ops.
i posted the lengthy tips to save retyping the same stuff time and again.
firstly ASAP run a test useing a borrowed dedicated drive for recording.
for budget i recommend 70 buk 32 mb cache 7200 rpm drives.

for the zillionth time ..jeesh..
ITS NOT A GOOD IDEA TO RECORD TO THE SAME DRIVE AS WIN OS RESIDES ON.
REASON BEING..WIN CAN INTERRUPT THE AUDIO PROCESS TO DO ITS THING.
thus causeing stuttering etc.

another cause of stuttering is the sound device..in this case the 2496
being locked out by another pci device.

secondly run this tool asap. and report back the results.
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
its a usefull tool for helping identify possible daw problems.


retired puter engr....powertracks on amd......NICE !
"what is the black art of audio engineering ?"
my silly songs...motagator.com/bmanning
see my tips in the tips section.