I've been trying for six months to get rid of a crackling/static noise during playback of any sound source (including commercial CD's)with my Tascam US 224 external USB soundcard. The crackle is audible regularly - almost constantly, during playback from any source. (the problem started in the last six months. I've run this setup succesfully for two years.)

The 224 works fine on another computer, but produces the crackling when hooked up to my DELL Inspiron 8000. The DELL's own internal ESS Maestro card plays back without a hitch though.

I have tweaked all the XP settings for audio; have uninstalled all other USB drivers that might be competing for bandwith; have disabled the internal soundcard; have installed the latest Tascam driver several times, and have also reinstalled XP with no other applications loaded and I have even cleaned my USB ports in case of dust.

The crackling remains.

I have no ideas left short of buying a new PC

Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

System: (4 years old)

Dell Inspiron 8000, 700mhz, 384mb ram, 80GB external firewire HD at 7200rpm, internal 10GB HD at 4200 rpm.

Running XP pro SP 2 (problem has existed since before SP 2 installation)