audio playback

What is your processor speed?
Start > right click Computer > Properties

What is your laptop model?
This should be on the laptop itself somewhere.

If it's a really slow processor combined with only 1GB RAM & trying to run Win7, your problem may just be because the laptop can't handle it.

Sounds like what would happen to my laptop back when I only had 2GB ram, a very small system-controlled pagefile, & a lot of extra unnecessary processes running. I'd be working in 3DS Max and Adobe while listening to music, and probably other things. It would overheat and the sound dying was the first sign.

How is that running Win7... Sorry. From experience, I've gotta say that I think it's just getting wobbly under the strain. It might be able to still handle a stripped down XP, and bump up the pagefile. Also look into upgrading at least what you can on the system, like RAM. The easiest thing to at least prevent overheating is to pop it open, *remove the hard drive* and clean the board, fan, and air vent with a can of compressed air. I checked and it meets the minimum requirements of Win7, but that doesn't mean it will run it smoothly & quickly without problems.

Anybody else have any ideas...

What Microsoft states as "minimum" requirements usually is not enough. "Real World" it's a lot more and in the case of Win 7, at least 2GB of RAM is needed. Whether memory is your problem ??? but it's a place to start.

Upon looking up your specific model, I've found that actually, your laptop can only hold up to 1GB RAM. So adding more memory modules to this laptop is NOT an option.
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/t...ily=1073768663

Once XP is installed again, you should take a look through this guide to see what services you can disable or at least switch to manual, in order to decrease the strain on your laptop.
Black Viper’s Windows XP x86 (32-bit) Service Pack 3 Service Configurations

2 other helpful boosts:
Right click on My Computer, click the Advanced tab, and under Performance, click Settings.

1. On the Visual Effects tab, check "Adjust for best performance." This will revert the look back to a Win95 look, but it'll move faster. (I understand how you wouldn't want to do this one, however. ^_^ At least check the list of visual effects to turn off.)

2. On the Advanced tab, under Virtual Memory, click "Change." Set the Custom sizes, in MEGAbytes. Initial should be 1.5x the amount of RAM installed. The maximum size should be 3x the amount of RAM installed. Be sure to always keep this much space free on your hard drive. This will essentially convert that space into usable RAM to help with increased load demands. (However, as HDDs are naturally slower than RAM itself, it will not exactly have the same effect as adding more RAM modules.)

For 1GB RAM as you have now, this would mean...
Initial = 1536 MB
Max = 3072 MB

These are my best suggestions to get the most out of your laptop right now. Good luck! :)