How to Fix the Sound Skipping on a Laptop

By Robert Schrader

Fix skipping sound on your laptop so you can enjoy music and your video's audio tracks without annoying interruptions. Although digital audio doesn't skip in the same sense as a CD would -- if, for example, you carry a CD player with you and move too vigorously or abruptly causing a momentary CD read error -- the effects of skipping are nonetheless the same. Understanding the root causes of sound skipping on a laptop helps you to troubleshoot and remedy them whenever they arise.

Step 1

Open an audio track that is skipping in a different program than the one which seems to be causing the skipping; in this way, you can determine whether a problem exists with the file. If a file you play in Windows Media Player, for example, continues skipping in iTunes, the song itself is the problem. If it doesn't, then the initial media playing program is indeed the problem. Download software upgrades for any programs that cause the sound to skip.

Step 2

Play an audio track via a different website if one is acting up. If you're listening to, for example, Pandora radio, open the album on MySpace music and attempt listening to it there. If it plays fine on MySpace music, the issue is to do with Pandora specifically or whichever website you're using.

Step 3

Close out of any programs you aren't actively using, particularly if they are high usage video or audio applications. If your computer is experiencing memory shortages, its audio output can be affected, which results in skipping.

Step 4

Click "Windows Update" from the Windows taskbar and see if any audio driver updates are available. Out-of-date audio drivers can be to blame for music skipping on a laptop, according to Microsoft.

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