Help with DV6000 speaker/sound issue

Hello -
My DV6000 is about 2 years old (way out of warranty), and the past few months I've been having some difficulty with my speakers/sound. Mostly the speakers, which leads me to believe this is a hardware problem.

Basically, the speakers AND headphones (when in use) crackle and pop constantly. Whether they are in use does not matter. Usually when in use the audio drowns out the crackling. But as soon as the music stops there is this constant annoying crackling coming out of the speakers. It is very weird. If I plug headphones in it comes out of the headphones.

The weird thing is that it gets worse if the computer is being driven more. For instance, if I'm just idling it just crackles lightly. But if I'm downloading something, or writing to the disc the crackling gets very loud and annoying.

The only way I can stop it is if I press the "Mute" button, and use an external sound card to play audio. Like I said, I'm at a loss as to what this is... The closest thing that a search turned up was the following thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=225809&highlight=sound+issue

However, this doesn't sound like the issue I'm having at all. For instance, the quickplay buttons do not turn on the computer... the QP buttons are fine, and still function properly.

I can't afford to send this in to repair, so I've been putting up with it, but it is really annoying... Especially when I need to use the speakers without my external soundcard. Even if I send this to get repaired locally it will cost quite a bit just to diagnose and fix it, and I'll be without a computer for several days. I am quite handy with computers, and I've repaired a few things on this machine myself, but this is something a bit foreign to me. If there is someone who can help me out please, I would greatly appreciate your suggestions!

Thank you.