Vista - A strange problem with audio interference

Hello,

I've just bought a gateway laptop with vista 64. It's my first experience of this OS and so far I've loved it. But I've noticed a problem with sound. Certain instruments at certain volumes are accompanied by a strange watery crackle. It's very faint and almost unnoticeable until I noticed. Now it's a terrible annoyance. I like classical music and this quite ruins it.

The sound card is a Conexant High Definition Smart Audio 221 and I've done the obvious thing and updated the driver but it made no difference. When music isn't playing, the audio is crystal clear, but when it is, there's the watery crackle with certain tones - for instance a solo bassoon.

I have a fuzzy memory of something I read once about Vista's DRM features and that it can deliberately degrade sound and video which doesn't have a license. Is there any truth in this?

So basically I wonder if anyone can offer me any advice in tackling this problem. Thanks and best wishes.

You can try to disable enhancements, but can't guarantee whether or not
it will help in your case.

Click on Start/Control Panel/Hardware and Sound/Sound/Manage Audio Device,
in the Playback tab, mark Speakers and click Properties, click Enhancements
then Disable all enhancements, click Apply and OK.

I fixed the sound in my machine, perhaps it will help you, too.
Sometimes installing older driver will fix the problem.