Sound glitches with Vista

[Guest]

I have some questions re: sound glitches I am experiencing in Windows Vista.
I have received a 4.9 on the Windows Index for Vista. I have Creative X-Fi
Platinum, also an Ati Radeon 1900 pro. My processor is a Pentium D 820, 2.8
Ghz... everything is running great, except for a couple things:

1. When videos, or song visualizations, the sound is sketchy... it gets
scratchy, but doesn't stop playing.I just hear really bad audio. If I am not
playing any video, the sound works fine. Is my video card conflicting with
the sound card? How to resolve?

2. Also, Vista takes up a ton of processing power. I can frequently spike up
to 110% CPU usage. I dont want to buy a new computer now though. I just want
to make this one work better.. any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Tom Lake]

2. Also, Vista takes up a ton of processing power. I can frequently spike

up
to 110% CPU usage.

How can you have more than 100%?

Tom Lake