Now Time hesitates, audio dropouts

Hi all,
 
I'm having a playback problem. The Now Time continuously repeats the following sequence: runs for maybe a second, hesitates for maybe 1/4-1/2 second, etc. The audio playback works at first but drops out after the first second or two of the Now Time cycle described above.
 
I've read all of the posts regarding dropouts and performed the suggested actions (except getting a new audio card) without success, and wondering if my issue is different from other dropout issues because I haven't read anything about Now Time hesitation in any of those threads. 
 
Although I have just an integrated sound card (on all systems I've tried this), I used to be able to run MC just fine on System 2 below, without this problem, so I am sure it is not that. Also, the sounds on the TTS-1 soft synth will preview just fine with no problem. Can you suggest other things I can try?
 
Thanks for any help.
 
Bennett
 
 
More information: 
 
I'm running Music Creator 4.2.2 and have tried it on 3 different systems, all HP laptops. The issue is identical on all of the systems. 
 
On all 3 systems tried, I am running just the Cakewalk Tutorial 1 project, which consists of 7 MIDI channels only and no audio channels, with the TTS-1 soft synth added so I can get sound out.
 
System 1:
 * HP Pavilion dv7 "multimedia" laptop PC
 * Windows Vista Home Premium, SP1, 32 bit
 * Intel Core2 Duo CPU T6400 @ 2.00 GHz
 * 3 GB RAM
 * IDT High Definition Audio CODEC
 * NVIDIA High Definition Audio
 
System 2:
  * HP Pavilion 6530b laptop PC
  * Windows Vista Enterprise, SP2, 32 bit
  * Intel Core2 Duo CPU T9400 @ 2.53GHz
  * 2 GB RAM
  * SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio
 
This is the system that used to work fine with no hesitation in the Now Time. What I know has changed since it used to work:
 *  My hard drive went out and was replaced with a new one with a reinstall
     of all software.
 * I now have disk encryption on the hard drive. I recognize this may be a
     problem, however I also have the Now Time issue on System 1 which does
     not have disk encryption. I can't disable encryption on this drive.
 
Another clue: I happened to start MC once when I was viewing a webcast (I usually run with all networking turned off but it happened to be on this time). When MC came up it gave me a warning message that my audio card was being used by another program and was not available to MC. When I tried playback, of course no sound came out, but the Now Time did not pause. This leads me to belive the issue has something to do with the sound card or interrupts and not the hard disk encryption, but I don't have any ideas to try here. This is a laptop and integrated sound card so I can't move it to a new slot. Is there any other way to try a different interrupt for it?
 
 
System 3:
 * Another HP laptop with Windows Vista. I don't have all the info right here
    at hand but will get it if needed. This one is a Mobile Work Station with loads
    of performance, but it also has hard disk encryption. Identical issue as the
    other two systems.
 

Cool.
With onboard sound cards, you have to find the setting with the Latency slider that gives you the minimum amount of latency without dropouts.
When using software synthesizers in real time, i.e, playing a MIDI keybord/controller through that synth, the latency can be excruciatingly slow. You play the key but don't hear the sound for a half-second or more. Can really mess with your timing.
Open 'Options>Audio' again an move the slider toward the Fast side a step at a time until you find that spot where the latency is acceptable and you get no audio glitches or dropouts.
You can also reduce the Hardware Acceleration, or turn it off completely which can make the thing work better. The screen may not operate perfectly (slow scrolling, hesitations) but the sound can move quicker.
Welcome to the forum.

WiFi has nothing to do with audio latency.