Don't really understant the point in your post... I have reinstalled windows, installed all of the drivers I needed to, but have a problem with the audio. Your post was very unhelpful, please read it again, and if you have a suggestion to how I can solve my problem, that would be appreciated.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?docid=179256#Issue5

I'll do that now, and see if the hard drive is dying.

Okay, I have just uninstalled and installed my drivers again, and when it came to the audio driver, it says there is a problem installing the IDT High Definition Audio Codec, and underneath it says this device can not be started(code 10)

I installed everything correctly and in the correct order, I have had to reinstall windows a few times on this laptop, but this time the audio is messed up.

It's doing my head in that I can't fix it, I am hoping that someone else has had this problem and found a solution.

Did you install both the sigmatel driver AND the Soundblaster driver?  You have one or the other - not both.

Next question:  did you run a full diagnostic on the hard drive?  If the drive is original, it's well along toward the end of its expected lifespan.  They generally last 3-5 years at most, and a marginal drive could be an indication of a drive going south.

Go back and double check the way you did the reload.

Windows first - then the current service pack (SP3 if XP).

Then the Dell notebook system software

Then the Intel chipset driver.

Then load the other drivers -- including the audio - in any order.

I have installed the sigmatel one, I have run a test on my hard drive with a program called HDD health, and it sayd there are no problems with my hard drive.

I have tried a few different things to test my audio, like an mp3 file, dvd and youtube and all have the same choppy, jumpy audio effect.

In your original post, you mentioned you had the Soundblaster software - why did you install the Sigmatel driver?

I downloaded both drivers, but the soundblaster one just failed and said I didn't have the correct hardware.

Anyway, I've made a discovery after searching the internet for a solution. It seems it is not a problem with my sound card or drivers, it is my cpu. Apparently, it has something to do with the power management of them, someone else with the same problem as me, found that on their machine that if you open notepad and put word wrap on, hold down a letter so that it just continuously types it will skip and jump at exactly the same time as my audio skips and jumps. He said that the way to solve this is to "adjust your power management settings so that the frequency of both cores will always stay at max clock speed", I have been looking into how to do this but have not found anything yet, I have tried using the power settings in windows xp, but that didn't change anything so, if you know how I can do what that guy suggested, I can try it and hopefully it will work.

There is also a hardware-based power management in the BIOS setup.  It should not be necessary to set the system for maximum speed all the time - doing so is going to appreciably shorten the life of the system.  There's another possibility you should investigate - overheating can cause the stuttering, as the CPU will throttle back.  Make sure the heatsink and fan are free of dust and operating correctly.  And on a system this old, also make sure the thermal interface between the CPU and heatsink is in good shape - the material can dry out and lead to overheating.

Thanks for all your help, I think I might just get a new laptop when my student loan comes through, or maybe even a desktop, who knows. Thanks anyway but I'm just going to accept that it's time to call it a day on this machine.

If you're not seeing the proper power management, one of two things is missing:  either the Dell notebook system software or the chipset driver.

BYRNE86,

I have the same problem here. I have already seem the fact of letters jumping/failing on the screen while holding any key pressed.
Don't you have the link/page where you found the information linking power management settings to the stuttering problem? It would be important to investigate more with the person that wrote this...

Thx!!