Apple's iTunes 7.0.2.16 running under Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 on an Intel Core 2 Duo HP notebook, driving me CRAZY with skipping problems!I love iTunes and have used it for over three years despite some troubles and in spite of an intense dislike of DRM. The latest update, iTunes 7, integrated CoverFlow to let users see their album cover art as they browse their collection. I quite like it.

But iTunes 7 has a major flaw on some systems under Windows XP. It skips. Not entire tracks, just bits and pieces of audio in the middle of a track. I'll be listening to a tune, into the beat, and suddenly it skips 100-250 milliseconds forward and the beat is off. Ug! Not only is it annoying, it makes iTunes 7 absolutely unusable for listening to music or podcasts, or playing video.

When playing video, the audio skips forward but the video remain where it should. For a few seconds or even as long as a minute or two, the audio and video will remain out of sync, then suddenly iTunes decides to correct things by speeding up the video frame rate or stuttering forward.

Fortunately, this skipping issue hasn't affected my Windows XP Media Center Edition workstation that's attached to larger speakers, so I can still enjoy my music that way. Nor does it affect my iPod.

There is no music file corruption since I can play the exact same audio file in my iTunes library using VLC and it plays perfectly.

Unfortunately the oft-suggested fixes found by googling for itunes skipping of checking one's sound driver settings and the QuickTime preferences don't do a thing to solve my problem. I even went so far as to totally remove iTunes and QuickTime from my system, clean out the registry and any left-over files, then reinstalling newly downloaded versions. No good.

So is this a Conexant HD audio driver problem on my HP notebook, or a Windows XP quirk, or perhaps is it some strange multi-CPU issue? I doubt it, since other software plays back the exact same music files flawlessly on the same hardware with the same drivers. Also, iTunes 5 (the version I was using before) worked flawlessly.

Help, Apple! Please, fix this problem. I want my iTunes back!

Update: 11 December 2006

The probem remains on my laptop. Fortunately for me, I'm swapping my Windows XP notebook for an Apple Macbook, so I won't care about the issue so much unless I encounter it on the Mac as well.

I've had two others contact me with the identical problem. I've included their questions/comments below. I wish I had a positive response, but I don't.

Sami 10 December 2006Chris 10 December 2006