There is something to cause the music to play garbled and skipped (sounds like it is static-y.) when played through the Xitel HIFI Pro Link on this notebook computer through the USB. Music through the default soundcard sounds OK, but I would like to use the Xitel link if possible.

I just upgraded my ThinkPad T21 by adding a new Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 HTS721080G9AT00 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB cache notebook drive and Windows XP SP2. I did this so I could paly my collection of MP3's through my stereo via a Xitel HiFi Pro link, which works through the USB connection.

Unfortunately I am getting intermittent static-y, garbled sound through the Xitel link when the music is played through MusicMatch and WinAmp. I went to the IBM site and re-downloaded all the drivers I could plus upgraded the BIOS. This is still happening - garbled sound through the USB, but when played through the soundcard, it sounds fine. Stranger still, when I play music through the USB and there is some disk activity going on, it sounds fine. Fir example, when I perform an parallel operation, such as defragging the disk using Windows defragger, it sounds fine, that is, until the defragging operation is complete, then the sound goes back to static.

Any ideas on why this might be occurring? Has anyone else experienced this with their IBM ThinkPads?

I know it is not the Xitel, because I also tried it on my work notebook and it worked fine.

Thanks.

The model of ThinkPad I have is:

IBM ThinkPad T21, Type 2647-4BU

System:
IBM ThinkPad T21
Intel PentiuM III processor
647 MHz, 384MB RAM (perhaps need more?)
USB Controllers: Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller, USB Root Hub
Hitach 7200 RPM Travelstar 7K100 disk drive

Software:
Windows XP Pro with SP2
Music Match (v. 10.0)
Also tried Winamp - condition gets worse here