My Audiophile 2496 always did a very good job in my PC, but .....
Since a few weeks the performance dropped dramatically : Timing-problems, dropouts etc.

I tried to find out why this was happening, so switched off all background-progs, not used devices, even moved to another PCI-slot, upgraded memory.... DMA-settings.... all without any result.
Because of two running projects I ordered the Audiophile Firewire card to be able to finish the songs.

After installation of the FW the problem was still there!!!

Then I decided to restore a drive backup (a few months old), installed the FW software.. è voila ! Problems gone.

The restored file did not have Skype in it, but while rewinding my 'memory tape' the problems came after installing Skype. I once discussed this with ScottYee : The system slowdown because of Skype, even while not running in foreground.

All this is sufficient reason for me to stay away from Skype

Perhaps more members encounter similar trouble.