Q: Audio Stuttering/Skipping

I have the exact same problem on my 15" MacBook Pro running OS X 10.5.4. The sound stutters and skips every now and then in every running application. I also noticed that whenever this happens, the process spindump is running and taking 20% CPU. After the skipping stops, spindump is no longer running. I have yet to try killing spindump to fix the sound, but I think that it is the cause of the problem.

CONFIRMED: Process spindump causes skipping. When I killed spindump, audio quality was restored and skipping stopped.

As to the cause of spindump running, I think that it is the Dashboard widget "Sing that iTune!" since whenever the sound skips, the widget is unresponsive while all others work perfectly.

I have been having the same problem with audio skips / dropouts since I installed Leopard recently. (I have an iMac PowerPC G4 (3.3) )It didn't start immediately (first some of the videos in Safari but not in Firefox), but it's affecting all audio (even iTunes) pretty much all of the time now. It's extremely annoying, and difficult to explain to me 5-yr-old why the computer isn't working. Since I just bought Leopard, I have the 5.5 version. If I take the disks in to the Apple store, do you think they would be willing to give me a 10.5 or 10.5.1 version?? I'll have to figure out how to downgrade soon...

Update - it seems to be tied to the left channel - if I switch the balance to the right, it's fine (in the sense that it doesn't skip...) The left speaker doesn't seem to be playing anything (which would explain why the startup chime and email swoosh both seem to stop in the middle...) I'm using the clear speakers that came with the system.
Preferable to downgrading the system, I suppose...

I just solved my Macbook audio stuttering prob. I noticed that the temp coming out of the vent (near the screen) was very high during stuttering. At one point I bought a laptop fan which solved the problem.

I knew it was due to a temp issue. I opened the computer up to check the fan and the vent thru which the fan blows hot air out was all clogged with dust. I cleaned it and no more stuttering problems (even with out the extra fan)!!

Hope this helps!

Software Update just loaded OS 10.5.6, which seems to have fixed the audio dropout problem I was having. (The left audio channel seemed to be cancelling out some of the sound; switching to right channel only got me clear mono. I now have stereo again! I had missed it... )

well, after months of frustration with spindump causing itunes to distort all audio output i finally found the solution for this problem!! furthermore it's easy. it's not important to kill your dashboard or whatever application causes the hang. best thing to avoid sound stuttering is to completely disable spindump. after doing this via terminal, system responsiveness will stay normal and audio also stays normal, when a program hangs.

here's the instruction how to disable spindump:
http://jamesreubenknowles.com/disable-spindump-71