sounds like maybe a resource issue?

mine only will ever pop or skip when I have too much stuff running including windows "background" services

I stripped my machine and turned off as much as I could with out impairing window most of it was the "internet" related connection junk
auto update is turned off
windows firewall is turned off
security center is turned off
etc.
the onboard LAN/NIC is disabled and the machine cannot connect except to power, USB, parallel, & serial devices
when the machine boots I have a total of 24 processes running
unlike the 40+ on the office work PC which is "connected"
I have seen other PC's running as high as 60+ processes just after boot up,

another thing I do with machines is to change the "process priority class" of various apps.
ie, I set AA to "Above Normal" I set the sound card drivers to "Above Normal" all with the "Task Manager" and if the machine is running an AV as is the case with the office work PC, I disable the networking first and then disable the AV on access scanner.

then proceed to do my work