Ubuntu :: Unable To Get Sound Working Correctly

I have been unable to get my sound in Ubuntu working correctly. I have followed ALL the steps in the Community SoundTroubleshooting page, the Sound Solutions Guide forum post, and the Ubuntu Wiki, among many other troubleshooting instructions and forum posts. I've even completely purging ALL my sound-related software and reinstalling, but no luck. The problem I've been having is one that seems to plague many Ubuntu users, but whose solution seems to be relatively undocumented, if it exists. That is, the sound often seems to stop working when a continuous audio stream is active or when a video stream is running (flash, mpeg, ogg, you name it). This is even apparent in the Ubuntu startup, where the default startup theme is often choppy on load (though I attribute this particular instance to be due to high CPU usage on startup.)

I've spent a LOT of meticulous time trying to figure out EXACTLY what is causing it, and I'm only taking to these forums after MONTHS of research and failed investigation. It doesn't necessarily seem to be a CPU-activity related error, as the sound often will cut out just playing MP3 or WAV files with almost no CPU usage. On the other hand, it doesn't really seem to be a specific software-related error, as uninstalling PulseAudio or reinstalling ALSA seems to have little-to-no effect on the problem. To date, no program has been immune from this error.....