Degrading Sound Quality

Over the past two months the sound quality on my laptop has degraded and can now only be described as poor to not at all. It sometimes has cracks and pops in it, other times the sound is distorted as if it is playing too slow and sometimes it produces no sound ay all. I have uninstalled the sound card driver Avance AC97 (ver 3.56) and and re-installed Avance AC97 (ver 3.84) a couple of times and still the problem continues. Does this sound as if the sound chip on the mother bored is failing? or is it a driver problem? Are there any other fixes I can try? When going into the System folder and going to the Device Manager all parts of the sound controllers appear to be "working properly". List of specs below. If more spec info is needed let me know. Attached an Everest Hardware report as well.

Thanks,
zithro

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)


Motherboard:
CPU Type Mobile Intel Pentium 4M, 2200 MHz (22 x 100)
Motherboard Name Unknown
Motherboard Chipset Intel Montara-GML i852GM
System Memory 496 MB (PC2100 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Phoenix (07/01/03)
Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller-1 (64 MB)
Video Adapter Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller-1 (64 MB)
3D Accelerator Intel Extreme Graphics 2
Monitor Digital Flat Panel (1024x768) (12003)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Intel 82801DBM ICH4-M - AC'97 Audio Controller [B-1]

Storage:
IDE Controller Intel(R) 82801DBM Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 24CA
Disk Drive TOSHIBA MK3018GAS (30 GB, 4200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Optical Drive TEAC DW-224E (24x/10x/24x CD-RW)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 28615 MB (18228 MB free)

Input:
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse Alps Pointing-device

Network:
Network Adapter Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
Network Adapter Toshiba Wireless LAN Mini PCI Card (192.168.1.3)
Modem TOSHIBA Software Modem

Peripherals:
Printer Canon i250
Printer Fax
USB1 Controller Intel 82801DBM ICH4-M - USB Controller [B-1]
USB1 Controller Intel 82801DBM ICH4-M - USB Controller [B-1]
USB1 Controller Intel 82801DBM ICH4-M - USB Controller [B-1]
USB2 Controller Intel 82801DBM ICH4-M - Enhanced USB2 Controller [B-1]
Battery Microsoft AC Adapter
Battery Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery