My Setup: AthlonXP 1700, 512 megs DDR 2700, SBLIVE Value, Debian Woody (2.4.22) running KDE.

My sound skips when I open up web browsers, run dselect and alot of other tasks, I have tried setting the buffer sizes in the controll center to different levels and have experimented with the I/O methods to no avail. Its not like I'll be running back to Bill anytime soon but this didnt happen under Windows. It also doesnt matter what program I use to play the MP3's. I have tried both noattun and XMMS.

Any thoughts?

Please post the name of your vid card, motherboard, bios version and the output of lspci -v . Take a look in your /proc directory and see if there is anything interesting concerning irq's and dma's. While you're at it, look at your dmesg output and /var/log/messages file and see if there are any 'errors/conflicts'.
Thanks!!!

MB: ASUS A7V8X-X/LAN KT400 RTL

------------------
Tiamat:/# lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400 AGP] Host Bridge
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc. A7V8X motherboard
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 0
Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 2.0
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 PCI Bridge (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
Memory behind bridge: ee000000-efefffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: eff00000-f7ffffff
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

00:0e.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
Subsystem: Creative Labs CT4831 SBLive! Value
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 10
I/O ports at d800 [size=32]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1

00:0e.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 07)
Subsystem: Creative Labs Gameport Joystick
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32
I/O ports at d400 [size=8]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1

00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 80a1
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 3
I/O ports at d000 [size=32]
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 80a1
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 3
I/O ports at b800 [size=32]
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 80a1
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 3
I/O ports at b400 [size=32]
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 80a1
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 3
Memory at ed800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 80a1
Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT8233/A/C/VT8235 PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 80a1
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32
I/O ports at b000 [size=16]
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 80a1
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 6
I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 80a1
Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 9
I/O ports at a800 [size=256]
Memory at ed000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV15DDR [GeForce2 Ti] (rev a4) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 248, IRQ 11
Memory at ee000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Expansion ROM at efff0000 [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 1
Capabilities: [44] AGP version 2.0
-------------------------------------------

there was nothing of concern in /proc and no errors/conflicts provided by dmesg and /var/log/messages. Sorry I am at work right now and dont have the BIOS version.

Post 'hdparm -v /dev/hda'. It almost sounds like DMA is off. You may have to install hdparm. There should be a debian package for it.