Audio Skipping in recording and playback

Update.

I wanted to clarify my problem.

Itunes: fine
anything from safari, soundtrac: audio popping every second. A fraction-of-a-second snapping snap sound, click, pop, crackle, whatever you want to call it. and its about every second

Update:

further investigation is showing that whenever the audio popping is happening, process "coreaudiod" is increasing its processor use at the same time and in the same rhythm; like from 1% to 3.5% roughly.

Still can't find anyone who's having this problem with flash-driven web audio (like youtube, myspace) and soundtrack pro.

Okay Update for ya,

Took ol' Bessie into the apple store tonight to see a Genius.

Genius Mike at the apple store downtown performed a boot using his own external hard drive (running leopard). We were experiencing the same problem booting with his drive... a metronomic clicking gap popping (every second, like a clock) when listening to flash-based audio in safari. I had uninstalled my pro apps so I wasn't able to test soundtrack pro, but I imagine the same thing would have happened, because the safari audio was screwy.

just to be clear, iTunes is NOT screwed up for me. In fact, iTunes plays perfectly, which is why I'm still skeptical that this is a hardware issue. Mike at the apple store suggested this was a hardware issue that might be solved with the purchase and installation of a new motherboard ($875). I was not so keen to do that right away. I'm going to try a fresh install of OsX 10.4 first, after I back up everything to the 1TB external drive i bought on the same visit.

I want to again make it clear what my problem is...

I don't know which of these is the CAUSE or EFFECT of the problem but here they are:

- a process named coreaudiod (you can find this in activity monitor) is showing a rhythmic increased level of activity every one second, spiking to about 3-5%. Then it pops back down to 1% for a few seconds and jumps back up every second for 3-15 seconds.

- audio in safari (only flash driven audio like youtube and other flash sites) skips/pops or gaps for an instant every second. This repeats 3-15 times and then there is like 3-4 seconds of clear audio, and then the whole thing repeats

- system sounds from skype or aim (incoming message sounds) are also affected, but since they're so breif, usually, they sound like they're cut off half way through the sound.

- the same rhythmic audio popping occurs when playing back or recording in soundtrack pro.

- the following applications are NOT AFFECTED: quicktime, iTunes, logic pro, logic express

I am lividly upset at this problem because of my nearly persistent use of soundtrack pro for the last year... it's totally unusable now.

Message was edited by: ProSuiteEditor

I was SO excited when I read the post here for the PRAM fix.... i tried it to no avail. I would like to know if anyone else has had success with it. Can you post your results?

I deleted the specified cache files and rebooted holding down the appropriate keys until the second bootup sound (pram cleared!) and still, the same problem persists.

GRRRRRRrrrrr... Thanks for posting though. I'm glad your problems are solved.

I really just don't understand how this messes up flash audio and soundtrack pro, but not itunes, for me at least.

Just upgraded to 10.5.2, same problem. The OS update doesnt fix this problem.