External soundcard, Windows audio lags/cuts and sometimes shuts down

[Astronomy]

Hi all, this is my first post so please let me know if I overlooked anything.

For a while now, my awesome computer has suddenly run in to a problem.
Recently I added a Wifi card with 2 antennes (internetz w00t), a CPU fan and 4gb by Corsair @1600mHz and I do not know if this problem was inflicted by the addition of extra memory, but that would seem bizarre to me. Before this I used internet through a USB wifi receiver, but it wasn't strong enough to run torrents with.
What happens is lately about 60% of the times when I go to a Youtube video, or worse, a website like Break.com, my Windows Audio service just skips/lags/stutters, and usually when the cuts get longer (half second/2seconds) the Windows Audio service just breaks down all together, without giving any error message, but the output just stops. This is solved by either unplugging my Alesis Io26 or stopping and restarting the Windows Audio service or the Windows Audio Endpoint builder. Usually I'm also always running a torrent client.

I'm 100% sure it's not my processor or memory usages, because in the task manager monitor, no spikes occur above 55% of my performance and my memory usage never gets close to 12gb (3x4gb). Also, when you look at my specs, it's ridiculous that my PC lags with something so simple. I have my fans running at 100%, my temperatures stay below 40 degr. Celsius and nothing points to a performance problem. The driver for my external audio device is quite old and the manufacturer has discontinued the model and any updates. The driver however is pretty reliable, so I doubt that's the problem when I'm running complex Pro Tools sessions/mixes with over 50 tracks of audio running +/- 4 plugins per audio channel, with additional subgroups and submixes, all running plugins as well.
No lag is caused by any of this, yet a simple flash video disrupts my audio output.

Can anyone help my find the root of this problem, as it clearly isn't my hardware?

Thanks for reading, and in advance for helping if you will!

 

[fireberd]

I would suspect the internet connection, first. As it apparently did not happen until you added the new Wi-Fi card. However, it could also be your wireless router/modem.

Run some link tests and see what that shows.

Speedtest.net by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test


However, I have had some interruptions with a fast 40 Mb downlink, wired connection on youtube. Buffering, many times is a problem in the network and not with the local PC.

 

[Astronomy]

Thanks for the reply.
I'm afraid it's not a buffering problem or anything like that, I reach speeds of over 1mb/s actual download speed.

 

[fireberd]

1 mb/sec is not a relatively fast link. Its actually considered a very slow broadband link in the US.