M17 64bit 8GB Sound skipping lags Solved Realtek sound driver version R2.34

I've also been having problems with the usual sleep mode stuff like a lot of others but learned on my own to never use the sleep mode and all has been well except for the sound skipping, lagging or music sounding static y. I wanted to post this in the title because I had to tread through buried stuff to find my solution and want to make it easier for anyone with an M17 64bit with 8gigs memory. I know about how to turn a computer on and that's about it. My main concern was about the sound skipping. I went to www.realtek.com , clicked on downloads, you must be accepting cookies in your browser, then clicked High Definition Audio Codecs (Software). Realtek goes on to explain they don't want to be responsible for any mishaps so you need to tic the box saying you won't hold them responsible, then click next. A list of operating systems will come up, you click the "go" button on the one that describes yours and it downloads an executable or zip file, whichever one you choose. Remember where the file is downloaded, close everything and open that file, follow the prompts. First it removes and deletes your current sound driver and then asks to reboot, click yes to that. The system reboots and it takes a lot longer than usual to reboot. After rebooting, it automatically starts installing the new driver. I did this and my M17 has been a dream! Music has never sounded so good as it does now. Thank you everyone for the posts, AW and Realtek. I noticed there are posts listing the driver as being version R2.2 whereas the version I got today was R2.34
UPDATE: It worked for me for a few music files and then started back up with the same issue I thought I had solved.

 

Solved my music static, scratch, lagging problem. I'm not sure what did it but I removed all trial versions of music software and turned off all enhancements. Now my music never misses a beat. I've restarted and turned off the M17 laptop many times and it still is playing perfect after a week. I right clicked the volume icon on my toolbar, clicked playback devices, highlighted a device, clicked properties, chose the "Enhancements" tab on top, then unchecked each enhancement that was ticked.

 

I now believe my music glitch problem arises from a Windows Update. I don't know which one.
Since 10/24/09 my music glitch, lag, scratching, skipping, static problem had gone away and stayed away until now.
The last time I successfully played a music file was Saturday Oct 31.
Three or four days go by without me trying to play any music until last night, Nov 3.
I tried playing some music files and the same old problem was back.
Glitches galore.
Being almost an imbecile with computers, I tried fooling around with the properties and configurations of the speakers, microphones, programs and ended up changing the driver to what I think was the speakers. I can't recall which driver it was but I got the BSOD immediately.
Each time I booted the Alien, I got BSOD.
I tried running in safe mode and couldn't get anywhere so I did a System Restore (SR) by hitting the f10 key while restarting.

Four times I ran SR and each time received a message at the end of the restore that told me;
"System Restore did not complete successfully. Your computer system files and settings were not changed".

The forth time, I gave up and let the Alien finish booting up without trying another SR. Turns out that the SR DID work even though it was telling me it didn't.
My music files play perfectly smooth with no glitches at all now. I ended up with the SR turning me back to October 28.
In my opinion, the music glitch problem is in one of the Windows Updates. When starting SR, the list of dates to return the system to had three Windows Updates before the October 28 date I ended up with. I'm running Vista Ult 64bit. I'm taking my time to install them because I need to be able to play my music right now and have already spent the entire night fooling with this.

Could I ask one of the computer gurus if they have an opinion or advice before I start installing the Windows Updates again? Thanks for reading.
UPDATE; I played music files flawlessly until 6am this morning, went to sleep, woke up about 2pm, tried playing music files and the glitch, lag, problem is back again. Every time I play a music file it has glitches again. I didn't restart my M17 nor did I do an install of Windows updates. My M17 is configured to let me know if there are updates from MS available but lets me choose to install them or not. Last thing I remember was opening up the Vista sound recorder then Windows Media Player to try and change my .wav files into mp3's. I wasn't able to execute that yet but that's the last thing I did before going to sleep. Will look for another forum that may be able to help and will come back and post here my findings if I get the solution and reason.

 

I went back to the AW website and signed into the forums. I found a posting dated 06-12-2009 02:04 PM from someone that said they opened the ATI Catalyst Control Center, clicked on 3d in the left hand column, clicked on Catalyst A.I. and ticked the box "Disable Catalyst A.I.". This person did that and their sound problems went away. I did the same thing and my sound skipping, static, lagging went away. Now I'm waiting to see if it sticks or if the problem comes back.

 

Okay, the last action I took did not stick and the volume went very low. There was no static or noise in the music and video files, when played, but the volume was too low to enjoy or understand at times. From there I rebooted a few times with the volume coming back with the noise, static, lag. Now it's back to low volume.