that crap out. I cleared out the internals of dust with canned air from 12 inches away and avoiding all contact with all parts. I checked for device conflicts and all that good stuff but nothing I've done has worked. The problem still remains.

Which leads me to the question. Could a piece of hardware say, my motherboard, ram, vid card, sound card or even my hard drive be malfunctioning and be the cause of all these problems? Or could it be software related and I just have to reinstall various updates? I'm seriously lost and don't know what else to do except look for help from outside sources.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.