Xitel Pro HiFi Link

I wanted to bypass that crappy onboard audio so I bought the Xitel Pro HiFi Link. It sounds excellent using the optical, but what really sucks is that during playback of audio the song stops right in the middle (like an unintended pause) and then continues from where it just paused without me even having hit that magic pause button. Now, I am pretty sure it isn't a problem with the Xitel because it is an external usb audio port. I think it may have something to do with the HD or motherboard, but im not really sure. Perhaps the southbridge is to saturated with date but this pause and start problem even occurs when i sit back to just listen and dont have anything running.
The system meets xitel's requirments and onboard audio is turned off just to be safe (i never had this pause and start problem with the onboard audio btw, just hisses and pops). I am really at a loss as how to get my computer to playback a song nicely and smoothly. It sounds great, just intermediate stops and starts of a song. Links, adivce, anything will help. Oh, and i notice that during playback (through winamp, windows media player, it doesnt matter they all do it) that the time actually stops ticking by when this thing occurs, staying on the same number of time for longer than 1 second.