Audio gets interrupted when starting a new task or application

Hello,
I am running Windows 7 Ultimate on a Dell desktop PC. There is 2 GB of RAM, and the CPU is Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz.
I noticed a problem with playing music video or just plain audio. The start of the play is okay, but if I start another application, or as simple as opening another tab in the same browser window, the audio gets interrupted when the new task launches. The audio would resume normal when the new task is complete.
I've checked the sound card and the driver, Windows said the driver is up-to-date.
Does anybody have any idea what could have caused this annoying problem?

Hi ThreePutts,

I regret the inconvenience faced. In my experience, the audio stuttering might occur if the CPU usage is high while running an audio or video on system. I would suggest you to close the unnecessary background tasks while playing audio/video files. If the issue persists, you may follow the steps below to identify the process/application consuming the CPU resources :

• Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete on keyboard
• Click on Task Manager
• Click on Performance to check the CPU usage when system is idle
• Click on Processes
• Click on CPU tab to arrange it in ascending or descending order and identify the process with highest CPU usage and share it here.

I would also suggest you to run a thorough virus scan on computer and see if any threat is found.

You may also run diagnostics to verify the hardware functionality of the computer :

• Power off the computer
• Restart the computer, press F12 on the Dell logo
• Select ‘Diagnostics’ from the boot menu
• Make a note of the error code (if any)

Please share the findings along with exact system model. Will take it further.

Thanks & Regards
Sundeep B
#iworkfordell

Sundeep B:
Thanks for the reply.
I checked the CPU usage from Task Manager and found the CPU usage peaked to 100 % when another task launched.
I am attaching a snapshot of the Task Manager's Performance tab for your reference.
I suppose the Pentium 4 CPU is not sufficient to support starting of multiple tasks, kind of disappointed.

Thanks,
3Putts

By the way, the Dell model number is Dimension 4600i. It's an old desktop that had Windows XP on when purchased from Dell. This PC caught virus a few years ago, and was shut down and sitting idle. A friend just recently cleaned it up and then installed Windows 7 Ultimate ( 32 bit O/S ). I just noticed that the audio shutters when launching another task when playing audio/video, or just playing Youtube clips.