Audio skipping, death-static, whatsgoingon??

[The Mailman]

Hey, not sure if this is the right sub forum, but its happening on my SR, so here goes:

Recently I've found 2 things:

1- my hard drive makes a very soft clicking noise, only noticeable when the room is perfectly quiet. but it's also noticeable because my system locks when it clicks for this split second, enough that if im scrolling it lags. not a biggie but...

2- ive found my audio (mp3s) to be skipping (odd click or blip here or there, like the track was ripped badly), and to my ear's horror, PURE STATIC for a few seconds will pop up irregardless of the volume settings (ie. i will try to scroll down volume in itunes but it has no effect on the banshee like sound thats trying to destroy my ear drums). This happens in WMP and iTunes, so its not a software problem....


so whats going on? hdd dying? sound card dying? windows???


edit: sorry, this is happening on my Vaio SR laptop.

 

[WoodButcher]

speakers? does it happen w/ headset or another set of speakers?
on board sound? try a soundcard or vice/ versa?
As for the hard drive,,,,
Back up. Now!!!

 

[The Mailman]

yeah, i finished backing up just before making the post

notice the skipping on both the onboard speakers as well as with headphones. I've only had the ear-killing mass-static happen when I've had the headphones on, to my misfortune.

 

[WoodButcher]

Update your drivers?

 

[The Mailman]

ran CHKDSK.....no more problems so far at all....what the hell?

that is, audio isnt skipping, but the clicking sound is still going on with the hdd. it'll cause youtube vids to freeze (video, not audio) for about a second or less.

hmm, what's going on here?