Recording dropout/audio help

I use Sonar PE to record. Since my soundcard seems to be an utter piece of (those Sigmatel cards the new Dell inspirons come with) I use the ASIO4ALL utility to avoid latency/cracking problems. I've been able to record fine for a couple of months. All of the sudden, Sonar won't let me record a single track. As soon as I start recording, it will let me go for a couple of seconds, then the audio will crack and the whole thing will stop. This is even when I'm recording my very first track, not using any plug-ins or effects, just simple, clean guitar. The CPU meter both in Sonar and the Windows Task Manager doesn't even go past 5% so I don't understand what's happening. It can't be my computer (I've got 2gb of RAM and plenty of hard drive space). I've messed with the ASIO4All latency compensation and samples, even setting it to the very lowest settings, where there's even a latency of like half a second and still, the same thing happens. Granted, it usually gives me a couple of more seconds to record when I do this, but it still eventually stops. This is incredibly frustrating, I haven't changed any settings recently, it just decided to be an and stop working. The only thing I have done recently is install the EZdrummer vst plug-in, but I don't see how that would have to do with anything, since my audio is dropping out even when I'm not using any plug-ins. Does anyone have any suggestions? Because I'm about to throw this computer out the window. This is getting incredibly frustrating. P.S. I know I should get a new soundcard, believe me, that's been on my mind for weeks, I just need to get the money.