Sometimes sound

Newly installed XP w/SP3. All hardware drivers installed. No hardware
problems noted in device manager. The PC has connected to the internet once
for activation, that's it. An MS game, Age of Empires III is the problem
with sound.

During playing of the game, anywhere in the game, anywhere as far as time
into the game, the sound just flat out stops. May last a minute, may last an
hour. The sound may re-occur again anywhere or anytime in the game. This
may occur in cycles during any game play.

There is no AV, trojan sniffer, or software firewall installed. There is
sharing, but none with the onboard sound. Uses Realtek AC97 Audio/status
OK.
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\alcxwdm.sys (5.10.5750 built by: WinDDK,
2.19 MB (2,297,664 bytes), 8/17/2008 3:19 PM)

Running 3rd party apps are Incd, HP software for USB printer.

--
Dave