I use Macs so I don't really have that problem . Some of my friends with PCs say they have that problem as well . They bought the AUDIOPHILE 2496 card and the problem is almost nonexistant . A multimedia card is for games ONLY , with the low cost of pro audio cards , there is no excuse for not getting one . The pro audio cards like the AUDIOPHILE 2496 costs less than $170.00 and they have been made for softare recording and software synthesis . Multimedia cards are just made for Diablo or whatever games you want to play . The point - Multimedia cards have instructions for games and pro audio cards have instructions for sound recording , processing , software synthesis . Get a pro audio card , read the back to find out it's requirements and make sure you SURPASS them . Erase the driver for the multimedia card and make sure ALL DLL files for it are gone . Install the driver for the pro audio card .